From the US Amateur: Day Two Recap

The Players who played at Pebble Beach on Day One of the amateur moved over to Spyglass Hill for Day Two, and I moved with them. The opening holes at Spyglass are some of the most scenic that you will find. They open up along a beautiful stretch of California Coastline, then the 6th turns away and heads into the forest. This is where the golf course grows its teeth! My holes were the downhill 525-yard par five 7th, and the uphill 402-yard par four 8th.

A “short” par five by today’s standards, the 7th played the easier of the two. Yet it was here that most of the rulings took place, mostly because of the pond that guards the left side of the green. You have to establish the “spot” where the ball last crossed the margin of the Lateral Water Hazard to determine where the player may take relief, so positioning yourself to see this is critical.

In addition to the pond, we also had some issues with the forest along the left side of the drive zone. Same for the 8th. When the tee shots go left, they’re often in deep! Two of the three relief options under Rule 28 – Ball Unplayable, doesn't always get the player out of jail, and on two occasions players were forced to return to the tee. We also had a few issues with some rather large “loose impediments”…as in decayed tree trunks! But they were able to be removed without causing the ball to move and without unduly delaying play. Still, it’s a funny sight watching a player and his caddie removing what was once a large tree in order to punch the ball out into the fairway. And we did have one player whose ball was stuck in a tree on the 8th. The player was able to identify the ball, then deemed it unplayable and dropped it behind the point where the ball lay keeping that point between himself and the hole.

Other rulings were minor…mostly obstructions. Relief without penalty is granted in those circumstances, yet the “nearest point of relief is not always the nicest," and a couple of players opted to play their ball off of a cart path rather than take relief in an area of rough terrain. Another could not quite believe that when taking relief from a sprinkler head in the rough, one club length from his nearest point of relief allowed the player to drop in the fairway…a nice benefit to know the rules! And I will say that the majority of these players appear to have a very good working knowledge of the Rules of Golf!

After 36 holes of stroke play, the field is cut to the low 64 and we move into match play. Scores were impressive with New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier and Mayacama Wyndham Cupper Cole Hammer tying for Medalist honors with -6. Players with scores +3 advance to match play, and 24 players tied for the last spot at +4. We have a playoff for the final spot, and the playoff begins at 7:30 am on Wednesday morning with 6 groups of four playing for the 64th seed. We will use holes 17 & 18 at Pebble Beach and repeat if necessary.

The leaderboard is a “who’s who” in amateur golf. Here are two links of interest

Course Statistics…how the courses played through 36 holes of Stroke Play!

US Amateur Leaderboard

World Amateur Golf Rankings

I’m excited to move into match play. As we do in the finals of the Mayacama Cup, the referee walks with the match to assist players with the rules and ensure that the match is played fairly and in accordance with the rules. As the referee assigned to a match, you must act on any violation that you observe. But for the most part, I’m in the background and there to assist the players if needed. As we say on the PGA Rules Committee … “we are not the show!” For the first round of match play, I’ve been assigned to the 1:00 match between Blake Windred of Australia (+1) and Taipei’s Chun An Yu, who also finished at +1. Television coverage is on FS1 from 2:00 – 5:00 pm PDT.

Click on the link below for some fast facts about the US Amateur Championship, and stay tuned for daily reports from Ted from Pebble Beach.

And click here for the Home Page for the US Amateur:

More player information:

Mayacama Golf Club
1240 Mayacama Club Drive
Santa Rosa, CA 95403
707.569.2906