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O’Donnell Prevails at AGA Championship

Phoenix, Ariz: Closing with a tournament-low round 5-under 66, Sean O’Donnell rallied from a five-shot deficit to win his first AGA major title at the 2020 AGA Championship on Sunday.

Arizona Wildcat Chaz Aurilia and Scottsdale Community College Artichoke Colwyn Abrall entered the final round as the co-leaders but couldn’t hold off O’Donnell’s stellar play third-round play.

O’Donnell began the day with steady play, parring his first seven holes. Things heated up when he racked up three consecutive birdies on holes 8, 9 and 10 to close the gap within one of the leaders. The real firepower came when he knocked a driver off the deck from 290 yards on the par-3 15th onto the green, resulting in a 30-footer for eagle to decisively determine his victory.

“I am not sure where my competitors finished at, but if I won by one or two, that was definitely the hole,” the champion stated about his game-changing eagle.

O’Donnell used a streak of three pars to finish with a bogey-free 5-under 66, walking off the 18^th green as the 2020 AGA Championship Champion.

“I just scrambled, I just absolutely scrambled. I don’t think I hit more than six fairways in any round. I putted really well”, says the Champion who recorded 11 putts on the front nine. “ I kept it in play and got the ball in the hole.”

Turning in a 54-hole score of 7-under, carding a 70-70-66-206, O’Donnell finished atop the leaderboard by one shot over Colwyn Abgrall, Wildcat freshman Chaz Aurilia turned in his card two shots shy of a victory with a final-round 2-over 73.

This marks O’Donnell’s first AGA major victory and second AGA win. The five-time USGA qualifier will gear up this September with his partner, 2019 Falcon Amateur Champion Chris Thomas, for the U.S. Four-Ball Championship. His next appearance will be the 2020 Arizona Stroke Play Championship, the AGA’s second major of the year.

“It feels good to win but I am already looking forward to the next Arizona major”, said O’Donnell who has finished in the top-3 of nearly every AGA major he has competed in. “I was close more times than I could count, so getting the first one done is kind of big. Hopefully, it will kind of open the flood to win another one. I want to get one of those Kachina Dolls(trophy). It’s been on my goal list for a while.”