Missed Flight, Five-Putt Doesn’t Deter Fortin-Simard

By Alex Miceli

Ardmore, Pa. -- Keven Fortin-Simard had a great start to his day in the second round of the U.S. Amateur on Tuesday.  It included an eagle three on the par 5 second hole and then three birdies on the sixth, seventh and eighth holes to shoot a 5-under 31 on the front nine at Merion Golf Club.

To put it in better perspective, the scoring average on the front nine at Merion in the first round was 40.166, or more than a nine-shot difference from Fortin-Simard’s start.

Unfortunately for Fortin-Simard, he would five-putt the par-4 12^th hole after getting on the green with a wedge. He then had to hold on with two bogeys and a birdie over the remaining six holes to shoot a 1-under 69.

"Wasn’t really looking at my scores actually I was hitting it good," said Fortin-Simard of not knowing his score at the turn.  "Like I said, my goal was just to go low as I could. You never know what’s going to happen, but I five-putted so you don’t expect things like that.  I was just trying to make birdie every hole."

The five-putt from within 40 feet was a case of not paying enough attention to the speed and too much attention to the line.  So after the first putt came up 8 feet short, Fortin-Simard would bomb his second 5 feet past. When the third lipped out, he was left with another 5-footer coming back, which he missed before tapping in for a seven.

"I just stayed focused, I didn’t get mad or anything. Those things happen," said Fortin-Simard. "I’m still happy with the day in general."

Fortin-Simard, a sophomore at the University of Memphis, has never played two courses as part of any tournament before, and in the case of Merion and Philadelphia CC, he only walked them on Sunday afternoon. And for good reason. He missed his flight from Montreal and had to make the 10-hour drive instead to Philadelphia.

For Fortin-Simard’s parents, the trip was even longer. They had to drive from

Roberval, a town northeast of Montreal.

In Roberval, golf isn’t the specialty. Fortin-Simard’s home course, St. Prime , plays only 6,400 yards has green speeds of 7 on the Stimpmeter.  At Merion, the greens were running close to 12 on Monday.

"I’ve only been playing three years in big competitions," said Fortin-Simard.  "Five years ago I didn’t even know what the U.S. Amateur was."

Alex Miceli is a free-lance writer.