August 15, 2018
Salinda Rolls to Round of 32 at U.S. Amateur
The recipe for success at Pebble Beach Golf Links has been the same for a long time—get your scoring done on the front-nine and hold on from there.
After a bogey on the opening 1st hole, Stanford senior Isaiah Salinda did just that, going 3-under over the final eight holes of the front-nine to open a commanding 4-up lead over No.36 Will Grimmer of Ohio. Winner of the recent Pacific Coast Amateur at Olympic Club (near his hometown of South San Francisco) and last year’s NCGA Amateur Match Play Championship, the No.29 seeded Salinda never looked back from there, rolling to a 6 and 5 victory.
“I feel like for match play, you have to be kind of excited and ready to go,” Salinda said. “You’ve got to be mentally into it from the start. You can’t just ease your way into it like stroke play. You’ve got to focus on every shot even more.”
Followed by a small sea of friends and family wearing Cardinal red, Salinda didn’t slow down after making the turn. Just for good measure, he’d tack on another birdie at the par-4 11th.
This week’s U.S. Amateur marks the first time that Salinda has played Pebble Beach.
“It’s an incredible course,” Salinda said. “You kind of appreciate it the more you play it.”
