Warian Closes with 64, Wins Sunnehanna Amateur

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- Ben Warian started fast and finished nearly even faster last week during the Sunnahanna Amateur. The University of Minnesota's No. 1 player for the past two college seasons (his junior and senior years with the Gophers), opened the tournament at Sunnehanna Country Club with a 5-under-par 65 on Wednesday, and on Saturday, he birdied two of the last four holes to cap off a 64. That sprint to the finish gave him a 72-hole total of 267 (-13) and a one-stroke victory over an impressive field.

Warian, a left-hander who is from Stillwater, was on his own at the end of the 2023-24 college season. He played as an individual only at the Stanford Regional, which meant that he had to finish first among all the players in that tournament who were competing as individuals, and also finish ahead of all the players whose teams did not advance. Warian did that by finishing second overall to Max Herendeen, a freshman at Illinois.

At the NCAA Championships, which were played in Carlsbad, Calif., he made the cut and finished in a tie for 25. Earlier this month, he received All-American honorable mention.

Last week in Johnstown, Warian birdied two of the first four holes in Wednesday's first round, and the last three as well, on his way to the first-round 65. Thursday's round started with two bogeys, and he made a double and two bogeys on the back nine, and ended up with a 71. He got by with only one bogey in a third-round 67, and in the final-round 64, he was bogey-free.

Warian trailed the eventual runner-up, Summy Jace, a junior-to-be at Oklahoma, by two shots with four holes to go. That was after Jace went 5 under on the four holes from 10 through 13. But he was 1 over after that, and Warian was 2 under, thanks to birdies at the 15th and 17th holes, which turned a two-shot deficit into a one-stroke lead -- and victory.

Jace ended up with a final-round 67, and finished at 268. Palmer Jackson, who closed with a 68, was another shot back in third at 269.

The Sunnehanna is the first of seven prestigious tournaments that make up the Elite Amateur Series, which will conclude with the Western Amateur in early August.

Past Sunnehanna champions include Billy Andrade, Lucas Glover, Webb Simpson, Ricky Fowler and Collin Morikawa. The only Minnesotan to win it before Warian was John Harris, in 1995, two years after he won the U.S. Amateur.


Sunnehanna Amateur

At Sunnehanna Country Club

Par 70, 6,941 yards

Johnstown, Pa.

Final results

1. Ben Warian 65-71-67-64--267

2. Summy Jace 67-64-70-67--268

3. Palmer Jackson 71-67-63-68--269

4. Zac Jones 69-67-65-69--270

T5. Connor Jones 69-66-68-68--271

T5. Nathan Franks 69-68-66-68--271

T5. Matthew Troutman 69-68-66-68--271

T5. Ethan Evans 67-69-66-69--271

T5. Max Herendeen 69-66-75-71--271

10. Carson Bacha 69-67-68-68--272