Seattle University head golf coach Marc Chandonnet proved Monday that his game is still on point, earning medalist honors during sectional qualifying at Vesper Country Club for the 2015 United States Amateur Championship, to be held Aug. 17-23 at Olympia Fields Country Club in Olympia Fields, Illinois.
Chandonnet, originally from Dracut, Mass., wrapped up his annual trip back East to visit family by entering the sectional qualifier and ended up winning the 36-hole single-day event by two strokes with a score of eight-under-par 136. This is the second time Chandonnet has qualified for the U.S. Amateur Championship, previously advancing to the national tournament in 1998, and the second consecutive year in which he has qualified for a USGA championship, reaching the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship last year.
"Today I just had the putter going," Chandonnet told the Lowell Sun. "I always drive the ball pretty well, I never put myself into a place where I can't play a second shot and I hit my irons pretty close today, which was real nice.”
Chandonnet started the first round with four birdies in the first seven holes, but back-to-back bogeys on the 15th and 16th holes brought him back to two under par after the first of the day’s two rounds, still good enough to land in a tie for third place. Starting his second round on the 10th hole, he collected three birdies during the first 12 holes without a bogey, and then a stretch of birdie-eagle-birdie helped him post the best round score of the day at 66, punching his ticket to the national amateur championship.
Chandonnet had previously been successful at Vesper Country Club, winning the Lowell City Tournament at that course in 2000 and 2001. He is also familiar with the way the USGA sets up a golf course based on his previous playing experience as well as hosting the Redhawk Invitational in each of the past two years at Chambers Bay Golf Club, which recently hosted the United States Open Championship won by Jordan Spieth.
After playing in the U.S. Amateur Championship in August, Chandonnet will begin preparing the Seattle University golfers for the 2015-16 season, with both the men’s and women’s teams coming off exciting 2014-15 campaigns and welcoming back the vast majority of the golfers from those squads.