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Sports

Hinsdale Golfer Tops Leaderboard at State Amateur Championship

Lederhausen finished 2-under par in first-round play at Glen Oak Country Club.

UPDATE: Lederhausen struggled Wednesday, shooting a 4-over par 75 to fall into a tie for eighth place, seven strokes behind tournament leader Todd Mitchell of Bloomington.

Mitchell fired a 4-under par 67 Wednesday to put himself two strokes ahead of Brad Hopfinger of Lake Forest. Brant shot an even-par 71 Wednesday, leaving him three shots in back of Mitchell. After starting the day tied for 27th, Shamus Fitzpatrick of Hinsdale had a rough round Wednesday and missed the cut, finishing with a two-day total of 159.

Theo Lederhausen of Hinsdale was tied for first place in the Illinois State Amateur Championship after the first day of the tournament at Glen Oak Country Club in Glen Ellyn.

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The  grad fired a 2-under-par 69 over 18 holes to tie Chris Brant of Edwardsville atop the leader board.

“I feel good,” Lederhausen said of being in first place out of a starting field of 138. “I just have to do the same thing tomorrow, play steady and make some putts.”

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Lederhausen was at even par after the first six holes, but a birdie on the par 4 eighth hole got him rolling as he started the back nine.

“I came to 10 and I was feeling really good–downwind, par 5, very short,” Lederhausen said. “I hit it just short of the green in two and hit a really good chip and had a tap-in [for birdie].”

His drive on the short par 3 11th hole allowed him to sink another easy birdie putt, and suddenly he was minus-3 and alone in first place.

“That gave me some nice momentum,” he said of the birdies. “Unfortunately, I hit a terrible drive on the next hole, which caused a bogey.”

He bounced back with a birdie on the 380-yard, par 4 15th, sinking a tough six-foot putt.

Proper club choice a key

Lederhausen then faced a club-choice dilemma on No. 16, a long par 3 at 220 yards into the wind. He pulled out one club, then another, before finally returning to his original selection.

“The wind was blowing pretty hard all day and the distance was right in a smooth hybrid territory,” he said. “I had my 3-wood out, then I took out my hybrid, and then I figured the wind was still there, so I just hit a little baby-baby 3-wood.”

The drive wound up just short of the green, but Lederhausen played a long, winding putt nicely to set up an easy two-foot putt for par.

He hit his second bad drive of the day on No. 17, slicing into the right rough on the 468-yard par 4, leaving his path to the green blocked by trees.

“With 240 [yards] from the trees, it’s tough to make par,” Lederhausen said. “I just took a wedge rather than trying to run something up left.”

The ensuing bogey brought him back to minus-2 heading into the final hole. On No. 18, he drove the middle of the fairway, a good 40-60 yards farther than his two playing partners, Dan Cameron of Byron and Evan Berna of New Lenox. Lederhausen was significantly longer off the tee than those two all day.

“My driver’s definitely a strength in my game,” he said. “I hit a lot of fairways and I hit it relatively far.”

Lederhausen left his second shot a foot short of the green. His long birdie try just missed to the right, preventing him from finishing in sole possession of first place.

It runs in the family

Lederhausen comes from a very successful golfing clan. His mother, Jessica, played golf at UCLA and then professionally in Europe. Theo lived in Sweden until he was 8 years old.

His older sisters, Alex and Rebecca, followed up stellar careers at Hinsdale Central by playing collegiately for Northwestern. Both were Academic All-Big 10 selections.

Theo also is strong academically, as witnessed by the fact that he just finished up his freshman year at Harvard.

“It was good,” he said of his initial season on the links for the Crimson. “I played pretty solid.”

Lederhausen led Harvard with a 74.74 scoring average and finished 13th in this year’s Ivy League Championship tournament.

He’s played in several tournaments this summer, including last week’s Western Amateur at North Shore Country Club in Glenview, where he shot a plus-5 147 for 36 holes, missing the cut by three strokes.

“I haven’t played as well as I would have liked, but I think I’m getting better slowly,” Lederhausen said. “Hopefully I can close this week out well.”

Also hoping to close out the week well is another Hinsdale golfer, Shamus Fitzpatrick. He's tied for 27th after the first day of the tournament with a score of 74.

Starting off the 10th tee, Fitzpatrick was actually minus-2 and leading the field early in his round, but he bogeyed the last two holes of his first nine. A disastrous double bogey followed on his 10th hole of play when he ran into trouble with trees following a drive into the left rough.

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