Sawyer’s Bogey-Free 65 Opens Wide Lead at Iowa Amateur
Sawyer’s two productive trips around the South Course, to the tune of 68-65, give him a touchdown lead over defending champion Nate McCoy and 15-year old Jonathan Ward, winner of the Iowa Junior Amateur earlier this summer.
Courtesy of Rick Brown
Owen Sawyer’s scorecard was a thing of beauty Tuesday.
Seven birdies. No bogeys. A second-round 65 that gives him a seven-shot lead heading into Wednesday’s final round of the 123rd Iowa Amateur at the Des Moines Golf and Country Club.
“I’d be pretty happy with another one of those (in the final round),” said Sawyer, who will be a junior at Iowa State.
Sawyer’s two productive trips around the South Course, to the tune of 68-65, give him a touchdown lead over defending champion Nate McCoy and 15-year old Jonathan Ward, winner of the Iowa Junior Amateur earlier this summer.
McCoy, trying to win this prestigious title for the third time in four years, shot a second straight 70 on Tuesday. Ward, playing his home course, has shot 69-71.
Three more players are tied for fourth at 3 under par – Jamie Faidley (69-72), Max Tjoa (69-72) and Jake Weissenburger (68-73), who had shared the first-round lead with Sawyer. Tjoa tied for second in the Iowa Amateur behind McCoy in 2024 at Finkbine in Iowa City, and was second alone behind Charlie Hoyle in 2023 at Glen Oaks in West Des Moines.
That 2023 Iowa Amateur was Sawyer’s best finish in the championship, contested this week at the Des Moines Golf and Country Club for the 12th time.
Sawyer opened with rounds of 67-66 at Glen Oaks and trailed Hoyle by a shot heading into the final round in 2023. But he had a 39 on the front nine, went on to shoot 75 and finished third.
“That’s past history,” said Sawyer, a runner-up to Braeden Nelson in the IGA State Match Play Championship in June. “I learned some good lessons from that. I got off to a bad start, got down and started pressing a little bit. I’ve grown up. I’ve matured. And I’ve played well enough that even when I’ve gotten off to some bad starts I’ve come back to shoot good scores.”
Sawyer started on the back nine Tuesday and turned in 32. His bogey-free run was in jeopardy on the par-4 7th, his 16th hole. He missed the fairway right, then tried to hit a punch shot under trees but it got caught up in long rough in front of the green. His third came up 15 feet short of the hole but he made the par-saver.
Much of the buzz at this year’s championship has centered around the diminutive Ward, who is in the title hunt and has the look of a future standout.
Ward could become the youngest winner of this championship. He would also become the first male to win the Iowa Amateur and Iowa Junior Amateur in the same season.
A sophomore at Waukee High School, Ward was 7 years old when Andrew Reedy, an assistant golf pro at Des Moines Golf and Country Club, started working with him.
“Pretty early in my tenure, we were able to recognize this kid really wanted to be good,” Reedy said. “There are stories of having to pull him off the putting green so he would go home at night.”
Ward’s victory at the Iowa Junior Amateur got him a spot in the U.S. Junior Amateur played last week at Trinity Forest Club in Dallas,Texas. Ward shot 75-78 and missed the cut for match play, but didn’t leave empty-handed.
“His takeaway was, “I work really hard, but after being out here seeing these kids I have a long way to go,’ ” Ward told Reedy. “That’s a really mature outlook for a 15-year-old kid to have.”
Reedy points out that Ward is part of a young and deep talent pool of youngsters being groomed at the Des Moines Golf and Country Club. Another is Nelson, the Iowa Match Play champion who has committed to play his college golf at Wisconsin.
But Ward is a shining example of a bright future.
“He’s really special,” Reedy said.
Faidley, a six-time Des Moines Golf and Country Club club champion, took Ward with him to play in a practice round before last year’s Iowa Match Play Championship at Talons Golf in Ankeny.
“I told his dad, “He’s got what it takes,” Faidley, 44, said of Ward. “Whatever it is mentally, he’s got it. He doesn’t need advice from me. I need advice from him. He’s out here all the time, and he’s grinding. He’s a good player, and he’s a bulldog.”
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