By Ryan Herrington
OAKMONT, Pa. — It’s hard to describe the expression on James Piot’s face when he held the Havemeyer Trophy for the first time behind Oakmont Country Club’s 17th green late Sunday afternoon. Let’s call it something between shock, exhilaration and awe, as the newly minted U.S. Amateur champion, after a 2-and-1 win over Austin Greaser in the 36-hole championship finale, stared for a few moments at the most impressive piece of golf hardware he’d ever laid his hands on.

“I was just trying to see if it was real or not,” Piot said when asked what was running through his mind as he gave the trophy that first long look.

It was definitely real, the hard-earned result of years of trying to prove people wrong. Yes, you can come from up Canton, Mich., with its eight-month golf season, and still be a damn good player. And you can be 5-foot-9 and 153 pounds and still stand tall.

In all likelihood you’d probably never heard of Piot before catching a glimpse of him this week at the 121st edition of the USGA’s oldest championship. The 22-year-old fifth-year senior at Michigan State was ranked No. 86 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, good but not elite. He wasn’t a member of the U.S. Walker Cup team last May at Seminole Golf Club. He qualified for the U.S. Am last year at Bandon Dunes, even earned the No. 2 seed, but didn’t get past the second round of match play.

It’s easy, then, to believe that some unknown wound up walking off with the most prestigious title in amateur golf. And, maybe, technically, you’d be right. But don’t mistake unknown for fluky or undeserving.

“I know what people think, by the way he looks and all. He doesn’t look dynamic or powerful,” said Michigan State men’s coach Casey Lubahn. “But you can’t see his heart.”

It’s the heart that showed on the back nine at Oakmont, when it looked almost certain that Piot had finally met his match in Greaser, a 20-year-old honorable mention All-American at North Carolina. Through 27 holes, Piot shot the equivalent of six over par—four over on the front nine of the afternoon 18 alone—leaving him 3 down with nine holes to play. That’s when he turned to his caddie, Spartans assistant coach Dan Ellis, and uttered his latest audacious prediction: said he was going to shoot four under on the back nine.

And what exactly made him think that he could do that?

“Just self-belief. I feel like that’s one of the things, the golfer I am, I’m that guy who never has an extremely bad round,” Piot said. “In my head on the day, I’m kind of doing a recap and I think I was like six over. I’m like, ‘That’s not me.’ ”

And then it happened. A perfect drive on the par-4 10th, setting up a 9-iron approach from 150 yards and his first birdie of the afternoon session. 2 down.

Another good drive on the par-4 11th, and by good meaning it was safely in the 10th fairway, setting up a par that helped him win the hole when Greaser three-putted. 1 down.

Another par, this time on the 603-yard 12th hole, tied up the match, as Greaser suddenly was struggling to find fairways he’d hit all week and having trouble adjusting to Oakmont’s greens, which were getting faster as the day went on.

When Greaser bogeyed the par-3 13th hole, Piot’s 14-foot birdie try now conceded, Piot had his first lead since standing 1 up after the morning 18.

They exchanged birdies on the 14th hole, but Piot got to 2 up when he won the par-4 15th with another par. Two holes later, he was staring at the Havemeyer.

“I just didn’t execute coming down the stretch,” Greaser said. “I think it’s pretty obvious. He won four holes in a row there and kind of tides changed, and that’s how it goes.”

Chris Keane
Austin Greaser had a 3-up lead with nine holes to play, but struggled to find fairways on the back nine.

Piot’s golf career began at a place unlikely to produce a future U.S. Amateur champion: Fox Hills Golf and Banquet Centre in Plymouth, Mich. The facility had three courses and became Piot’s Disneyland each summer, the place he’d go to hang with his brother and his buddies, gamble for just about anything on the putting greens, and learn how to play golf rather than just golf swing.

While he developed a reputation as a stick within the state, winning the Michigan Junior Am and three high school state titles, it didn’t carry much outside the Wolverine State. So it was that Piot ended up staying home, following in his older brother’s footsteps and playing at MSU for Lubahn.

Since the fall of 2017, Piot has worked methodically on his game in relative anonymity with his Spartan teammates, a very real chip on his shoulder.

“Good golfers have long memories,” Lubahn joked.

Piot had quick results in college and was Big Ten freshman of the year in 2018. He took his biggest leap in the 2020-21 season, earning honourable mention All-American honours with a win and six more top-10s in the spring, including at Big Tens and NCAA Regionals.

“It’s hard to identify any one thing because it’s just gradual improvement,” says Lubahn when asked about what’s the biggest difference in Piot’s game from when he first arrived in East Lansing. “He’s picking up a 10th of a shot every day. And he’s the best driver I’ve ever coached.”

And not a bad putter either. In preparation for the U.S. Amateur, Piot put back into his bag a Ping Piper H putter, a flat stick he’d fallen in and out of love with since the sixth grade, one he affectionately nicknamed “the garbage putter.”

“My dad got that from a golf shop actually just down the road from our house, had to be 10 years ago,” Piot said. “He used it for like two weeks and was like, ‘This thing is not worth it.’ I think he got it for $60 or $70 at the time. I picked it up in probably sixth or seventh grade and started rolling with it. I was like, ‘This thing is actually awesome.’ ”

The putter proved vital this week at Oakmont, Piot holing several clutch putts.

Chris Keane
James Piot celebrates with his caddie/assistant coach Dan Ellis after winning the 2021 U.S. Amateur.

In the glow of victory, Piot could be allowed the chance to gloat. What did this win say about him and where he came from?

“Just it’s kind of nice to show the guys out there that don’t go to the big-time school that you can still do it,” he said. “Coming from Michigan it’s a phenomenal feeling being able to grind from a guy who wasn’t highly sought after to U.S. Am champ.”

It also proved something else: just how deep the amateur game is. All over the country, there are players like Piot, grinding day in and day out, aspiring for greatness with no guarantee that their efforts will be rewarded. Only the hope that the week will come when they get their chance to prove their mettle.

That week happened to be this one for the little man from Canton, the week James Piot finally became somebody you’d heard of.

The post James Piot’s comeback U.S. Amateur win is for all the little guys no one believed in appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Tod Leonard
It was a gorgeous evening for golf. Clear, just a light breeze, and the bright orange sun was beginning to set on the Pacific Ocean. It was the kind of day golfers pray for when they make a pilgrimage to one of America’s golf meccas, Bandon Dunes.

“Beautiful,” Andy Ogletree said.

Ogletree walked the back nine holes of the Bandon Dunes Golf Course without a club in hand. It was a scouting trip of a layout he’d never seen, but on which he’ll compete starting Monday when he begins defense of the U.S. Amateur Championship title he captured last year at Pinehurst.

Six months ago, Ogletree, 22, could not have imagined he’d be marvelling at sunsets on the Oregon coast. With this U.S. Am win, he earned playing spots in the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship. Finishing up his senior year at Georgia Tech, he was looking forward to all of them. But now in August, none of them have been played. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Open was moved to September, the Masters to November and the Open Championship cancelled.

It all turned Ogletree’s life and career plans completely upside down. The Union, Miss., native hoped to be playing professionally by late summer, but instead remains an amateur, and thus has the opportunity to be the first golfer to repeat as the U.S. Am champion since Tiger Woods won three straight from 1994-’96. Back for another Am, too, is last year’s other finalist, John Augenstein, who decided to return to Vanderbilt for a fifth year instead of turning pro.

A golfer even attempting to win the Havemeyer Trophy for a second straight year is a rare occurrence. Not since Gunn Yang, who won the 2014 U.S. Am at age 20, has a winner returned the following year. The last four champions—Bryson DeChambeau, Curtis Luck, Doc Redman and Viktor Hovland—all turned pro in the year after their Am triumph.

Ogletree’s defense comes against a smaller but arguably stronger field that includes 98 golfers who played in last year’s championship. The pandemic made it impossible for the USGA to hold qualifiers, and just as with its other top championships, including the U.S. Open, the governing body created an all-exempt field of 264, down from the usual 312. The format remains the same: 36 holes of stroke play on the Bandon Dunes and Bandon Trails courses, followed by the top 64 from medal play advancing to match play at Bandon Dunes, building up to the 36-hole final on Sunday.

The unpredictable nature of match play would seemingly make it more difficult to repeat in the format, but Ogletree shrugged that theory off in a phone conversation last week.

“Good golf is good golf,” he said. “If you play better than anyone else, you’re going to win. I’m looking forward to the week. Last year, I didn’t come in thinking I could win. I didn’t have a lot of expectations. I definitely have a lot more confidence this year that I can win, that I can handle the pressure and everything that goes with winning the tournament.”

The perks for winning the Am go far beyond getting into the three majors and the hero’s welcome Ogletree got in his hometown. Victory makes you a prime candidate for the U.S. Walker Cup team, and Ogletree contributed to the Americans’ win at Royal Liverpool last September. It also sends you to the top of the sponsor’s exemption list of some PGA Tour tournament directors. In Ogletree’s case, he got three invites—for the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial, where the tour returned to play after its hiatus, the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town and the Memorial at Muirfield Village.

DC
Andy Ogletree hits a shot during the 2019 Walker Cup Match at Royal Liverpool.

The Memorial, originally scheduled the week before the U.S. Open, was always a given for Ogletree, but after he had to turn down exemptions earlier in the year due to college conflicts, he was thrilled to get into the other two events in the early summer. The opportunities somewhat softened the disappointment when another week rolled around and Ogletree saw the social-media posts about “This would have been Masters week or U.S. Open week.”

Weighing the pros and cons of his situation, Ogletree said, “Honestly, everyone has missed out on a lot of stuff. There’s been a lot of cons for the whole world. But the pros for me is that I get to play these events as an amateur without it being my job.”

Ogletree missed the cut in all three, shooting respectable scores in the Schwab (73-69) and Heritage (73-70) before struggling in the almost major-like conditions of the Memorial (77-81).

Deeply disappointed about his play at Muirfield Village, Ogletree was cleaning out his locker on Friday when he heard a distinctly recognizable voice. “It was Mr. [Jack] Nicklaus,” said Ogletree, who made it a point to introduce himself. “We talked about the U.S. Am and my future plans. He told me to keep getting better and don’t worry about the week. He said it’s a long career.”

Meeting Nicklaus was among the many highlights of being out on tour. Ogletree played practice rounds with Bill Haas and Lucas Glover—the trio share the same coach—as well as Phil Mickelson, Ryan Palmer, Keegan Bradley and Brendan Steele. There were two others who stood out: He practiced with Webb Simpson before he won the RBC and Jon Rahm before he captured the Memorial.

“I’m going to try to play the next one by myself,” Ogletree joked. “I’m not trying to say it was me, but …”

In November, as would have been the case in April, Ogletree will be paired in the first two rounds of the Masters with reigning champion Tiger Woods. They still have not officially met; Ogletree said Woods waved at him with a “hey” when they walked by each other at Muirfield Village.

“Tiger big-leagued me, but that’s OK,” Ogletree said with a laugh.

More seriously he said, “To get to play with Tiger will be the coolest. I have to pinch myself about it. That’s going to be a special week.”

Rob Tringali
Andy Ogletree stands “on the tee” in the backyard hole his dad built at their family home in Union, Miss., when his oldest son first starting playing golf.

Ogletree, currently ranked ninth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, enters the U.S. Amateur coming off reaching the quarterfinals of the Western Amateur that was held at Crooked Stick in Indiana. He will have his dad, Jim, as his one designated supporter on the grounds and Georgia Tech assistant coach Devin Stanton returns to the bag after last year’s triumph. With the three PGA Tour events under his belt, Ogleetree contends those experiences are extremely valuable when going against the amateurs.

“I feel like my game is in a good spot,” he said. “I’m in a good spot, mentally. Everything has come together.”

Or at least the best it could under the bizarre nature of our current circumstances. Ogletree has the good fortune of being able to look forward to some extraordinary experiences coming up. Beyond that horizon, though, his future isn’t nearly as clear as the skies that day in Oregon.

“I’m weighing my options,” Ogletree said. “I could turn pro after the Masters or I could even go back to school. The Walker Cup is at Seminole in May. That was one of the coolest weeks of my life. I’m just going to have to figure out what works best for me.”

The post Career path changed by virus, Andy Ogletree gets unexpected shot to repeat as U.S. Amateur champ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.