4-Time Club Champion Hanging In There

By Dave Shedloski

San Francisco – A little more than an hour before his delayed opening round starting time in the U.S. Amateur Championship, Randy Haag was sitting in his doctor’s office awaiting a cortisone shot for his troubled back. He was 40 minutes away from Olympic Club. Good thing he knew where he was going.

"It was definitely a white-knuckle drive," Haag, who lives in nearby Burlingame, said Monday afternoon with a smile. "I got here just in time to hit a handful of balls, a couple of putts, and we’re off. Feeling good was more important" than a long warm-up.

Randy Haag got himself in trouble, like on No. 5 here, but he grinded his way to a 6-over 76 Monday. (John Mummert/USGA)

Besides, staying away from the club kept Haag from getting overly anxious.

Haag is playing in his seventh U.S. Amateur, but this one is undoubtedly the most special, given that he is a member of The Olympic Club. Not only that, but he is a four-time club champion, winning in 1997, 2001, ’04 and ’06. Of course, there’s a big difference between the Saturday four-ball and a national championship, in both atmosphere and course difficulty. While not struggling with either, Haag nevertheless had nothing to show for his day in shooting a 6-over-par 76 on the more difficult Lake Course.

"I turned 72 into a 76," said the soft-spoken Haag, who did not have a birdie all day and who couldn’t remember the last time he toured his home course without one. "I didn’t putt badly at all. I just couldn’t get anything to go in; didn’t make a putt outside of three feet. I just never really got the speed right.

"The course isn’t really that much harder. The greens were actually firmer Saturday than today. The rough is up a little more. It was what you’d expect for a major tournament like this."

The sixth-oldest player in the field, Haag, 48, has been a successful competitor in California for some time. On three occasions he was named the Northern California Player of the Year, and in 1993, he was named California Amateur of the Year. Second place in the voting was an 18-year-old kid named Tiger Woods.

His U.S. Golf Association experience also includes eight U.S. Mid-Amateur events, where he twice advanced to the quarterfinals. His 19 victories in the 1990s was the third-highest win total in USGA events.

While his putting was the story of the day, his putting style is a story worth telling. Haag putts sidesaddle, if you will. Or croquet style. He faces the hole in a manner made famous by Sam Snead, stands to the left of the ball – because the Rules of Golf prohibit straddling the line – and pushes his belly putter away from his body.

Though he managed his game proficiently enough before the change, he tended to fight something akin to the yips. "I would aim two balls outside the right of the line because I was flinching so bad," said Haag, a father of four. "It was just ugly. I got sick of it."

A handful of friends had for years been trying to convince him that a new method would do wonders, but the tipping point came at the 1996 U.S. Amateur at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club. Invited by ’95 Amateur runner-up and current Walker Cup Captain George "Buddy" Marrucci to join him in a practice round, Haag showed up at the first tee and noticed two other players waiting for him to join them. They were John Harris and Woods, the two-time defending champion. There were 3,000 people surrounding the tee box. Haag couldn’t bear the thought of Woods and all those people watching him flinch, so he begged out. Amazingly, Haag was the medalist in qualifying later that week.

Soon thereafter, however, he employed the sidesaddle technique. He won the first of his four club championships the next week.

President and CEO of an Internet business, webaccommodate.com, Haag figured he still had a decent chance of qualifying for match play, thinking a 70 on the Ocean Course Tuesday might be good enough. He certainly saved up a few birdies.

"I feel good about my game," he said. "Sometimes, you just can’t get anything to go in the hole. But I hit it pretty well, and I made a good comeback on the back nine (36), so we’ll see. I just have to make a few and I should be all right."

Dave Shedloski is a freelance writer whose work has appeared previously on USGA championship Web sites.