Maria Eidhagen Harrouch (-8), a recent graduate transfer to the University of Georgia, holds a two-shot lead after the opening round of the 110th Southwestern Amateur, while Camden Braidech, Luke Haskew and Charlie Palmer (-5) co-lead the men’s division at Desert Mountain Club’s Outlaw Course.
Eidhagen Harrouch had a goal in mind coming into today: six under, matching the lowest round of her career. She delivered and then some. The Swedish native who represents Morocco kept a clean card, notching six birdies over the first 17 holes. Then came the cherry on top; she choked down on a 9-iron from 142 yards on the par-4 18th, landed it one foot from the hole and watched it roll in.
“It was really fun,” Eidhagen Harrouch said of the round. “I played here last year, so I felt like I had a good game plan and I just tried to stick to it.”
“(Shooting a bogey-free round) makes my confidence a lot higher,” said Eidhagen Harrouch, who finished T27 in the first Women’s Elite Amateur Golf Series (WEAGS) event at Sea Island two weeks ago. “I feel like my game has been there but I haven’t seen any results. It’s just so nice to get the results on the scoreboard.”
Unlike the women’s division, the men did not have a runaway leader, as two strokes separated the top 11 players. University of Chattanooga’s Camden Braidech, Louisiana State University’s Luke Haskew and Princeton’s Charlie Palmer fired 5-under 67s to tie for the lead after the first round.
A Scottsdale native, Braidech is no stranger to the Outlaw Course. As a 15-year old, he finished runner-up at the Arizona Amateur, taking the championship match down to the 17th hole. His familiarity with the course helped him get out to a strong start today.
“It felt pretty straightforward out there,” Braidech said. “A lot of fairways, a lot of greens. Nothing too crazy, I just kept it in play. Putts were falling today and everything seemed to kind of go my way.”
For Haskew, his strong opening round didn’t come without adversity. The Baton Rouge native bogeyed the first hole, but rebounded with six birdies — something he’s grown used to recently.
“Golf has kind of been a struggle for me the past year and a half. I’ve had a good bit of hardship so it’s kind of easy to deal with just one bad golf shot nowadays,” said Haskew, who does have good memories in the Southwestern Amateur, finishing second here two years ago while shooting a course-record 62 on the Cochise Course.
“In college golf, I hadn’t really seen anything great in a while, so I’d say you just have to figure out what works for you and just stick to that plan,” Haskew said. “When you’re preparing for an event and you step up on that first tee, you just remind yourself how much work you’ve put in and just let yourself go.”
Palmer drained two birdies in the final three holes to jump into a tie for the lead. A Paradise Valley, Ariz. native, Palmer knows how to manage a desert golf course like Outlaw.
“I’m definitely used to desert golf, growing up here for 10 years,” Palmer said. “Especially in the wind, I think I hit it really straight. You don’t really need to overpower it, the ball goes far enough anyways. I didn’t hit too many drivers. I just hit whatever else I was comfortable with and attack with a wedge in my hand and otherwise, try to make pars.”
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Round two of the 110th Southwestern Amateur begins tomorrow, with the men’s field teeing off at 7 a.m. The women’s field will follow beginning at 12 p.m.