Shawn Lu Qualifies For U.S. Amateur

EAGLE POINT, Ore. – Oregon State rising junior Shawn Lu finished second at a sectional qualifying tournament on Tuesday to earn a spot in the 2018 U.S. Amateur.

Lu finished the 36-hole day with a 9-under 70-65--135 at the Eagle Point Golf Club to finish second, while Riley Elmes won the event with a 12-under 65-67--132. The top two golfers in the 66-player field qualified for the 2018 U.S. Amateur.

The 118th U.S. Amateur will be held Aug. 13-19 at the Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill Golf Course in Pebble Beach, Calif. The 312-player field will compete in 36 holes of stroke play with 64 players advancing to match play, beginning on Wednesday, Aug. 15.

A native of Honolulu, Hawai'i, Lu played in all 11 tournaments this past season and had a scoring average of 72.35 in 34 rounds. His best score was a 7-under 64 in the second round of the Saint Mary's Invitational and his best finish was a tie for fifth place at the Duck Invitational.

Lu was named to the Pac-12 All-Academic Second Team in his first eligible year this past spring for his 3.51 cumulative GPA in business.

Championship History
The U.S. Amateur Championship is the oldest USGA championship and it was created in 1895 because of a controversy. In 1894, two clubs -- Newport (R.I.) Golf Club and New York's St. Andrew's Golf Club -- had conducted invitational tournaments to attract the nation's top amateur players. Both clubs proclaimed their winners as the national champion, while Charles Blair Macdonald, a prominent player and course architect, was the runner-up in both. Before the final day of the St. Andrew's tournament, it was announced that an association composed of all the clubs in the United States would be formed in the ensuing months. This new national governing body would oversee a universally recognized championship and create a written set of rules.

With that, representatives from Newport Golf Club, St. Andrew's Golf Club, The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y., and Chicago Golf Club founded the USGA on Dec. 22, 1894, and the inaugural U.S. Amateur Championship was conducted the following year, along with the U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Amateur. The Amateur and Open Championships were conducted at Newport Golf Club during the same week of October and Macdonald became the first U.S. Amateur champion. Since the inaugural event, the U.S. Amateur has enjoyed an illustrious history of great champions, including Bob Jones, Phil Mickelson, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods. In 1930, Jones completed his Grand Slam by winning the U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa. Woods, in 1996, became the first to win three consecutive Amateur titles.

OUR MISSION
Oregon State Athletics strives to Build Excellent Authentic Visionary Student-Athletes (Go BEAVS).

Players Mentioned

Shawn Lu

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