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U.S. Amateur Blog
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Inspiring
Seeing Michael Thompson engulfed by his father's arms after winning Saturday was a moving moment. Sharing a cart ride up to the clubhouse afterward, I asked Thompson what his dad said to him. "He told me how proud he was of me," he said.
Twenty minutes later I found his dad to gauge his emotion. It seems Mr. Thompson has it all down right. He said that he and his wife, Beth, are merely witnesses to their son's dreams. This is one of them. To see him on the cusp of seeing it through made both of them "honored."
Dad said they never pushed him into golf; Thompson discovered it himself. But they did tell all of their children that whatever dream they wanted to follow, they'd support it 100 percent. More here.
Ken
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Playing
Brrr, chilly morning today. Overcast. Still better than fog.
Ken
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Friday, August 24, 2007
Olson
I always feel a bit empathetic toward the players who lose at this stage of the Amateur, or any other match play event for that matter. You always have some surprises that stay alive. It's about this time that they really start believing their abilities, that maybe they might have a shot at winning it all.
Eddie Olson was one of those guys today. He's a talented player. He admittedly didn't play well. After losing he walked off the green holding the brim of his hat. Well-wishers shook his hand and with each shake, his grip got firmed up. He was emotional and bothered that he lost, but he took it in stride. He echoed many other sentiments when he said how tough it was to get this far and lose. He worked so hard.
You had to feel for the guy. Quotes fueled by raw emotion are always the best for reporters, but sometimes you have to stand back and realize they're only human.
Ken
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Good Story
Amanda Bruski is caddieing for Derek Fathauer this week. What makes it interesting is that she also caddied for Fathauer at the U.S. Amateur Public Links this past July at Cantigny Golf Club in Wheaton, Ill. She caddies at Catigny. Fathauer apparently asked her to come this week to Olympic.
Ken
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Thursday, August 23, 2007
Reverse Nerves
Casey Clendenon had just won his third-round match against Andrew Putnam, 4 and 3, when he walked off the 15th hole and into the path of The Golf Channel camera. He didn't profess to have any nerves during his match but when the on-air reporter wanted to get a few comments, Clendenon froze. The rush of being on television probably accounted for newly born butterflies. But Clendenon handled the interview with aplomb. Asked what he was thinking after going 3 up after the sixth hole, Clendenon said, "I was telling myself after going 3 up, 'Just stay patient.'"
And he did. Now in his first U.S. Amateur, at the age of 22, the product of Lamar University has advanced the furthest he's ever been in a USGA championship. He made it into the second round of the 2001 and 2002 U.S. Junior Amateurs.
Ken
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Zahringer
Someone mentioned in the blog that George Zahringer should be watched. Totally agree. The guy might be in his early 50s but he's got guile and moxie to play with anyone in the field here. He's not as long as a lot of the younger guys, but he's consistent. Most of all, he's a competitor that doesn't give up easily.
Sorry to talk in cliches.
Ken
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An Underdog
It's hard not to cheer for underdogs. In the case of the Amateur, Kyle Dickey might be considered one. After being part of a team that won the NJCAA Division III National Championship in 2004, Dickey felt burned out. So he walked away.
But golf is one of those addictive loves that can't be shaken. Two years later Dickey was prodded to play by a few buddies. He took it slow, then discovered a renewed passion. He took time to work on his game before jumping back into the competitive arena.
Watching him play, he's intense and focused. You can see the fire in his eyes. He said after beating Nathan Tyler that he just wanted to keep going. He didn't want to place any expectations on himself other than to play well.
And to enjoy the experience.
Ken
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Surviving
Today is a battle of attrition. Two rounds of match play golf is taxing, both mentally and physically. Outside of blisters and the like, my belief is that the mental side is more grueling. To be able to stay in the moment shot after shot has to affect focus. In many ways, the strongest mental player will win. Don't get me wrong, talent also goes a long way.
Ken
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Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Observations
Can't get enough of the aesthetics while on the course. On many holes you can see the city skyline, and if it's clear enough, the Golden Gate Bridge can be seen from afar. The course is hilly, no doubt about that. Not really a tough walk if one compares it to Whistling Straits or Bandon Dunes. If you're in the market for a sprained ankle, I'd prescribe the two latter ones.
It's easy to be fooled by the cool, light air as well. Temperatures hover in the upper 60s or mid-70s when the sun comes out. But that sun is still dangerous if you're not wearing sunscreen.
It was a pleasant surprise to see the swelled gallery. Most were there to take in the Joseph Bramlett or Randy Haag matches. Both have ties to the club. But many stayed around to watch other matches.
I am still amazed at Tiger Woods' dominance in this event. For my money, the U.S. Amateur is one of the toughest competitions to win in all of sports. It ranks up there with winning the Stanley Cup or NCAA basketball championship. Just my opinion.
West coast sunsets are absolutely majestic. Just another idle thought.
Ken
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Bramlett
Solid match between Joseph Bramlett and Chris Kirk. For a good part of the match I thought Bramlett, a junior member at The Olympic Club, would trounce Kirk.
Kirk just didn't strike the ball well out of the gate. However, he had about 10 minutes to warm up. But he scrambled and grinded his way to the win in 19 holes. Bramlett hid a bump on the 17th hole when, his ball trapped in gnarly rough near the green, couldn't move it. It led to a double bogey. On 18, Kirk gave it back when he stared down at a plugged ball in a greenside bunker. He needed two shots to get out, and by then they were staring at extra holes.
Bramlett suddenly got wild off the tee. He pushed his ball far right into deep junk, then stayed right. He couldn't get up and down.
Match over.
Ken
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Playoff
Oh, a 16-for-7 playoff. This could take a few minutes.
Sorry to see Cory Whitsett, the 15-year-old Junior Amateur champion miss the cut. He tripled his final hole to fall out.
Ken
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Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Schedule Of Play
Play will begin at 7:30 a.m. PDT Wednesday after it was called due to darkness Tuesday. The first round of match play is tentatively sheduled to begin at 10 a.m.
Ken
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All Alone
He trudged up to the 18th green at the Lake Course burdened more by the urgency of making a birdie than carrying his own golf bag. There are still a few players who compete in top amateur tournaments without a caddie, and Jon Curran, an All-American from the University of Vanderbilt, hasn’t found himself handicapped by going solo all summer.
“I just didn’t feel the need,” said Curran, 20, of Hopkinton, Mass. “I think I’ve done OK. I can’t say it would have made much of a difference at any place I’ve played.”
Curran, playing in his second U.S. Amateur, finished tied for third at the Monroe Invitational and fifth at the Porter Cup among his handful of tournament starts before competing this week at Olympic Club. His 12-foot birdie at Olympic’s famed short 18th hole gave him a 4-over 74 and 147 total after he played the first five holes of his second round in five over par.
If he should make it to match play, Curran planned to have a friend from Seattle fly in Wednesday morning and caddie for him the rest of the week. “He’s just a good friend more than a caddie,” Curran said. “If I get to match play, it could get tiring. It’d be nice just to have someone to talk to. But we’ll see what happens.”
Dave Shedloski
Freelance Writer
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Happy Birthday
Gary Wolstenholme, the two-time British Amateur champion, knew exactly what he wanted for his 47th birthday, which he celebrated Tuesday at Olympic Club with 27 holes of golf in the U.S. Amateur.
“Getting to match play would be a great present,” said the native of Surrey, England. “If I can get that far, then I think I have an opportunity to do pretty well. But I’m going to have to sit around on pins and needles to find out.”
Wolstenholme, who has gotten as far as the quarterfinals of this championship, could argue that Monday’s four-hour fog delay was an unfriendly turn of events. He left the grounds of Olympic Club at three under par after nine holes on the Ocean Course. When he returned Tuesday morning, he promptly bogeyed the first four holes – and five of the first six that dropped him to a 2-over-par 72.
In his second round on the Lake Course, he converted just one birdie against three bogeys and a double bogey for a 74 and 146 aggregate. He could only sit back and watch other scores roll in to see if that total would be good enough to qualify for the match play portion of the championship, reserved for the top 64.
“My evil twin came out today instead of the guy who played last night,” said Wolstenholme, a frequent member of the Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup team. “I got off to a tough start. I knew what I was up against, and I just didn’t play particularly well and I started to just surrender shots. It was more of the same in the afternoon, made some mistakes, and I had to work really hard to get that 74.”
Dave Shedloski
Freelance Writer
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Interesting Rules Infraction
Was in the presence of a unique Rules infraction today. Robby Bigley nearly disqualified himself on the 18th tee until official Jim Moriarty ran down a previous sequence of events.
After driving out of bounds, near a cart path, on the 17th hole, Bigley continued to play his ball until he putted out. At that point he struck his ball after it went out of bounds and, according to USGA Rules official Genger Fahleson, it was deemed he was playing the wrong ball. When he got to the tee box, carding what he thought was a bogey 5, Moriarty approached him.
Bigley admitted he didn't know his ball was out of bounds. According to the Rules of Golf, Fahleson said, Bigley was required to go back and correct all the strokes that occurred after striking the 'wrong' ball. Had he struck his 18th tee shot he would have been disqualified.
Bigley grabbed his bag and back-tracked down the 17th fairway.
"He was real good about it," said Fahleson. "He asked, 'Am I going to make it into the fat Decisions book now?'"
Before replaying his shots, Bigley absorbed three penalty strokes - one for hitting his ball out of bounds and two for striking the 'wrong' ball. In the end, he took a 10 on the hole.
Ken Klavon
Web Editor
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No Delays
Rather happy to see it was clear enough
to play this morning. However, it is foggy, which isn't anything new
here. San Francisco is essentially built upon a high point of land, in
the direct line of a weather pattern off the Bay that pushes clouds/fog
atop that hover. The fog is gradually burned away by the sun.
Or
think trade winds in Hawaii. As the day wears on, winds break up the
clouds. It is rather strange to be about 10 minutes away from sun and
blue skies.
Now, all this said, please, I'm not a
meteorologist and I don't profess to be an expert. Just going by the
word of friends who live in the Bay area.
Monday's delay all but guarantees that stroke play will spill over into Wednesday.
Ken Klavon
Web Editor
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Schultz
A 1-under-par 69 on the Lake Course Monday was a handsome score for Kevin Schultz. How he got there wasn't quite so pretty, but it still placed him among the leaders after 18 holes of the U.S. Amateur, and he had to be satisified with that after letting a monumental round get away from him.
Schultz was five under par with three holes to play when Olympic Club's Lake Course jumped up and bit him - hard. He bogeyed the par-5 16th hole and then suffered a triple-bogey at the par-4 17th.
“I didn't drive the ball that great, but my putter made up for it,” said Schultz, 21, of Richardson, Texas.
Indeed, Schultz needed just 22 putts, 11 on each side. He needed only one on the 17th, too, after driving into the left rough, hacking out, and then sailing a 70-yard wedge shot over the green. His fourth shot he whiffed; the ball was sitting up in the rough and his club cut right under it. Another hack at it, and then a chip to 3 feet resulted in a 7.
“If you would have told me at the beginning of the day that I would be 1 under par, I would have said that is pretty good,” Schultz said. “I was 5 under and gave it all back in two holes. That was shocking, but I pulled myself together OK.”
Dave Shedloski
Freelance Writer
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Monday, August 20, 2007
A First
Over the years I have interviewed many athletes in many different settings. In restaurants, locker rooms, restrooms (after the fact I'm pleased to announce), on the phone, in hallways, clothed, unclothed and on and on it goes. But never have I interviewed anyone lying down, staring at me upside down as I peered down.
I'm not quite sure what the protocol is in that situation. Do I lay down next to the subject and conduct the interview that way? Do I act as though I'm a psychiatrist tending to a patient? In any event, it's rather hard to keep from laughing.
Such was the case with Brian Harman today in the locker room. Harman is loquacious and friendly. Down to earth kind of guy. He won the Junior Amateur a few years ago, plus he's a lefthander, like yours truly. So you know he's odd.
Anyway, during the fog delay he found space on the floor near a TV. He knew I was coming for him. He got so relaxed that he said, "We can do this but I'm not moving. I'm not getting up." We both laughed.
It was different asking him about goals and the like, then to see him respond while tilting his head upside down to look at me. He seemed like an illusionist with his mouth as he answered.
There isn't a punchline to the story, per se. Just another nuggget of something that went on behind the scenes.
Ken Klavon
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Reacquainted
This may be Glenn Northcutt’s initial U.S. Amateur appearance, but familiarity is working in his favor.
Northcutt, 20, of Dothan. Ala., a junior at Auburn University, was in the field of the 2004 U.S. Junior Amateur held here. He lost in the first round of match play.
And while Northcutt is intimate with the vagaries of the Lakeside and Ocean courses, he will also have a familiar face carrying his bag.
“The guy (Paul Laveroni, an Olympic Club member) who caddied for me in 2004 told me three years ago that he was going to see me at the gate at the airport in 2007,” Northcutt said. “I am really excited. I have never done this before and really wanted to get a chance to do it. I am excited where my game is.”
Stuart Hall
Freelance Writer
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College Connection
With 315 players in this week’s U.S.
Amateur field, there are plenty of instances of college teammates
competing for the coveted title.
Three such are University of Alabama teammates Matt Hughes, Mark Harrell and Michael Thompson.
While
seniors Harrell of Hazelhurst, Ga., and Thompson of Tucson, Ariz., are
making their third appearances, Hughes, a junior, is making his first.
In June, Hughes caddied for Harrell at the U.S. Open.
“I’m
pretty excited,” said Hughes, of Dalton, Ga. “I feel like if I had not
been to the U.S. Open this summer, I really wouldn’t know what to
expect at all. But I really think having been to a big event like that
that is run pretty similar to the way this tournament is going to be
run that I kind of know what to expect and know what the atmosphere is
going to be like a little bit. It is my first time, and I’m excited,
and I’m a little bit nervous.”
Nervous, maybe, but no less
deserving to be in the field. He won the sectional qualifier at
Woodstock, Ga., July 24-25. Thompson also got into the field by winning
his qualifier, while Harrell, who won the stroke play at the U.S.
Amateur Public Links, was exempt from qualifying after making the U.S.
Open field.
Hughes wouldn’t mind putting his name aside that of
another famous Crimson Tide alum – Jerry Pate, the 1974 U.S. Amateur
champion.
“It’s 315 people for 64 spots,” Hughes said. “It’s a
lot of people playing, but 64 is a pretty good amount, so you really
don’t have to go and absolutely burn it up; just stay calm. I learned a
lot by watching Mark in the U.S. Open. No matter what he did wrong, he
just fought and fought and fought on the next shot as hard as he could.
"And
if you do that, you’re going to be OK. So I’m just going to try to stay
away from making any big stupid mistakes. Enjoy myself.”
Stuart Hall
Freelance Writer
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Rough Start
San Francisco – It was bad enough that 18-year-old
Morgan Hoffman of Saddle Brook, N.J., had to wait out a four-hour
fog delay before teeing off in the opening round at U.S. Amateur Monday. When
Hoffman, in the first pairing off No. 1 on the Lakeside Course, put his tee
shot in a clump of pine, eucaplyptus and cypress trees clustered 50 yards out
and just right of the Lakeside Course's first tee, a search party was called
in.
Hoffman, about 50 other spectators
and USGA officials scoured the area for the maximum five minutes. Every few
seconds the gathered mass looked skyward into the trees before Hoffman ultimately decided the ball
had lodged into one of the massive trees.
Taking a lost ball penalty, Hoffman went back to the teeing
ground and hit his third shot.
Stuart Hall
Freelance Writer
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11 It Is
Looks like we'll be starting at 11 a.m. PDT. Fog has pretty much cleared out.
Ken
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New update
OK, folks, make it 10:30 PDT. That's when we might start. Shades of Newport Country Club all over again.
Ken
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Bumped To 10
We have now been told that the championship is tentaively scheduled to start at 10 a.m. PDT. The fog is still pretty thick. Feel bad for those who had 5 a.m. wake-up calls. Walking through the locker room, players were clustered in groups watching the Golf Channel, joking or making small talk. Others - at least five - sought solitude in the cavernous area, locating a long bench to try and nap on.
Many others have stayed on the practice range or in the dining area. Cory Whitsett, this year's U.S. Junior Amateur champion, was champing at the bit to play. The malaised 15-year-old from Texas hung in the dining area with his dad playing the waiting game. "I just want to go play," said Whitsett, who will make his first appearance in the U.S. Amateur. "It's just the way it is."
Ken
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Update
Looks like we'll be delayed at least until 9 a.m. PDT. Officials will revisit shortly.
Ken
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Delayed
Greetings,
Welcome to the U.S. Amateur blog, the place where we'll provide updates as much as we can during the championship. We'll also try to provide interesting nuggets of information that you may not find contained in the story form.
San Francisco is known as much for its fog as anything else. We've got a mouthful this morning, meaning we are delayed. At least until 8:30 PDT. It is pretty thick, resembling the kind we experienced at Newport Country Club last year at the Women's Open. I'm not suggesting the round will be wiped out by any means.
On a seperate note, if you see anything awry on the site, please don't hestitate to e-mail me at kklavon@usga.org.
Ken Klavon
Web Editor
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Nathaniel Crosby Recalls His 1981 Amateur Win
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The memories of his magical week at The Olympic Club came flooding back as Nathaniel Crosby addressed the contestants at the players’ dinner the night before the start of the 2007 U.S. Amateur.
Crosby won the Amateur in 1981 at The Olympic Club, winning match after match in come-from-behind fashion. He was 4 down with 10 holes left in the 36-hole final when he turned it around to win.
I said to myself, “Wouldn’t it be something if I could come back and win this match?”
He did just that, getting up-and-down from three consecutive bunkers and then holing a 20-foot putt for the win.
“It was about as good as it could get for a 19-year-old kid,” said Crosby, the gifted son of singer/entertainer Bing Crosby. For the next two years, Crosby was the favorite in most amateur events he entered. He played in the U.S. Open, the Masters Tournament and the British Open.
But his pro career was a bust. As he reflected, he questioned whether or not he was good enough to play for pay.
“I wanted to be Jack Nicklaus since I was 4 years old,” said Crosby, who today is a partner in a golf advertising firm in the Miami area. “I learned that YOU have to define what making it is.”
It took years, but today Crosby is feeling a lot better about himself, even though he’s not the pro golfer that everyone else thought he should be.
Craig Smith
USGA Director of Media Relations
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