Sveinsson Marches Through Qualifying to Match Play at U.S. Amateur

BATON ROUGE – LSU golfer Arni Sveinsson, who will begin his sophomore season at LSU in a couple of weeks, played a strong 36 holes of qualifying and will advance to match play starting Wednesday in the 125th U.S. Amateur at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.

Sveinsson opened up on Monday with a strong three-birdie round of 68 on the par 70 Ocean course, posting 3-under par over the final 16 holes.

In Tuesday’s second round, playing in the morning wave, Sveinsson was able to dig himself out of a couple of trouble spots early in the round with bogeys on the first and third holes. He birdies the par 4 fifth hole to turn at 1-over par for the day and 1-under for the tournament.

Sveinsson played the final nine holes in 1-over and finished with the round on the Lake course at 2-over 72, putting in at even par 140 after 36 holes.

Some of the 312 competitors were just starting their second round late in the afternoon Baton Rouge time, but Sveinsson was safely in the match play bracket of 64 players at even, possibly as high as a top 15 finish.

The match play bracket is not expected to be completed until probably Wednesday morning when a playoff would be contested for the final spots in the match play bracket.

Sveinsson talked with the media at The Olympic Club after his opening round. He was asked about being the first player from Iceland to play in the U.S. Amateur.

“It’s great to be out here and it’s an honor to be able to play the best amateur event of the year, so I’m enjoying the week so far.”

Of his Monday round, Sveinsson said: “We had a pretty good game plan going into it, and hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens, stayed really disciplined with the tucked pins. So, I think kind of just disciplined and hitting the right shots at the right time worked out very well and managed to stay in it.”

The round of 64 will be televised from 5-6 p.m. CT streaming on Peacock with The Golf Channel coverage beginning at 6 p.m.