USC’s NeSmith Leads at U.S. Amateur

OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. (USC SID) — South Carolina senior Matt NeSmith kicked off his third-straight U.S. Amateur appearance in strong fashion on Monday as he finished the day at the top of the leaderboard after firing an opening-round 65 (-5) at Olympia Fields Country Club‘s South Course. NeSmith holds a one-shot advantage over a group of four golfers in a tie for second at 4-under with 18 holes of stroke play remaining. Gamecock senior Sean Kelly also played the South Course on Monday and carded a 72 (+2) to wrap up the round in a tie for 78th. At the conclusion of Tuesday‘s round of stroke play, a medalist will be crowned and the low 64 scorers will advance to match play, which begins Wednesday. A native of North Augusta, S.C., NeSmith began his round on the back nine and made birdies on holes 11 and 13. After three-straight pars, he carded back-to-back birdies on holes 17 and 18 to make the turn in 4-under. He got to as low as 6-under on the day after birdies on the third and fifth holes, but his only blemish of the round, a bogey on the par-4 ninth, dropped him back to 5-under heading into the clubhouse. NeSmith will tee off hole No. 1 of the North Course in the second round on Tuesday at 2:10 p.m. ET, while Kelly will begin his round at 8:10 a.m. off the North Course‘s 10th tee. Live scoring will be available at USGA.org. Quotable (courtesy of USGA) Matt NeSmith on getting off to a quick start: “Yeah, I got off to a good start, birdied 11. It was a birdie pin and I hit a good tee shot, so it was kind of — I kind of expected that after being in the middle of the fairway. And then hit it really close on 13, which helped out, too, and got on a little bit of a run because lately I haven’t been able to — well, I’ve been a couple over par through the first couple holes and just haven’t been able to get anything going early to shoot some good rounds.” On making match play being the goal: “Yeah, that’s the only goal. Once you get to match play anything can happen. The only goal is to make it there and see if you can put yourself in a good position to make it a good way in the tournament.” On his strategy for the final round of stroke play: “I don’t think I’m going to do anything different. I’m going to play the same, my game plan from day one. I might take a few less chances, but other than that, I’m just going to play the same way I did today and hopefully get the same result.”