The outcome of the PGA Championship this past weekend was pretty clear after three and a half rounds of action, but it was interesting to see who would finish second. Tiger Woods won his 12th major in convincing fashion and is well on his way to 25 for his career. Rees Jones redesigned Medinah after the 1999 PGA Championship, and he needs to do it again. I felt like I was watching the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.
Other than Tiger, the player that caught my attention the most at the PGA Championship was Ryan Moore. Moore has been plagued this year by a horrific wrist injury, but it’s obvious the guy is loaded with talent. The youngster carded a top-ten finish in a major for the first time of his career, but it certainly won’t be the last. Moore is a past U.S. Amateur champion, and the world will be seeing a lot of him in the future.
Speaking of the U.S. Amateur, the 2006 event started yesterday with stroke play. After two days of stroke play, the field will be narrowed to 64 players. That’s when the match play begins, and that’s when the run for the title gets interesting. The field is loaded with great talent this year, and Hazeltine National Golf Club is the host golf course. That should make things very exciting.
The U.S. Amateur Championship is always a fun event to watch, but it gets overlooked these days by a host of other golf events. That’s really a shame because the event is the oldest golf championship in the United States. Yes, it’s even a day older than the U.S. Open. If you have lost interest in the U.S. Amateur Championship, I suggest you give it another chance.
Past Winners
The world’s best golfer, Tiger Woods, used the U.S. Amateur Championship as a springboard to what has become a great professional career. It helped that Tiger won the event three times in a row, but it was an important event to him nonetheless. Tiger’s third consecutive U.S. Amateur victory is one of the main things that got me hooked on this great sport of golf.
Phil Mickelson, the world’s second-ranked golfer, also has a U.S. Amateur win to his name. Lefty won this championship in 1990, and it elevated him to new heights as a golfer. A few years after Mickelson’s win at the U.S. Amateur, Justin Leonard hoisted the Havemeyer Cup as the world’s best amateur golfer.
Tiger may be the best golfer right now, but he still isn’t the best of all time. That distinction belongs to Jack Nicklaus, and the Golden Bear also won the U.S. Amateur Championship (twice) before moving onto great things as a professional. It’s no secret that a lot of great golfers have won this championship in the past. Other notables include Arnold Palmer and Bobby Jones.
Recent Struggles
Since Tiger’s three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles, the list of winners hasn’t been nearly as impressive. That list includes Matt Kuchar, Hank Kuehne, David Gossett, Jeff Quinney, Bubba Dickerson, Ricky Barnes, Nick Flanagan, Ryan Moore, and Edoardo Molinari. Other than Ryan Moore, who I think will be a great professional, none of these other players have impressed golf fans since turning professional.
Matt Kuchar and David Gossett have a PGA Tour victory on their record, but they haven’t contended in many other events over the past few years. The verdict is still out on Edoardo Molinari because he hasn’t played any tournaments as a professional yet. I’m hoping he has a great career, but we all have to wait and see.
The recent struggles of U.S. Amateur champions probably hasn’t helped the viewership of the event, but golf fans need to move on and continue watching. When Ben Curtis won the 2003 British Open, I wasn’t real thrilled. However, I didn’t boycott the event because I knew a big-time golfer would win it again in the future.
The same goes for the U.S. Amateur Championship. We have witnessed some possible one-hit wonders in the event in recent years, but you never know who will be the next winner. There is always a chance we could witness the birth of the next Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson. Also, the U.S. Amateur is always exciting anyway, regardless of the winner’s future in the sport. The match-play atmosphere always makes things interesting.
This Year’s Field
I’m a big fan of college golf, and there are a number of great college players in the field this week. I have to start at the top with one of my favorites, Pablo Martin. Martin will be a junior at Oklahoma State, and he was the college golfer of the year this past season. Also, the young Spaniard was runner-up to Bronson LaCassie at the Western Amateur a few weeks ago.
Speaking of Oklahoma State, there are four others in the field this week with recent ties to the school. Jonathan Moore won the individual title at the 2006 NCAA Championships, and he also won the Phil Mickelson award for national freshman of the year. Along with Martin and Moore, the other golfers with recent Oklahoma State ties include assistant golf coach Alan Bratton, senior-to-be Ryan Posey, and recently graduated Zack Robinson. I’ll definitely be an anxious spectator this week.
Other 2006 Division I All-Americans in the field for this event include Georgia’s Chris Kirk, East Tennesse State’s Rhys Davies, Duke’s Ryan Blaum (got off to a shaky start on Monday), Oklahoma’s Anthony Kim, Florida’s Billy Horschel, and Coastal Carolina’s Dustin Johnson. These are just some of the notables from the college ranks.
Luke List, the 2004 U.S. Amateur Championship runner-up, is in the field this week as well. List lost to Ryan Moore at Winged Foot in 2004. He will definitely be a favorite, since he has been in this situation before. Luke List was an honorable mention All-American last season at Vanderbilt. Clay Ogden, most notably known for ousting Michelle Wie in the 2005 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, will also tee it up this week with hopes of winning golf’s most prestigous Amateur title.
This is just a short list of golfers to keep an eye on this week, but you can bet there will be a list of others who take their respective games to another level. As for my prediction, I’m going with Pablo Martin. He has been dominant during his first two years at Oklahoma State, and that dominance will continue. The young Spaniard might even turn into a better golfer than fellow countryman, Sergio Garcia.
The Final Say
The major championships on the PGA Tour are the best events in golf when it comes right down to it. It’s also fun to watch The Players Championship, Ryder Cup, and Presidents Cup. That being said, the U.S. Amateur Championship is next on my list of most anticipated golf championships.
I suggest all golf fans take a moment or two and watch some of this year’s U.S. Amateur Championship. The field is stacked with great young talent (including a handful of Oklahoma State Cowboys). Also, Hazeltine is a wonderful venue and has been the host of some memorable major championships in recent years. We don’t get to watch a lot of match play throughout the year, so that makes this event even more unique. And besides, you may end up watching history in the making!
That’s all I have to say this week which means it’s your turn to speak your mind. Are you a fan of the U.S. Amateur Championship? Also, has the event lost all its luster since Tiger won three in a row in the mid 1990s? Finally, if you do plan on watching this week, who do you think will win it all? If you have anything to add, feel free to comment below or discuss it in the forum. Thanks for reading this week, and have a great week of golf!
Photo Credits: © John Mummert, USGA, © Layne Murdoch.
Great article Cody!
I do not know hardly any of the players playing this week but will watch everyday it is televised (and probably a day or two live) as it’s being held about an hour from my house. Love the matchplay atmosphere and 36 holes on Sunday is a great test to determine a champion.
You forgot to mention that Ryan Moore can’t even take a backswing the conventional way. He has to hinge the club straight up, and then go into his backswing posistion right now due to a wrist injury.
Konrad, he probably didn’t mention it because it doesn’t have much to do with the article. 🙂
Great article. Do you think the U.S. Amateur should be considered a major? Both Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods do. Of course, both of them have won the event. That would (before this weekend) put Jack at 20 and Tiger at 17.