Senior Sam Chien earned his first top-20 finish of the year with a 16th-place effort at the Windon Memorial Classic.Senior Sam Chien earned his first top-20 finish of the year with a 16th-place effort at the Windon Memorial Classic.

Eric Chun Finishes as Runner-up at Windon Memorial Classic

Oct. 17, 2011

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SKOKIE, Ill. -- Playing down a man in the third and final round Monday at its own Windon Memorial Classic, Northwestern ended up in fifth place at Evanston Golf Club. Arkansas grabbed the team title at 7-over 847 while Michigan's Matt Thompson won medalist honors with a final round 5-under 65 and a 54-hole total of 5-under 205 (69-71-65).

Eighth-ranked Arkansas won its third title in four tournaments this fall after separating itself from the pack in the second round and cruising home for a four-shot win after a slightly-more-nerve-wracking-than-expected final round 17-over 297. No. 22 UCLA fired the best team score Monday with a 4-over 284 to surge into a tie for second with No. 43 Indiana at 11-over 851.

Purdue's second-best team score of the final round, a 7-over 287, was good enough to jump Northwestern for fourth place by one stroke. The Wildcats carded an 18-over 298 Monday to tally a 54-hole total of 17-over 857 (274-285-298), finishing six shots clear of No. 37 Charlotte's sixth-place effort.

Thompson's win made it two-straight medalist awards for Michigan at the Windon Memorial; Lion Kim sank a 40-foot putt on the 54th hole a year ago to win for the Wolverines. In other individual news, the world's No. 1-ranked amateur, Patrick Cantlay of UCLA, shot a final round 2-over 72 to finish in 22nd place at 5-over 215. 2011 Western Amateur champion Ethan Tracy of Arkansas took solo third at 1-under 209.

Also of note Monday was a hole-in-one on the 196-yard par-3 12th by Pepperdine's Alex Forss. It marked the second-straight year the Windon has witnessed an ace in the final round; Purdue's Erich Johnston performed the feat on the 189-yard par-3 16th at North Shore Country Club in 2010.

Northwestern senior Eric Chun (Ansung City, South Korea/International Christian School) finished up his second round with a 2-over 72, putting him in a three-way tie for second place, one shot off the lead at 3-under 137 (65-72). He quickly reclaimed the lead in the third round, negating a bogey at No. 2 with a 12-foot birdie make on No. 3 before back-to-back birdies at the short par-4 fifth and par-5 sixth holes got him to 2-under on the round and 5-under in the tournament. After Chun made bogey on No. 7 and Arkansas' Tracy birdied the 18th, the two were tied atop the individual leaderboard at 4-under par overall with nine holes to play.

Playing in the same group as Tracy, Chun pulled one stroke ahead with a birdie on No. 10. The lead expanded to two when Tracy made bogey at No. 11, then contracted back to one with a Chun bogey on No. 12. On the 14th hole, Chun misplayed a bunker shot and ended up with double bogey, but Tracy short-sided himself on the same hole and carded bogey to lock the pair in a tie at 2-under par. The hole also allowed Michigan's Thompson to surge into the lead, which he would not relinquish by carding birdies on three of his final four holes for a final-round 5-under 65.

Chun, meanwhile, pulled away into solo second place with a birdie at No. 16, finishing his day with an even-par 70 and the tournament with a 3-under 207 (65-72-70).

Sophomore Jack Perry (Santa Barbara, Calif./Santa Barbara) made a pair of pars Monday morning for a second-round even-par 70, placing him seventh in the field at 1-under 139. His third round got off to a disastrous start when he 3-putted the third, 4-putted the fourth, 3-putted the fifth and then hit his drive on No. 6 out of bounds to quickly find himself 5-over through six holes. He righted the ship with three pars to make the turn with a 5-over 40.

A three bogey, one birdie back nine led to a finishing 7-over 77 and a 54-hole total of 6-over 216 (70-69-77), placing Perry 24th in the field.

Just as he did in the first round, senior Sam Chien (San Diego, Calif./Mt. Carmel) made a bogey on No. 18 to finish his second round, leaving him with an even-par 70 and a 23rd-place 36-hole total of 2-over 142. Chien took advantage of the forward tees on the short par-4 fifth for a birdie in the third round, but he sandwiched that effort with bogeys at Nos. 3 and 6.

On the back nine, Chien had two birdies and two bogeys for an even-par 35, but a bogey on No. 1 as he finished his day left him at 2-over 72 and 4-over 214 (72-70-72) for the tourney. On a blustery day with tough scoring conditions, that score was good enough to move Chien into the top-20 with a 16th-place finish.

Freshman Bennett Lavin (Deerfield, Ill./Deerfield) concluded the second round at 5-over 75, beginning the third round in 64th place at 9-over 149 (74-75). On his second hole of the third round, Lavin carded birdie on the forward tees of the short par-4 fifth hole before two bogeys and a double-bogey in a four-hole stretch from Nos. 9 to 12 left him at 3-over through nine holes. Another tough stretch of four-consecutive bogeys on holes No. 15 through 18 ballooned his score to 7-over par before he finished at 9-over 79. Lavin was 77th in the field with an 18-over 228 (74-75-79).

Junior Nick Losole (Scottsdale, Ariz./Scottsdale Notre Dame) gutted out a pair of pars Monday morning to finish off a 3-over 73 in the second round before withdrawing due to injury prior to the third round. At the time of his withdrawal, Losole was in 19th position at 1-over 141 (68-73).

Losole missed NU's first three tournaments of the season because of injury, returning for the first time in Northwestern's match-play win over then-No. 1 UCLA last Thursday at Evanston Golf Club.

Two Wildcats competed in the Windon as individuals. Freshman Matthew Negri (El Cajon, Calif./Grossmont) carded a final-round 4-over 74 for a 10-over 220 (75-71-74), placing him all alone in 47th. Sophomore John Callahan's (Hinsdale, Ill./Benet Academy) final round 5-over 75 led to a 12-over 222 (72-75-75) and a 52nd-place finish.

Northwestern returns to action in its final tournament of the fall season October 31-November 2 at the Gifford CordeValle Collegiate in San Martin, Calif.

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