Count Isaiah Salinda among those with the longest odds when he teed it up as one of the Monday qualifiers for this week’s Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas. The 26-year-old South San Francisco native and Stanford alum only had eight previous starts on the PGA Tour. He made the cut in half of them, and with full-time status this past season on the Korn Ferry Tour, Salinda notched just one top-10 and missed seven of the last eight cuts in a total of 21 starts.

Yet, in his new hometown, at the TPC Summerlin golf course he’s played frequently, Salinda has a shot at producing a life-changing result come Sunday. With a nine-birdie eight-under-par 63 in Saturday’s third round, Salinda climbed to 13-under for the tournament and is two strokes behind the leaders — defending champion Tom Kim (62), Adam Hadwin (63) and Lanto Griffin (68).

Salinda’s 63 was one shot better than his KFT season-best of 64 in the 64 rounds he played. His single-biggest pay cheque on the PGA Tour and KFT is $34,415, and Salida could earn at least $228,900 with a 10th-place finish this week.

“We all kind of play for the same reasons, to have a chance,” Salinda said. “We’ll see how that holds up. A lot of groups still to come in, but yeah, it’s just a good round that I hope to build on [Sunday].”

Of his third round on a perfect day to go low at Summerlin, Salinda said, “The birdies were flying.” He moved to Las Vegas in the past year and has practised frequently with other pros at Summerlin, and his local knowledge showed as Salinda birdied the first two holes, made another birdie at 7 and turned in 32. His assault of the course truly began at 10, with four consecutive birdies, followed by two more at 15 and 16. The run included making a 54-foot birdie on the par-5 13th and a 66-footer at 15. Unfortunately, he closed the round with a bogey at the 18th.

“Tee to green was solid,” Salinda said. “I felt like I didn’t even hit it great, but I gave myself a lot of chances.”

Salinda’s world ranking, at 652nd, would indicate he’s yet to find his feet as a pro, but he’s not without golf accomplishments. In 2019, after he helped Stanford win the NCAA Championship, Salinda he was selected to the Walker Cup team, and in the US win at Royal Liverpool, Salinda beat Alex Fitzpatrick, the brother of US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, 2-up in the Sunday singles. The previous year, Salinda captured the prestigious Pacific Coast Amateur and reached the semi-finals of the US Amateur at Pebble Beach, where he lost to Devon Bling in the championship eventually won by Viktor Hovland.

Those are experiences to lean on, though Salinda has never been in a position close to this.

“I think there’s always a little more pressure playing out here,” he said. “On the weekend, I feel like you’re playing a little bit more, but just try and treat it the same.”

Main image: PGA Tour

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By Dave Shedloski
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – In the most pressure-packed matches of their young lives, Cole Hammer and Isaiah Salinda combined for 11 birdies Saturday at Pebble Beach Golf Links, sank putts on top of their respective opponents and played well enough to reach the U.S. Amateur final.

They never stood a chance.

On a misty morning at the iconic course along the Pacific Ocean, the two could only watch helplessly as their dreams of playing in next year’s Masters and U.S. Open were dashed by a pair of golfers simply performing at a high level, perhaps higher than they have ever known before.

Viktor Hovland, 20, of Norway, a senior at Oklahoma State University, birdied his final five holes and dealt Hammer his second semifinal setback of the summer, winning 3 and 2. He’ll compete for American golf’s oldest trophy, a 36-hole final starting at 7:30 a.m. PDT Sunday, against UCLA sophomore Devon Bling, 18, of Ridgecrest, Calif., who outlasted Salinda 1-up.

No. 5 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Hovland made eight birdies in 16 holes and never trailed against Hammer, the first player in 32 years to reach the semifinals of the U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Amateur in the same summer. Hovland’s amazing run began at the par-3 12th hole when he stole an apparent win from Hammer by sinking a 20-footer. It ended with an eight-footer at the 16th that closed out Hammer, who did win the U.S. Amatuer Four-Ball in May and was coming off a victory in the Western Amateur.

Hovland, who helped Oklahoma State win the NCAA Division I title in June, has trailed for just one hole over five matches, and that came early in his second-round win over Harrison Ott.

“First of all, the wind, it wasn’t blowing as hard, and the greens were a little softer, so the conditions were definitely conducive to making birdies,” he said. “But still, you’ve got to hit the shots, and you’ve got to make the putts. I think we just kind of fed off each other a little bit. He made a putt and then I answered, if not the same hole making a putt, I’d make a putt on the next hole, and we just went back and forth. Yeah, it was a really good match.”

Hammer, 18, of Houston, made five birdies but just couldn’t dent Hovland’s facade. “I’m not mad about the way I played, I’m just disappointed that I kind of ran into a buzz saw,” he said.

JD Cuban
Devon Bling, a UCLA sophomore, defeated Isaiah Salinda, 1 up, to advance to Sunday’s final in the U.S. Amateur Championship at Pebble Beach.

Likewise, Salinda, 21, of South San Francisco, Calif., played his best round of the week and yet he never led against his fellow Pac-12 golfer. Salinda plays for Stanford and Bling for UCLA. Both are competing in their first U.S. Amateur. Salinda took him down to the wire, but when he failed to birdie the 18th, Bling’s three-putt for par at the last pushed him through.

“I’ve got no complaints,” Salinda said. “I played well today. That’s all I could ask for. Devon played awesome.”

Indeed, Bling’s caddie, Andrew Larkin, assistant golf coach at UCLA, said he’s never seen him play better. (As an aside, Alan Bratton the OSU head golf coach, is caddying for Hovland this week.)

“You could see his game picking up and his confidence is growing, and he’s ready to go,” Larkin said. “The talent has always been there for sure, and it’s great to see it coming out this week.”

“I definitely played well today. I wasn’t even counting score,” said Bling, who will be the underdog in the final at No. 305 in the WAGR. “I hit it incredibly well today, putted well. All aspects of my game were firing on all cylinders. It was a battle against Isaiah. He played really well himself. I was really happy to come out on top.

“I’ve been working extremely hard on my game, trying to make it really good in every single area, just so when I needed the shot, I’m able to hit it,” added Bling, who has been dedicating this week to his late mother, Sara, who passed away in 2013 but always wanted her son to play in USGA events. “Man, I don’t know, it’s just … I love feeling the pressure. I like being nervous out there and knowing that I’ve got to hit a good shot here, and I’ve got to make this putt. I love that feeling.”

He’ll feel a lot more of that today. So will Hovland.

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