BATON ROUGE – LSU golf transfer Algot Kleen started Tuesday’s second round of the U.S. Amateur knowing what he had to do.
After shooting a 4-over par 76 on the prestigious Hazeltine Golf Club course in Chaska, Minnesota on Monday, he knew he needed a good second round over the par 70 Chaska Town Course, where scores had proven to be much lower in the first round.
Kleen rallied to shoot a 4-under 66 to get back to even for the tournament after the 36-hole qualifying rounds and into a 14-way playoff for 11 spots in the 64-player match play portion of this historic USGA event.
Kleen began his second round in strong fashion, with birdies on two of the first four holes (par 4 second and the par 3 fourth). Kleen bogeyed the 8th hole (par 4), but bounced back with an important eagle on the par 5, 562-yard ninth hole to hit the turn with a 3-under 32.
The back nine was a rollercoaster ride that saw Kleen birdie the 13th hole to get back to even par for the tournament. But bogeys on the 14th and 15th holes dropped him back to 2-over par. Needing a strong finished, Kleen birdied the par 4 318-yard 16th hole and the par 5 finishing hole to get back to even par for the tournament and a T54 finish in the stroke play portion of the amateur.
The Swede was in the third group out in the playoff and was eliminated on the first hole of the playoff on the par 4 10th hole.