BY: RORY SPEARS

The Western Amateur at Beverly Country Club is underway. Round one is in the books, and Geoff Drakeford from Australia made Beverly look easy with a 7 under par 65. At the end of the day he was not alone in first place as Zecheng Dou of China matched the score of 65.

Beau Hossler sits in fourth place after shooting 67, but what was more interesting was the way he did it. Hossler shot 37-30 and played the last 6 holes in 8 under par.

Some local scores of note. Charlie Danielson from the University of Illinois Golf team shot 68 and is T-8. Arlington Hts. Doug Ghim shot 69 and is T-11 with defending champion Jordan Niebrugge.

Illinois amateur champion Raymond Knoll of Naperville shot 70 and is T-20, and is tied with another U of Iowa golfer Brian Bullington of Frankfort.

2012 WGA Junior Champion Conor Black of Texas who won at Beverly, didn’t have the success in round one. Coming in at 78 and was T-142.

Round two will be played on Wednesday.