US Am Sectional Qualifying, Santa Rosa GC

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Thirteen hours.  Thirty-eight holes.  Another loooong day…

I worked the US Amateur Championship sectional qualifier Moday at Santa Rosa Golf Club yesterday.  Last year, however, I could only stay for the first round.  This time, like the US Open qualifier at Lake Merced, I was there for the duration.

Rules wise, it wasn’t a terribly busy day.  There were a number of typical relief situations from cart paths, ground under repair, and embedded balls, including one double drop, but nothing unusual.  Hazards and out of bounds don't come in to play much at SRGC, except for on the outer borders of the course  There was one interesting situation where a player was a foot from OB and a yard from a lateral hazard, and chose to take an unplayable lie because he couldn’t take a stance without running afoul of the barbed wire fence demarking the OB.  The TO's later had an good discussion about what would have happened if the player had hit a provisional, and the ball was not found, but it wasn't certain whether it went into the hazard or out of bounds.

From a competitive standpoint, the finish was compelling.  Three players and two alternates were to be chosen.  One player was in at 137 and four at 140, meaning those four would play off for the remaining two spots and the alternate positions.  With darkness looming, the players gathered at the first tee.

Four nervous tee shots were hit—Player A snap hooks left, B, C, and D wide right.  B is in the fairway, barely.  A punched out to the right greenside bunker.  D hit  a beautiful shot over the trees to about fifteen feet right behind the flagstick.  C didn’t have a direct shot because of a bush, and punched to the green short and left.  B hit from the fairway to the green about thirty feet left.

Both A and C hit their third shots to about 20 feet short of the hole.  B left his first putt five feet short.  Advantage D, awaiting his putt for birdie.  But wait…  A missed, and tapped in for bogey.  But Player C, who another official said had made everything, drilled his twenty footer for par.  Pressure had changed jerseys.

 

Player D, who had been starting to look a little jumpy, knocked his birdie putt six feet by, and his par effort lipped all the way around and came out right back at him.  He looked at it in shock.  Bogey.  Player B calmly sank his par putt, so he and C were in the US Am.  A and D headed to the ninth hole to continue the playoff and decide who would be first alternate. 

They both drilled long tee shots, helped by some serious red-ass factor.  A’s approach, off a tricky side-hill lie, was right at the hole, but about 25 feet above the hole.  D hit  another wonderful approach shot, about eight feet below the hole.  It was pretty obvious by now what was going to happen.  A calmly dropped his slippery downhill birdie putt.  D’s putt didn’t have a chance, and he turned ashen.

Like I said, classic match play.  On both holes, Player D looked to have the clear advantage, and came out on the short end.  There is a golf maxim in match play—Always expect your opponent to hit a great shot, sink a great putt.  If Player D didn’t know that one before, he certainly does now!

US Junior Am Qualifying: A Long, Hot Day at Stanford GC

I had the pleasure of working at Stanford University Golf Course for the US Junior Amateur Championship Sectional Qualifier.  Once again, the NCGA was able to muster up enough officials to send one out with each group.

I had put in a request to work with one of the starters, to get that checked off my training list, before heading off with my assigned group.  I was lucky enough to work with Ted Antonopolous, the head pro at Mayacama, for an hour and a half.  Ted is a true professional, and has a very nice touch with the players.  Our goal is to set them off on time and informed.  As I said in my previous post, from Rancho Solano, starting is one of the most enjoyable parts of this job.

My group of three players included a rising high school junior, sophomore, and eighth grader.   The fun started almost immediately.

One of my players hit a big snap hook off the second tee.  We headed off, searched for the allotted five minutes in the weeds, and then the rover drove him back to the tee.  He was about half way there when his ball was found, about fifty yards from where we were searching.  I explained to his parents that it was too late, five minutes is the limit for a ball search, after which the ball is deemed lost.

Three holes later, behind the fifth green, a different rover told me the player’s mom came over to ask, and they had a detailed discussion about why the ball was lost even though it was found.

A very interesting and instructional, event happened on the thirteenth hole.  I was not at the tee when the players teed off, but about 75 yards up the fairway.  The same player who suffered the lost ball, started walking down the right side, so I headed that way.  (I could see the other two players’ balls in the fairway.)  When we got down around where the ball should have been, a spectator told us she had heard a ball land behind her but didn’t see it.  Since she was standing on a cart path, and the other side of the path was out of bounds, the player headed back to the tee.  Here’s where the fun began.

I called the back-nine rover to come transport him.  He started walking back, and before the rover got there, he called me over, saying he’d found his ball, about 75 yards from where we he thought it had crossed OB.  I asked him if he was sure, and he showed me the ball, a Titleist 2 with a red line.  Since it was quite a way from where we expected it to be, I told him he could mark and lift and positively identify it.  He declined and said he was sure it was his.

In the mean time, the rover arrived, and jokingly chided me for not having him hit a provisional in the first place.   The player punched out short of the green, and the rover went up to the 14^th tee to investigate the delay there.  (Stanford GC’s par three holes ALWAYS cause backups.)  The player got to his ball and called for me again, explaining that it was not in fact his—now he could see a “S” logo on it, and it definitely was not his. 

I called the rover back, and we discussed the situation with the player.  He drove the player back to the tee to re-tee.  He drove into the rough, hit the green from there, and sank a twenty-foot putt.   But… For what score?

The rover and I spent a few minutes discussing the sequence of events.  We thought we had the right answer, and he said he’d get confirmation, and he came back a few minutes later with the verdict from another official, one who has scored 100 on the USGA rules test.  Here’s the tally:

One:  Stroke from the tee

Two:  Stroke from the rough, which turned out to be the wrong ball, so the stroke does not count, but...

Two and Three:  Penalty strokes for playing a wrong ball.  Player must now play the original ball, which was out of bounds, so…

Four:  Distance penalty for OB

Five:  Stroke from tee

Six:  Stroke to green

Seven:  Holed Putt

The other two players were really curious.  I explained the sequence to them, and told them that a good rule to go by is if an official suggests that you identify your ball, it’s probably a good idea to do so.  The player, the rover and I discussed it further after he had teed off on the 15^th, and he was satisfied with the ruling and thankful for the lesson learned.