BATON ROUGE – LSU golfer Cohen Trolio started strong and finished strong to get through the first cut Wednesday in the prestigious Western Amateur at the Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park, Illinois.
Trolio rallied back inside the top 44 in the second round of qualifying with birdies on the first nine holes of play to even par for the tournament. But bogeys on the 10th and 11th holes put him in a little bit of a rally situation to make the cut.
But Trolio came up big in the last five holes with birdies on the 14th, 15th and 18th holes to shoot 4-under 67 and finish 36 holes at 1-under par 141 (74-67).
He stands at T30 entering Thursday’s play in which the top 44 will come back and play a morning and an afternoon round and those 36 holes will determine the Top 16 which will advance to match play on Friday.
Three-under par would be 16th heading Thursday’s play so there is plenty of opportunity to move up with 36 holes on the docket. The cutline at 44th place was 1-over par 143.
LSU’s Garrett Barber was also in the tournament but failed to make the cut with a 36-hole total of 4-over 146 (75-71).