Zach Pollo And Ashley Yun Claim Individual Titles At St Andrews Links Collegiate

The first two days of one of the highest profile college events, the St Andrews Links Collegiate, took place at the Jubilee Course in Scotland with 36 holes of strokeplay.

There, a field of 24 men and 24 women representing the University of St Andrews, University of Arizona, Howard University and Northwestern University battled it out for the individual honors.

The first to finish was the women’s event, and it provided a special moment for Northwestern's Yun, who claimed her maiden collegiate title.

She achieved it in some style, too, finishing three shots ahead of Arizona’s Charlotte Back on five-under for the tournament in cold and windy conditions.

Yun was three-under after an impressive 69 in her opening round that included four birdies and one bogey. In the second round, she soon strengthened her grip on the title with her first birdie of the day on the par-5 third before another par-5 birdie on the sixth.

Her one blemish of the day followed immediately after with a bogey at the seventh but another birdie on the 10^th saw her remain on course for victory.

She was then helped by a double-bogey by her closest rival, Back, on the 16^th, which turned her one-shot lead into three, and she held her nerve despite admitting afterwards that the moment had affected her.

She told the Golf Channel: “Definitely it had an impact on me. I didn’t want to freak out. I still had a couple of holes left – something could have obviously changed. Anything can happen out here so I tried my best to keep calm and just play my own golf.”

In the men’s competition, Arizona senior Zach Pollo followed his three-under 67 in the first round with a 68 on day two to claim his second collegiate title.

Pollo, who also won the Arizona NIT in his freshman year, built a solid platform on the front nine where he headed to the turn two-under after birdies at the par-5 third and par-4 eighth before suffering his first setback of the day on the 10^th, which he could only bogey.

However, he steadied his nerves to claim further birdies at the 12^th and 15^th, and even a second bogey of the day, on the 18^th, wasn't enough to prevent him winning the title by two on five-under ahead of fellow University of Arizona player Filip Jakubcik and Northwestern University’s Cameron Adam.

Afterwards, Pollo said he had his work on the greens to thank for the win, telling the Golf Channel: “I came down the stretch, got to get a few putts to go in which was key for the victory.”

For the final round, attention turns to the Old Course for a day of match play to determine the men’s and women’s team titles.

Teams are seeded heading into the final round, with Arizona and Northwestern battling it out for both the men’s and women’s titles.