Adam Schenk completed his wire to wire quest to become the winner of the 2013 Indiana Amateur Championship at South Bend Country Club. Schenk entered the final round with just a one shot lead after faltering over his final nine holes of the third round.
He began his final round with a bogey 5 on the short 316 yard, opening par 4. He quickly rebounded with a birdie on the par 4, second hole and then added five straight pars that allowed him to hang on to a slim two shot lead.
After a birdie on the 361 yard, 8th hole he drove the green on the 316 yard, par 4, 9th then sank the 25 foot downhill eagle putt. The eagle gave the Vincennes resident and rising Purdue senior a five shot cushion entering the final nine holes.
“The eagle was very important and I knew I had hit the putt too hard”, said Schenk. “But it ended up going right in the middle and it was definitely nice to see that one disappear. The sand save on ten was nice as well.”
The memories of his back nine collapse in the third round did not appear to phase Schenk as he put together a solid even par performance over his last nine holes. The result was a 3-under-par 68 for his third sub-par round of the event and an easy seven shot victory.
“I had a really good lead yesterday and lost it,” said Schenk. “I just tried to stay in the present today and keep my head down. I set myself up good yesterday and I gave it all away and I told myself I wouldn’t do that again.”
Schenk felt confident entering the week and liked the SBCC layout. “I knew if you didn’’t hit it straight it can bite you,” said Schenk. “But there are three holes on the front nine I could drive and I could reach all the par 5’s. This course seemed to fit my game really well and I loved playing here.”
While Schenk was working on his third sub-70 round of the Championship, his nearest competitors were finding the going tough over the 6,500 yard SBCC layout. Starting the final round just a shot out of the lead, Valparaiso’s Bobby Jacobs could not make up any ground on Schenk. Jacobs posted a 1-over-par 37 on the front nine and could get no closer than four shots from Schenk before an errant tee shot on the par 4, 16th found the water and sunk any hopes he had for a victory. He finished the day at 3-over-par 74 and 2-over for the event. The result was a runner-up finish for the soon-to-be freshman at Bradley University.
“It feels awesome,” said Jacobs of his runner-up performance. “ First place would have been an amazing experience with a great field like this, but I feel very honored. Adam is a great guy and played spectacularly this week. To finish second next to him feels really good.”
Schenk was the only competitor to finish the tournament under par. Of the top 6 players on the leaderboard entering the final round, the next lowest score was Sean Rowen’s 73.
In a four way tie for third was Madison’s Justin Tereshko, Kokomo’s Ben Marvin Egel, Fishers’ Kyle Thomas and Greenwood’s Rowen. All finished at 5-over par.
Low round of the day was posted by Skip Runnels of Richmond. Runnels fired a 4-under -par 67 which gave him low Senior Amateur honors for the Championship.