Outstanding Finish for CMU Sophomore-To-Be Philippe Yturralde

ROLLING HILLS ESTATES, Calif. -- It's not about where you start, but where you finish.

On July 29, Philippe Yturralde wasn't even in the 84-player field for the Southern California Golf Association Amateur Championship.

A week later, the Central Michigan sophomore-to-be and member of the Chippewa men's golf team was standing on the podium after tying for second place in the prestigious 72-hole event at Rolling Hills Country Club just south of Los Angeles.

"I'd never played in the tournament before, and I didn't have the best week of golf prior to that," Yturralde said. "I honestly didn't have any expectations. So I was like, Just go out there and play golf and see how I do."

Not a bad approach for Yturralde, who shot a 15-under par 273 after gaining entry to the 124^th SoCal Am just 48 hours before the tournament began on July 31. He was an alternate out of a qualifier on his home course, Steele Canyon, near his hometown, La Mesa.

To finish T2 in regional or state amateur event is something to celebrate for any golfer. The case could be made that the field for the SoCal Am is among the best of any amateur event in the country save the U.S. Amateur. Among the past champions are Tiger Woods and Patrick Cantlay and the area is home to some 29 million people in an environment that is tailor made to produce good golf and uber-competitive fields.

"I've played against a handful of these guys since I was like 6, so it's not like I haven't seen these guys before," said Yturralde, who hails from La Mesa, a suburb of San Diego. "I know who they are, and I know how they play. It wasn't intimidating and it's not like I felt like I was out of my league.

"But at the same time, I hadn't really had the best year up until (the tournament) and I just kind of got it going."

Yturralde opened with a 5-under 67 and followed with a 3-under 69 and then posted a 6-under 66, which tied his career best, in the third round. His worst round of the tournament came in the fourth and final round, a 1-under 71. No matter how he would have played in the final round, it's doubtful that Yturralde could have caught winner Greyson Leach, a solid player at the University of Oregon who finished with a record 21-under.

Yturralde helped the Chippewas to a solid finish in 2022-23, the program's first season after a 37-year hiatus. With just one nonfreshman – junior Arie Jackman, who next week will play in the U.S. Amateur https://cmuchippewas.com/news/2023/8/8/mens-golf-cmus-jackman-headed-for-us-am.aspx -- on the roster, the Chippewas showed steady improvement throughout the season and capped it with a six-place finish in the nine-team Mid-American Conference Championship in May.

Yturralde, who ranked second on the team with a 76.53 scoring average, had his ups and downs, as is to be expected from any college freshman, let alone one who left the idyllic weather conditions of San Diego for the Midwest to further his education and his golf career.

He persevered and he discovered, as do so many golfers -- often painfully – that progress doesn't always immediately show in lower scores.

"Throughout the year I have been working on things with my swing, and my grip, and just a lot of fundamentals," Yturralde said. "Same with putting, my alignment, my posture, my grip – all the things that need to be good have been getting better and it all pieced together there. It's a culmination of all of those things.

"Even my dad was telling me, 'I think you're a completely different player.'"

Yturralde said he also benefitted from the personal and on-course growth that came from his freshman year at CMU under coach Kevin Jennings, who has been tasked with building the program from the ground up.

"We had a really good schedule (at CMU) and we played really hard courses all the time," Yturralde said. "So I felt that I was very prepared for (the SoCal Am)."

Placing second against such a strong field "reinforces the points that coach has been making with us all year," he said, "that we can compete despite that people might see us like underdogs. We can compete.

"If I can beat those guys (in Southern California), and my teammates beat me all the time, (my teammates) should learn that they're just as good. They're really good."

Central Michigan University Athletics

Outstanding Finish for CMU Sophomore-To-Be Philippe Yturralde

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