Having already negotiated the hard part – surviving an 81-player shootout almost two weeks ago to advance to Monday’s sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open – the five men have had to do something far more challenging. They must try to temper their emotions knowing they are just a day away from a berth in golf’s national championship.
“I pretty much think about it on a daily basis,” said Zen Brown, an 18-year-old from Arvada. “I know it would be awesome to play in the U.S. Open, but I try to tell myself that it’s just another round of golf.”
Actually, it’s two rounds – 25 players competing over 36 holes Monday at Columbine Country Club for one spot in the 106th U.S. Open, to be played June 15-18 at historic Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y. Daunting odds to be sure, but an opportunity most players relish given the potential reward.
“It’s the best $150 you’ll spend all year,” said Jason Schram, an engineer from the Phoenix area who played in the qualifying tournament in Lone Tree. “It’s $150 for the chance that, three good rounds later, you could be teeing it up with Tiger Woods. How cool would that be?”
Anyone with a USGA handicap of 1.4 or better is eligible to attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open. This year, 8,584 golfers did so, ranging in age from 13 to 75, including 16-year-old wunderkind Michelle Wie, who will be playing in a sectional Monday in Summit, N.J., for one of 18 available spots.
Although a professional, defending champion Michael Campbell had to go through local and sectional qualifying a year ago like everyone else after a number of lean years. He qualified in England by making a birdie on the last hole.
“There’s always some great story, some guy who made it through both stages of qualifying and is living in his car or something like that,” PGA Tour veteran Jay Haas said.
Colorado has produced its share of compelling tales lately. Derek Tolan, now at the University of Colorado, qualified when he was 16 in 2002. A year later, another precocious 16-year-old, Tom Glissmeyer, turned the trick.
Haas played in his first Open at age 20 at Winged Foot in 1974. These days, Haas is a star on the 50-and-over Champions Tour, winner of the past three events in which he has played, so he has earned an advanced degree in golf. Even so, he’s required to tee it up Monday in Columbus, Ohio, with 143 other players in an attempt to qualify.
“The great thing is that it is open, that Michelle or anyone can try to qualify,” Haas said. “I’m sure Monday afternoon or evening when I’m finished, I’ll be saying, ‘What was I thinking about? Why did I put myself through this again?’ But just the thought of being able to play in the national championship is enough for me, I guess.”
Dawn patrol
The first tee time at the May 22 local qualifier at Lone Tree Golf Club wasn’t until 8 a.m., but 90 minutes beforehand there were cars in the parking lot.
“My dad thought there might be accidents on the highway,” Brown said by way of explaining his early arrival.
Schram is parked just a long putt from the Browns. Sitting in a friend’s borrowed truck, he leans back in the seat, almost afraid, it seems, to turn off the engine to face what’s ahead. Asked why he chose to come and play here, he mutters a platitude about the beauty of the mountains, but soon whispers his true motivation.
“I didn’t think there would be as many good players here as in Arizona,” he said. “There you’d probably have to shoot a 65. Here a 68 is a really good round.”
Just a few days earlier, John Olive was playing in the semifinals of the Colorado Golf Association’s Senior Match Play Championship. A gangly 60-year-old, Olive has won virtually every event in the state numerous times but admits he “pooped out” in the waning stages of his most recent tournament.
And now, with dawn breaking, Olive said he realizes he may be approaching the twilight of his competitive career.
“I think this may be the last time I try. At some point you have to get back to reality. If not, golf has a way of reminding you, ‘Let’s not be silly,”‘ Olive said of attempt to reach the Open. “My game is good enough to shoot a good score and advance, but then what? Playing 36 holes in the sectional? Walking?
“The good news is that you qualify. The bad news is that you qualify. You do it and you want to say, ‘Never mind, I just wanted to see if I could.’ But maybe that’s the difference between what you want to do and what you really need to be doing.”
As Olive chats, CGA officials, the supervisors for the qualifier, scramble to get ready. As they work, they’re peppered with questions from the competitors. Yes, they can wear shorts and take pull carts. No, they can’t ride in carts. And range finders, used to give the exact distance a player stands from the flag, are banned on this day.
When the range eventually opens, the area is soon awash in a rainbow of colored polo shirts with more upturned collars than fall rush at Harvard. But it’s not only the preppies who impress. It seems everybody’s got game. Men who look as if they would have trouble making a coed softball team send drives rocketing skyward.
Parents of teens competing greet each other with the familiarity gained from crossing paths at numerous junior events. But even as they ask about what trips they have taken, and what tournaments their sons have played in lately, there’s clearly an element of sizing up one’s chances.
“There’s so much pressure, even at his age,” said Chellie Barron, the mother of 15-year-old Brandon, who attends Chaparral High School and was the medalist at a local qualifier a year ago. “He thinks that because he did it last year, he has to prove to everyone that he can do it again.”
Just in case, as Brandon goes off to his opening tee, Mom pulls out a digital camera and snaps a photo of her son’s name on the leaderboard.
Traveling man
A little more than two hours later, as the first wave of players makes the turn from their opening nine holes, there’s a single question on most of their lips: “Heard any scores?”
Another player, Jim Blair, doesn’t have a query, but offers an assessment of his play.
“I’m pathetic,” he said.
Of all the would-be Cinderellas, Blair can at least boast of the most majestic carriage, a massive motor home that would seem to equal those of Davis Love III or John Daly, who ride their custom-made rigs around the country when playing on the PGA Tour. Blair, the owner/operator of a golf course in Ogden, Utah, would disagree with that comparison.
“Mine is the junior version of theirs,” he said.
The Lone Tree qualifier is just the latest stop for the 52-year-old Blair. As soon as it’s over, he’ll continue to Edmond, Okla., to play in the Senior PGA Championship. After that, there will be at least one trip east to see his beloved New York Yankees, more golf (trying to qualify for the U.S. Senior Open), and a wholehearted attempt to have a whole lot of fun along the way.
“This was better than driving 1,200 miles straight to Oklahoma. It’s just another nice day I’m away from work,” Blair said. “I like Colorado. I’ve won the state Open a couple of times. In ’87 I got into The International. I’ve played in the Senior Open and PGA. I’ve made the Senior Open before.
“I try to qualify for the Opens every year. It’s just another two rounds I get to play.”
Blair finishes with a 2-under-par 70. Thinking that won’t be good enough to advance to the sectional, he adjourns to his motor home and prepares to hit the road. Even so, his score is better than Schram (75) , Olive (76), Tolan (71) and Barron (72).
Of his round, Barron said, “I just made some stupid mistakes. I must have hit 14 or 15 greens in regulation, but I just couldn’t make a putt. This is the worst feeling in the world.”
Glissmeyer might beg to differ. The University of Southern California student was at 4-under before teeing off on the 17th hole, then bogeyed the final two holes.
“I left a lot out there, a lot out there,” he muttered, practically grinding his teeth into chalk. “When I came here today I absolutely expected to qualify. Instead I turned a 65 into a 70. Now all I can do is hope that the winds kick up to about 120 miles an hour.”
The Gang of Seven
At the start of the day, CGA officials speculated that one golfer might shoot a 65. However, as the wind began to howl, the scores soared. As the final players finish up, they’re clearly dismayed with Mother Nature.
Barry Milstead, a pro at Aurora’s Valley Country Club, goes 5-over on his last four holes to drop out of contention with a 72. As he walks into the grill near the scorer’s table, he snaps to CGA executive director Ed Mate, “Nice pin placement on No. 9” – a tough location made even more precarious by the wind.
When he emerges from the grill, Milstead has a beer in each hand.
“You just want to kick yourself,” he said. “It’s frustrating because you know that playing in the Open is a dream that everyone has from the time you start to play golf.
“Oh, well, all you can do is keep swinging away and hope that you make it one day.”
Five players from Lone Tree will advance to the sectional – two heading to Columbine on Monday and three going to Columbus – and the dream continues for Brown, who finishes with a 68, the day’s low round, as well as for Travis Williams, Jim Grady and Edward McGlasson, a CU golfer who will turn professional afterward. Williams, Grady and McGlasson each shoot 69, which means the seven players who shot 70 – a group that includes Glissmeyer and Blair – will have a playoff for the fifth and final spot.
The question is quickly raised as to whether the players should go off in groups of four and three or together. It is decided each player should know what’s going on with his fellow competitors. It will be one group of seven playing from the same tee.
The group scrambles back to the driving range for a quick warm-up – everyone except Blair, who’s nowhere to be found. Three minutes before the playoff is set to begin, he emerges from his palace on wheels and ambles toward the first tee.
Any player who doesn’t at least match the best score on a playoff hole will be eliminated. The seven will play as many holes as it takes for one to win a hole outright.
Glissmeyer tries to end things early, attempting to drive the 410-yard hole. But his drive goes awry. After a lengthy search, his ball turns up in the street. He, along with Michael Spaulding, who also drove out of bounds, have to return to the tee box, where they will be hitting their third shots. While both players have credible efforts, Glissmeyer hits his drive alongside the green but into thick rough. Neither can make a 4 and they are eliminated.
Another player is eliminated on the next hole, leaving four to play the 172-yard, par-3 third hole. Each reaches the green in regulation; only Blair makes birdie, sinking a putt from 35 feet.
“I’ve always been lucky,” Blair said, accepting congrats from other players and officials and mentally rearranges his schedule to make sure he can motor to Columbus for the qualifier. “I’m excited about this. It’s four more days I get to be away from work.”
Staff writer Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-820-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
