By Tod Leonard
BANDON, Ore. — It was a scene out of fiction, a gorgeously sunny day turned damp and gloomy, the fog having crept onto the cliffs and blanketed the Bandon Dunes Golf Course. In the eeriness, a movie of Tyler Strafaci’s making was playing in his head. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, visualizing the 4-iron shot that he was about to strike on the 36th hole in the final of the U.S. Amateur Championship.

“I said, ‘This is your time to hit a winning shot. Go get it,’ ” Strafaci recalled later when darkness had descended on the Oregon coast. “I’ve done it a bunch of times back home, and I knew I could execute it, and I trusted myself, and I did it.”

Strafaci powered a draw into the mist and exclaimed, “Oh, please be good!” When a handful of onlookers near the green cheered, he knew he’d reached the par 5 in two, settling 14 feet from the hole. It was the shot of Strafaci’s life, and in the fog, considering the pressure cooker of the circumstances, it’s likely one of the greatest on a finishing hole in the 120-year history of America’s national championship.

When opponent Charles (Ollie) Osborne, who had fought back in the tremendous match by winning the 34th and 35th holes, couldn’t get up and down for birdie, the 20-year-old from Reno, Nev., conceded the last, and Strafaci took the match, 1 up, without rolling a final putt.

It was a fittingly dramatic ending to a tremendous contest in which the combatants combined for 25 birdies and one eagle, including concessions. In the morning alone, they would have shot 60 in best ball.

“Oh please be good! Come on! Oh yeah!”

What a shot! @TyStrafaci with the RIPPED 4-iron to ? range. #USAmateur pic.twitter.com/wjUioHA5QN

— USGA (@USGA) August 17, 2020

“Ollie played spectacularly,” said Frank Strafaci Jr., who caddied for his son for the 159 holes he played over seven days. “I don’t know what they’re saying, but this has to be one of the best-played finals in U.S. Amateur history.”

Tyler Strafaci, whose amateur and college career at Georgia Tech was extended by the coronavirus pandemic, earned the right to lift the Havemeyer Trophy that eluded his highly accomplished grandfather, Frank Strafaci Sr. Eighty-five years ago, the eldest Strafaci captured his only USGA title, the U.S. Amateur Public Links.

“This trophy has been the holy grail for my family for over 80 years,” said Frank Strafaci Jr., 62. “And it’s something that my father always felt was an empty spot in his competitive career. It’s something that meant a lot to him, and I can genuinely say that he would have preferred Tyler to win it.”

Steven Gibbons
Tyler Strafaci with his caddie/father, Frank Strafaci, as they walk together during the final match of the U.S. Amateur.

RELATED: Golfer makes 102-yard hole-in-one at Sheep Ranch … with her putter!

On the 18th green, Tyler Strafaci bear-hugged and lifted off the ground 2021 U.S. Walker Cup captain Nathanial Crosby, the 1981 U.S. Amateur champion. With the triumph, Strafaci automatically makes the American Walker Cup team for the matches against Great Britain & Ireland next May at Seminole Golf Club in Strafaci’s home state of Florida.

“My grandfather was born in America, and during the late ’30s he was the best amateur golfer in the world—no ifs, ands or buts about it,” Tyler Strafaci said. “And for him not to be selected on that Walker Cup team, it kind of hit home hard with him. It’s a different day and age now, but he kind of held that deep inside him. That’s why I always wanted to be the first Strafaci to make a Walker Cup.

“It’s been a rough couple years,” he added, “because I’ve been pretty close to it, and now that I’m on that team, I feel like I’ve made him proud, and I feel like it’s just unbelievable.”

Strafaci has worn the family name with pride at times while feeling a pressure he may not have been able to acknowledge until he captured this summer’s North and South Amateur, a prestigious tournament his grandfather won twice in the 1930s.

“I think he found out this summer that he belongs,” said Georgia Tech head coach Bruce Heppler, who flew overnight on Saturday from Atlanta to attend the final and see U.S. Amateur and Yellow Jackets history. No other university has had two different players win back-to-back titles, with teammate Andy Ogletree winning a year ago a Pinehurst.

Reflecting on the family legacy on Sunday, Tyler said, “Later in my high school career, when I started playing amateur events and U.S. Amateurs and the North and South, and I had 20 people and cameras following, I don’t think I was ready to handle it—until about six months ago. To be able to do what I did and kind of overcome all that pressure and stuff, I’ve grown up and kind of compartmentalized a lot of stuff, and I got it done.”

Steven Gibbons
Ollie Osborne plays his second shot to the 11th hole during the final round at the 2020 U.S. Amateur at Bandon Dunes.

There was plenty of packaging things into various boxes in the Bandon Dunes final. There were the first 12 holes in the morning, when Osborne and his hot putter seized a 5-up lead with seven birdies—only one of them conceded.

Was Strafaci rattled? No, he said flatly, “Never a doubt.”

He backed up that bravado by storming back to win four of the last six holes in the morning to be only 1 down heading into a 90-minute lunch break.

When Strafaci won the 20th hole with a birdie 2 he completed the comeback, and on the 25th hole he seized his first lead with another birdie.

Then the fog rolled in and the match got wild. Osborne tied it with a birdie 4 on the 31st hole, but Strafaci countered with what would have been the shot of the tournament if not for his 4-iron at the last. Strafaci said he didn’t catch all of his tee shot at the par-4 14th—playing at 315 yards in the afternoon—but he still drove the green, his ball catching a slope and cozying up to six feet from the cup. And after Osborne made a tremendous up-and-down for birdie, Strafaci drained the eagle putt to retake the lead.

“To be able to clutch up on top of him was pretty cool,” Strafaci said.

Steven Gibbons
Tyler Strafaci plays his shot out of the fairway bunker at the 16th hole of the morning portion of the U.S. Amateur final.

The lead went to 2 up at the par-3 15th when Osborne overcooked his 7-iron to a tough lie down a slope and conceded after needing three shots to reach the putting surface. But then Strafaci made two big mistakes that led to the match becoming tied again—driving into a fairway bunker on the par-4 16th when he could have chosen to lay up, and not having enough club to clear the canyon on his approach at the 17th.

So, Strafaci had to stare down the par-5 18th hole again. He was forced to play it in his previous three matches—proof of his grinding wins.

“Coach [Heppler] today after my first 18, he came up to me and pretty much told me, ‘You know how to play 18. If it comes down to it, you’ve won it [three] times in a row; do it again. I did it,” Strafaci said.

Frank Strafaci marveled at the 4-iron shot from his son pulled off from more than 225 yards and recalled what he and his wife, Jill, saw in Tyler when he was a kid.

“He’d hit a shot like that and we’d go, ‘There’s something about him, something special,” the father said. “He just did things … we’d look at each other and say, ‘That’s not us; that’s all him.”

It’s all Tyler Strafaci now, and he’s got a USGA trophy to call his very own.

The post Tyler Strafaci comes up clutch on 36th hole, wins U.S. Amateur to add to his family lore appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Tod Leonard
BANDON, Ore. — Aman Gupta was having a moment. Or four. “Over there weed whacking,” he would later joke.

In his quarterfinal U.S. Amateur Championship match against Michael Thorbjornsen on Friday, Gupta hooked his drive into the knee-high fescue on the par-4 third hole at Bandon Dunes. Once he found the ball, he examined his lie long and hard, and then took a slash at it. The ball moved inches, maybe.

Another slash. Inches. Another slash. A couple of feet. Finally, Gupta could get just enough iron on the ball to advance it into the fairway. At which point, his caddie and head coach at Oklahoma State, Alan Bratton, said loudly above the howl of the wind, “C’mon, that deserves some applause! He took four to get out!” The handful of spectators watching chuckled and dutifully cheered.

“That’s just coach,” Gupta said. “That goes right along with my personality. Anybody who knows me knows that nothing gets to me. At the end of the day, I laugh things off. … I thought that was hilarious that he said that.”

RELATED: U.S. Amateur win would add to Strafaci family’s golf legacy

Gupta went on to lose the hole, but as for the match, the pair of Cowboys hung in there, overcame a 2-down deficit through 10 holes, took their first lead at No. 17, and the 22-year-old Gupta won, 1 up, over Thorbjornsen, 19, the 2018 U.S. Junior Am champ who arguably was the remaining favourite.

At No. 500 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings and the third-to-last alternate to get into the field, Gupta reached Saturday’s semifinals in only his second U.S. Amateur start. He’ll take on Georgia Tech fifth-year senior Tyler Strafaci, who earned a 1-up quarterfinal victory over Stewart Hagestad, the 29-year-old who was trying to become the first mid-amateur since 1993 to win the championship.

In the other semifinal, SMU rising sophomore Charles (Ollie) Osborne, 20, will take on Matthew Sharpstene, 21, an upcoming senior at Charlotte. Osborne defeated Arizona State junior Cameron Sisk, 2 and 1, and Sharpstene recorded the most lopsided win of the quarters, defeating former U.S. Junior Am champ Philip Barbaree, 4 and 2. Saturday’s winners will face off in the 36-hole final on Sunday.

Gupta has a two-time U.S. Amateur winner on his bag, albeit with both of Bratton’s titles coming as the caddie. “I have zero Havemeyer Trophies,” said a grinning Bratton, a former U.S. Walker Cup player and one-time tour pro. He looped for two previous U.S. Am winners from Oklahoma State—Peter Uihlein in 2010 and Viktor Hovland in 2018. Bratton started this week caddying for another Cowboys player, Austin Eckroat, but he didn’t make it to match play.

Gupta, who hails from Concord, N.C., seized the opportunity, asking his coach to take over his bag, and he said after Friday’s win that Bratton has been a “huge” factor in his play. He’ll also admit that he probably would not be in his current position if the coach weren’t as forthright as he was during that predicament on the third hole.

Steven Gibbons
Aman Gupta said he was motivated to get better after a frank discussion with coach Alan Bratton after ther fall portion of the college season.

At the end of the fall portion of the 2019-’20 season—before anyone fathomed that the rest of the year would be wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic—Bratton called Gupta into his office. He told him he was a “frustrating human being,” that, given his considerable skills, he was not working nearly hard enough to realize his full potential.

“He was still good enough that he got to play, but I don’t want him to be satisfied with that,” Bratton said. “That’s not why he came to Oklahoma State.”

Stunned at first by the critique, Gupta had to admit it was true—that he slept in late, didn’t practice enough and didn’t watch his diet.

“Coach told me, ‘You can do that stuff and you’re going to beat some people. You’re still good,’” Gupta recalled. “But my goal is not to be a decent player. I’m trying to be the best player in the world.”

Gupta responded by going full bore with practice leading up to June, and he got some promising results with top-15 finishes in the Palmetto Amateur and Southern Amateur.

“I’m very grateful,” Gupta said. “The kick in the pants is what I needed. That’s why I’m standing here right now. I owe a lot to the coaches. I’ve found myself the past two years.”

Gupta’s U.S. Amateur week got off to a roaring start when he shot a Bandon Trails course-record 64, and though he shot 73 on Bandon Dunes the next day, he still earned the No. 5 seed for match play. He’s the top remaining seed, and few would have predicted that at the tournament’s outset.

“He’s very talented,” Bratton said. “Every part of his game is good. I’m excited to see what the confidence does for him. Regardless of what happens the rest of this week, I know he has a better self-belief, and it’s amazing how that catapults you to sustain success. Hopefully, this is a preview of coming attractions.”

The post From 500th in world to U.S. Amateur semifinals was tough road for OSU player appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Tod Leonard
BANDON, Ore. — To be eliminated from a critical match in the U.S. Amateur Championship due to a rules violation is brutal. To be ousted for something you had no direct hand in falls in its own category of cruelty.

Such was the unenviable circumstance of Segundo Oliva Pinto on Thursday in the Round of 16 of the U.S Amateur at Bandon Dunes. Locked in a hard-fought tie in howling wind conditions with Georgia Tech senior Tyler Strafaci, Olivo Pinto was preparing to play a greenside bunker shot on the 18th hole while Strafaci eyed a chip from 30 yards short of the green.

Oliva Pinto was on the green, examining where to land his ball when a commotion occurred near the bunker. Frank Strafaci, Tyler’s father and caddie, had called to the rules official with the group when he saw Oliva Pinto’s caddie, Brant Brewer, a local Bandon Dunes looper, step into the sand and swipe at it with his hand.

A long discussion ensued, with Brewer denying he did anything wrong, though a high-angle television replay clearly showed that he touched the sand. The official ruled that the caddie violated Rule 12.2b by testing the condition of the sand. The loss of the hole for Oliva Pinto ended the match, with Strafaci winning 1 up.

It all came down to the 18th hole.

And then this happened.

The outcome? A 1 up win for Tyler Strafaci. #USAmateur pic.twitter.com/JFJcoSKfFQ

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) August 14, 2020

“That’s one of the worst rules violations I’ve ever seen,” Frank Strafaci said loudly as he walked from the 18th green.

Oliva Pinto, a 20-year-old from Argentina who is a rising junior transfer to Arkansas from UNC Wilmington, walked slowly to the clubhouse in stunned disbelief as onlookers offered their condolences.

“I didn’t see anything,” Oliva Pinto said, standing in front of the clubhouse. “I know as a player I’m responsible for my caddie, but I truly didn’t know anything about it until the referee came over. It’s just a bummer.

“[Strafaci] is a really good player and a good guy as well. I bet that’s not the way he wanted to win the match, and that’s definitely not the way I wanted to lose it.”

RELATED: By going deep at Bandon, mid-am beast Hagestad must make big personal sacrifice

Strafaci, 22, was emotional in a TV interview in the aftermath, and after he returned to the clubhouse, he said, “I just put myself in his shoes for a moment. I couldn’t imagine that happening. We both played great. For 18 holes it was a phenomenal match. We played really well in those conditions. For it to come down to that sucks. He’s a great kid, and I don’t think he had any intent at all about it. I don’t think he knew about it.”

Oliva Pinto said he hadn’t received a clear explanation from the caddie and added, “There’s nothing he can tell me that means anything right now. We’d been having a great week. He’s a great guy. If he did that, he didn’t know the rules. I don’t know what to say.”

The match had been a punch-counterpunch affair, with Strafaci twice taking 2-up leads, only to have Oliva Pinto battle back, eventually tying the match for the second time with a win at the par-4 16th.

Extremely composed considering what had happened to him, Oliva Pinto smiled a bit and said, “We’ve just got to move on and take good things from this amazing week at Bandon Dunes.”

Strafaci will play in the quarterfinals for the first time and on Friday faces 29-year-old Stewart Hagestad, the last remaining mid-amateur in the field. Strafaci won his Thursday morning match in the Round of 32, beating Peru’s Julian Perico 2 and 1.

The post U.S. Amateur contender bounced after rules snafu with his caddie appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
All going well, Rayhan Thomas will skip the opening day at golf’s ultimate finishing school. We’re not sure playing hooky on your first day as a freshman is the best way to impress the academic faculty at Oklahoma State University but suspect Cowboys men’s golf team head coach Alan Bratton won’t mind a jot.

August 19 is the beginning of the next step in Thomas’ thus far thoroughly impressive ascent to the sharp end of the professional game, the start of a four-year immersion in a celebrated collegiate program that has produced professionals the calibre of Rickie Fowler. August 19 is also the final day of the 119th U.S. Amateur Championship at Pinehurst Resort and Country Club. Reaching the 36-hole final in North Carolina is a long shot (Ed’s note: Thomas sadly opened with a 10-over-par 80) but be it fabled Pinehurst No.2 or famed OSU, Thomas can’t lose either way.

RELATED: Wu opens 119th U.S. Amateur with 65; Tough start for Thomas

A reconnaissance mission to Stillwater, Oklahoma earlier this year certainly has the MENA Tour trailblazer fizzing for his next chapter, one that already includes two professional titles and a runner-up finish in last year’s Asia Pacific Amateur Championship.

“The trip when I went over to OSU was just fantastic,” the 19-year-old Dubai-based Indian recalls. “I spent two days there. The coach picked me up and took me straight to the golf club, checked that out. A fantastic facility, met the whole [golf club] team, I mean they’ve got some set-up there – no wonder they’ve been the best team in college golf for such a long time.”

The club of which Thomas speaks in such glowing terms is Karsten Creek. If the name is familiar, that’s because the Tom Fazio design was named after the late Karsten Solheim, founder of Karsten Manufacturing, or as it is more commonly known PING.

The brainchild of former OSU golf coach and current OSU Athletic Director Mike Holder, Karsten Creek opened in 1994 and has been home to the OSU golf program for the past 20 years. With its slick greens and a layout rated among the toughest in the United States, it’s a perfect place for Thomas to hone his game. So too is the program Bratton oversees; when OSU won it’s 11th NCAA Division 1 men’s title in 2018, Bratton became the first Cowboy to win collegiate golf’s top title as a player, assistant coach and then coach.

Karsten Creek G.C. has helped the OSU Cowboys become the country’s dominant NCAA Division 1 team

OSU was ousted in the semifinals by the Texas Longhorns in the most recent NCAA Div 1 Championship held in Arkansas in May. Thomas has been drafted in to help get the Cowboys back to where they belong (only the University of Houston with 16 has more NCAA golf titles) but making the five-man roster won’t be a cinch, even for a player ranked 14th in the latest World Amateur Golf Ranking. Quality and Oklahoma State go hand in golf glove; aside from PGA Tour fan-favourite Fowler, OSU’s alumni include Charles Howell III, Bob and Kevin Tway, Peter Uihlein, Hunter Mayhan, Bo Van Pelt, Scott Verplank, Morgan Hoffmann, Alex Noren and 1998 Open Championship runner-up Brian Watts. More recently, Viktor Hovland won the 2018 U.S. Amateur and finished low amateur in this year’s U.S. Open while Matthew Wolff kicked on from winning the NCAA individual crown by clinching his first PGA Tour title at last month’s 3M Open. The win was historic with Wolff becoming just the third player after Ben Crenshaw and Tiger Woods to win the NCAA title and a PGA Tour title in the same year.

“The system in OSU is that you’ve got to qualify for the team. There are stable spots for the No.1 and No.2 players but initially I’m going to have to work my way onto that team, prove that I deserve that top 5 spots [first] and [then] prove I deserve one of those stable spots,” Thomas said. “There are so many good players it’s going to be a grind just to get onto the team.”

Luckily the MENA Tour has taught Thomas the art of the grind, not to mention a bit of artistry as well. A year after becoming the first amateur winner on tour at his home Dubai Creek Open in 2016, Thomas famously equalled the world record for successive birdies – all nine of them – en-route to a course record-tying 61 and a runner-up finish.

“The Mena Tour has been huge to getting me to this point,” he said. “It’s meant a lot to me and is the reason I am where I am today with the amount of ranking [AWGR points] and opportunities to play in some big European [Tour] tournaments. I can’t thank the MENA Tour enough for allowing me to be part of their journey and them being part of my journey.

“I can’t wait to see what the MENA has in store for us all in the next few years and I can’t wait to see what the golfing world has in store for me.”

Tournament Director Wayne Johnson was playing the mutual appreciation game as the MENA Tour prepared to bid Thomas a fond farewell.

“We are certainly very proud of Rayhan’s accomplishments and wish him the very best on his journey through the collegiate golf program and tournaments in the USA,” said Johnson.

“There is no substitute for hard work and I know Rayhan has worked extremely hard on his game with some expert tuition and guidance from the team at the Butch Harmon School of Golf [now Claude Harmon 3 Performance Golf Academy Dubai at The Els Club].

“I also believe the MENA Tour events Rayhan played in have helped form part of his successful growth and enhanced his performance by competing against more accomplished and experienced players on a regular basis.

“He has an immense passion for the game balanced with a wonderful temperament which will only stand to serve him well as he embarks on his new adventure to Oklahoma State University, one of the finest colleges in the USA with an unrivalled golf program which has helped nurture and develop some of the biggest  stars of the game.”

Here’s hoping Thomas becomes another of those famous Cowboy graduates – even if he does miss the first day of school.

The post Rayhan Thomas is about to take his golf education to the next level appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

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.

The post Viktor Hovland, Devon Bling prevail over stubbornly-stellar foes, will meet in U.S. Amateur final on Sunday appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Strege
The American dream is alive, its manifestations varied, and for Jeff Ghim, a South Korean immigrant, it has played out with the successes of his son.

Doug Ghim will play for the U.S. Amateur Championship at Riviera Country Club here on Sunday, and following his 2-and-1 victory over Theo Humphrey, he and his father embraced.

“We made the Masters,” Jeff said to him.

The two finalists receive Masters invitations. Doc Redman, a Clemson sophomore, earned the other one by defeating Mark Lawrence Jr., 1 up. Ghim and Redman will play in the 36-hole final beginning at 7:30 a.m. (PDT) Sunday.

The happiest man on the premises on Saturday likely was neither Ghim nor Redman, but Ghim’s father, his son’s caddie and the only golf instructor he’s ever had.

“The Bible says the child is the crown of the parents,” Jeff said. “This is my crown. This is kind of my American dream.”

Together, they take on Augusta National next April.

“I’m not really sure if I can quantify what it means to me to be out there with him tomorrow,” Ghim said. “We’ve shared so many good moments and so many really difficult ones. To mention in 2014, that night after, I think I was OK, but I don’t think the significance dawned on me, what I just did in blowing a 1-up lead on the 36th hole.”

Three years ago, Ghim made the final of the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship and wound up losing to Byron Meth. Only the winner was invited to play in the Masters.

“The difficult part was knowing that I could have walked out on the fairway of Augusta with my father, and that was kind of basically taken away from me,” he said. “That was difficult. Then when that putt on 17 dropped [Saturday] it was the first thing that popped in my head. We’re going to the Masters.”

Ghim had a 2-up lead on Humphrey going into the par-5 17th hole. He hit his third shot to the fringe, leaving him with a downhill, left-to-right putt that he ran 5½ feet past the hole. Humphrey had a shorter birdie putt on a similar line that he narrowly missed.

So it came down to Ghim’s par putt and the demons with which he acknowledged wrestling.

“I was just trying to feel my hands,” he said. “I’m sure it was visible I was trying to calm myself down. So many thoughts in your head are going at that moment. For me, I’ve got a little bit of demons because of the Pub Links from three years ago. I was just trying to make sure I stay calm. Don’t make the putt more than what it was.

“I’m a spot picker, so I picked a spot. I said, If it starts on this line it will go in.”

And now, Ghim, a University of Texas senior, has an opportunity to deliver an Amateur double for the Longhorns. Last Sunday, Sophia Schubert, a Texas senior, won the U.S. Women’s Amateur at San Diego Country Club. (And Riviera is a course where the Longhorn men also won their last NCAA title in 2012.)

Any final at this elite level promises to be a difficult one. Redman, 19, is less experienced than Ghim, but formidable nonetheless. He finished second in the prestigious Western Amateur earlier this month and also tied for sixth in the Northeast Amateur.

“He’s a sneaky match-play guy,” Ghim said.

Redman said he played “horrendous” in the 36-hole stroke play and snuck into match play in a playoff.

“I’m so excited to be able to compete for the championship tomorrow, especially after how I played in stroke play,” he said. “I didn’t think after I finished it I had any chance of moving on to match play.

“I think, as everyone knows in golf, you can’t play well every week and stuff like that happens. It was disappointing more than anything that I didn’t play better. But I knew if I could get in match play that it would be kind of the reset button and I would be OK.”

The post Doug Ghim is playing in the U.S. Amateur final and taking his dad to Augusta National appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Or not.

Stewart Hagestad, 26, is a prominent amateur golfer on the threshold of perhaps the most important few weeks of his summer, who left his golf clubs in his car parked in the driveway of his father’s home in the tony Big Canyon Country Club neighborhood in Newport Beach when he returned from the Western Amateur on Aug. 4.

The following morning he discovered his clubs had been stolen.

“I filed a police report, but there’s no cameras or anything,” he said. “What are you going to do?”

Hagestad’s concern has less to do with the fact that the clubs were stolen than the timing of the heist, two weeks before the U.S. Amateur Championship that begins at the Riviera Country Club on Monday. The Amateur for Hagestad represents the gateway to the Walker Cup that will be played next month at Los Angeles Country Club, where he is a junior member.

On the basis of his victory a year ago in the U.S. Mid-Amateur and his having become the first Mid-Amateur champion to make the cut in the Masters in April, he is among those under consideration to make the U.S. Walker Cup team.

But elite golfers — professional or amateur — tend to have intimate relationships with their clubs and the ability to detect minute differences even with similar sets. A week before an important event is no time to try to dial in a new set.

Hagestad spent last Monday at TaylorMade Golf’s facility in Carlsbad, Calif., working at getting a replacement set as close to identical to the one that he was hoping would turn up on eBay or Craigslist. He also went about getting a replacement for the two Scotty Cameron by Titleist Kombi Long putters that are likely worthless to any golfer shorter than the 6-foot-5 Hagestad.

“I’m pretty particular about my equipment,” Hagestad said. “You try to get an exact replica, and on paper they’re exactly the same, but until you get out on the course, you don’t know.”

His equipment issues have intruded on his preparation for a week and a month that set up perfectly for Hagestad. He played college golf for USC, and Riviera was one of the Trojans’ home courses. It also gave him the opportunity to acquaint himself with Bel-Air Country Club, which will host one of the two medal play rounds in the Amateur.

“I’ve probably played Riviera 40 times,” he said. “I’ve probably played Bel-Air 15 or 20 times. I’m pretty familiar with both.”

Hagestad, meanwhile, was one of 16 amateurs invited to a U.S. Walker Cup team practice session at Los Angeles CC last December. His challenge in the Amateur is to keep at bay thoughts of making the Walker Cup team.

“It would be a pretty cool opportunity to represent myself, my dad, who’s a member [of Los Angeles C.C.], too, to represent the club and everyone who has put so much work into the event,” Hagestad said. “We’re really trying to make an effort to host bigger events to show off the club. Also the club and the Southern California Golf Association, to represent them and to help the team in the process by virtue of my course knowledge.

“Of course, [the Walker Cup’s] going to be the elephant in the living room. You’re always thinking about it. But I’ll try to do the exact same thing I did for the Masters — try to get as analytically and process-oriented as can be. Theoretically I can make the Walker Cup and can end the discussion pretty quick if I have a nice long week.”

Hagestad, incidentally, experienced food poisoning before the Trans-Miss Amateur in July and pulled a muscle in his back at the Western Amateur. Throw in a thief in the driveway and an elephant in the living room and it adds to a mission more complicated than it should have been.

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