Amateur standout Preston Summerhays details ‘crazy’ round with Jon Rahm and Tony Finau

When it comes to golf pedigrees, it’s tough to top that of Preston Summerhays. The 19-year-old boasts some seriously impressive golf genes. Multiple members of his immediate and extended family has stints on Tour as professionals, and his father, Boyd, has been coaching Tony Finau since 2014.

Summerhays is currently in the midst of his freshman year at Arizona State University, but has already had a lifetime’s worth of high-level experiences in the game, including qualifying for the U.S. Open and teeing it up in this year’s Waste Management Phoenix Open as a sponsor’s exemption.

On this week’s episode of Subpar, Summerhays joined hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz where he discussed a range of fun topics. Among them: the extra-special day he spent with both Finau and Jon Rahm at the Silverleaf Club in Scottsdale.

“I birdied my first seven holes,” Summerhays said. “I’ve never done that. I parred the super-easy par 5. I birdied 9 to get to eight under. It’s funny because as soon as we got to the turn, we’re talking about, like — obviously 59 is in my head. We’re talking about the longest birdie streaks, and Tony’s talking about how his longest birdie streak is seven. And then he goes on to birdie the last eight and shoot 59.”

Features

Yeah, you read that right. In what was truly an epic day for the trio, Finau tied Rahm’s existing course record of 59, and Summerhays posted a not-too-shabby 63, tying Rahm’s tally for the day. The group’s fourth, another pro, Kristoffer Ventura, shot 65.

“Hack,” Knost quipped.

“It was a crazy round,” Summerhays said.

No kidding!

For more from Summerhays, including why he wanted to gain more distance and the biggest thing he learned from Tony Finau, check out the full interview below.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.

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