By Dave Shedloski
Tulsa, Okla. – Locked in a roller-coaster match with local favorite Peter Uihlein in the quarterfinals of the 109th U.S. Amateur, Charlie Holland ended things with a Demon Drop of a shot.
One swing, and the ride was over.
Holland, 23, a senior at the University of Texas, ripped a 7-iron from 172 yards to within 2 inches of the hole for a winning birdie and knocked off the last of the Oklahoma State University men, Uihlein, in 19 holes Friday at Southern Hills Country Club.
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Peter Uihlein takes a moment to reflect on his misfortune during Friday's quarterfinal match. (John Mummert/USGA) |
Holland advances to face Ben Martin of Greenwood, S.C., who eliminated Sweden’s David Lingmerth, 2 and 1. Their match, the first of two semifinals, begins at 9 a.m. CDT Saturday.
A quarterfinalist a year ago at Pinehurst No. 2, Holland, a Dallas native, is no stranger to enduring lengthy ordeals. During his ’08 run he won matches on the 20th and 23rd holes. So far this week, the fewest number of holes he’s played in any match was 17 in his 2-and-1 win over Christopher Ross in the third round Thursday afternoon. His first-round victory over Morgan Hoffman also went 19 holes.
“It’s just the way it’s been for me. I don’t know why, but nothing is ever easy,” said Holland. “I am a grinder. I just hang in there. I've never had a match where I've gotten really beat or I've beat someone really bad.”
Uihlein pushed it into overtime when he made one clutch putt but missed another. Down one with two holes to play, the OSU sophomore spun a wedge to within 5 feet and holed the birdie to draw even. But at 18, after both missed the green, Uihlein got tentative on a 6-foot par putt after Holland had missed from 10 feet following a blast from the right-front bunker.
“Yeah, I took my hat off and I was ready to shake his hand,” said Holland, who flipped his golf ball into his cap disgustedly. “I was hot and I thought it was done, yeah, no question. He putted good all day. We both made a lot of birdies. But, I thought, yeah, it was done.”
“I got a good read off a Charlie, but I got too distracted about the line,” said Uihlein, who finished in the top-10 in all but one event during his summer campaign. “I just forgot to hit it. That was disappointing there, but that’s the way it goes.”
As fate would have it, Holland faced virtually the same shot from the same distance on the first playoff hole that he had chunked for his approach from the 18th fairway. This time, he “juiced it,” he said. “It was probably a little outside my range, but I was feeling good over the ball and just trusted my swing.”
Trust doesn’t come easy when you spend the winter trying to change your swing and then change back. But Holland knew he was making the right move in reverting to his old form. “I just needed to stop tinkering and get back to concentrating on playing the shots.”
Holland claimed a quick 2-up lead when Uihlein opened with consecutive bogeys, but by the sixth he was 1 down as Uihlein’s trusty putter earned wins on three of the next four holes.
The proceedings increased in intensity and drama starting at the seventh, when the players took turns picking each other’s pockets. Holland served up a 20-foot birdie on the short par 4, but Uihlein caught a corner with his 14-footer to halve the hole.
At the par-3 eighth, both missed the green left. Uihlein dumped his second in the bunker, then splashed out to 10 feet. Holland, with a clear advantage, wedged out of the same bunker to set up an 8-footer for par. Uihlein made and Holland missed.
Holland made up for that at the ninth by sinking a 15-foot right-to-left curler for birdie, a must make with Uihlein just 3 feet behind the hole. Another halve and Uihlein remained 1 up.
A breakthrough finally came at the 10th when Holland won with a conceded birdie 3 after Uihlein slapped it around for a three-putt from 8 feet. Holland then reclaimed the lead with a 9-iron to 8 feet and knocked that in. But they were back to square yet again after Holland needed three to escape the right greenside bunker at the par-4 12th.
“It was a battle out there,” Holland said. “He's a good player. He got off to a slow start, and I made some pars and then kind of it flipped, and then it flipped again. It just kind of went back and forth the whole day. It was some good golf out there.”
Indeed it was. Holland won the par-5 13th with a 14-footer for birdie. Uihlein answered from 20 feet off the green at No. 14, but he missed the fairway right at 15, punched through the green, and he couldn’t get a treacherous downhill chip to stop within 40 feet. Holland two-putted for par to go 1 up, which held up until Uihlein’s salvo at 17.
“Charlie played great. He made a lot of putts. We both played solid and I had my chances and he had his chances as well and he came out on top this time,” said Uihlein, whose disappointment was exacerbated by the fact that he celebrates his 20th birthday Saturday and would have preferred to have been playing golf at Southern Hills. “Yeah, it kind of stinks, but Charlie is a good guy. I had a good summer. I can’t be too disappointed.”
Holland was not only excited about reaching the semifinals, but also about not having to get back to school at Texas. “That's honestly one of my main things: I did not want to go back to school,” he said, drawing laughs. “I'm being dead serious.”
Besides, some of the best learning this week is going on at Southern Hills. One lesson is simply not dwelling on the circumstances or how far he’s advancing in the championship or what it could all mean.
“I just gotta keep to doing what I'm doing,” Holland said. “I'm trying not to really think too much about that kind of stuff, because that's what I did last year. Last year kind of helped me for this year to think about that kind of stuff. So just trying to stay in the moment, one shot at a time.”
Indeed, because one shot, he knows firsthand, can end it.
Dave Shedloski is a freelance writer whose work has previously appeared on www.usamateur.org.
