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Men’s Golf: Hinsdale’s Lederhausen has good run at Western Amateur
Theo Lederhausen of Hinsdale watches his put at the 2012 Western Amateur Championship at Exmoor Country Club on Aug. 2. | Jon Durr~Sun-Times Media
Updated: September 10, 2012 1:12PM
HINSDALE — Theo Lederhausen had a hard time being too disappointed last week at the Western Amateur.
The Hinsdale Central graduate came close to advancing to match play, but he fell short by six strokes after posting 68-71-74-73 at Highland Park’s Exmoor Country Club.
“I’m getting there,” said the rising junior at Harvard of his game. “This past year I plateaued. I had a great freshman year, and I got my expectations too high.
“Now I am in a good place and ready for the season.”
One of four golf-playing siblings in his family, Lederhausen was in a good position at 5 under after the first two rounds to get to match play, but he struggled to score over the final 36 holes to finish at 2 under in his first appearance at the prestigious tournament.
“You needed to make birdies,” said the 20-year-old, whose mother, Jessica, played at UCLA and enjoyed a stretch as a touring pro in Europe. Older sisters Alexandra and Rebecca both play at Northwestern, while younger sister Rosanna will be a senior at Hinsdale Central.
Although he was one of two players from the Chicago area to survive the first cut, Lederhausen tried not to burden himself with the pressure of being one of the locals.
“There definitely was a lot of encouragement and a lot of followers,” the Swedish native said. “I didn’t want to think about it too much, but it was fun to represent Illinois.”
After playing at the state tournament all four years at Hinsdale Central, never finishing worse than 26th, Lederhausen chose to continue his golf career in the Ivy League, not exactly a breeding ground for professionals.
But Lederhausen made an impact in his first season, leading the Crimson in scoring average and finished 13th at the conference championships. His game slumped during his sophomore season, but Lederhausen still managed to tie for 15th at the league tournament.
“Going (to Harvard) you sacrifice something,” he said. “You question how much you want to play. There are a lot of factors that make it more difficult. During the season with school, it’s a lot to handle.”
