Red is the color of amateur golf

    Writing from Chicago
    Tuesday, July 29, 2014

    It is amateur golf in name only, the game the field at the Western Amateur displayed on Tuesday at Beverly Country Club.
    How about 33 players under the testing par of 71 and another 23 at par in the first round of stroke play qualifying?
    How about a pair of 6-under-par 65s, a post-course renovation record posted by Australian Geoff Drakeford in the morning, and matched by China’s Zecheng Dou in the afternoon? How about a 66 by Adam Schenk of Vincennes, Ind., and a trio of 67s, one by China’s 15-year-old Tianlang Guan?
    That was just the start of it. Defending champion Jordan Niebrugge of Wisconsin scooted around in 69, the same as Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim, the recent runner-up in the U.S. Public Links Championship.
    Throw a field of proven pros on the course, and it’s not likely their average would have been much lower than what the amateurs posted in the opening round. These guys are also good.
    This international field has only just begun their barrage on Beverly. There’s another 18 holes on Wednesday, followed by a cut to the low 44 and ties, the survivors going 36 holes on Thursday. Then, after the equivalent of a PGA Tour tournament, the Sweet Sixteen advance to match play, which culminates in Saturday afternoon’s championship match.
    How low can they go? That, more than who will make the match play portion, is the question of the moment. Oh, and how many members will faint if a 64 or something lower goes on the board? (There have been 64s scored at Beverly before, but from shorter distances, both before the 2003 renovation and stretch to 7,016 yards by Ron Prichard, including as recently as a fortnight ago.)
    “It’s a terrific golf course, pretty challenging, especially on the greens,” Guan said after his 67. “You have to hit it on the fairway, on the green to score here.”
    Guan did that most of the time, though a sparkling save from a greenside bunker on the par-3 third also contributed to the cause. A 25-foot downhill slider for birdie on the par-4 ffith was even more impressive.
    And his drive on No. 8, a 424-yard par 4? Incomprehensible. It was a 330-yard bomb just to the left of the centerline bunker some 95 yards from the center of the green. Not only was he beyond everyone else’s drive, he was beyond everyone else’s divot. Was that the plan?
    “No,” Guan said. “But the wind was kind of crossing, and fairways were a bit firmer today.”
    Ghim, in Guan’s group, was impressed.
    “At any age, he’s a good player, and especially at that age,” said Ghim, himself merely 18. “It was an honor to play with him. Great to play with someone from the other side of the world.”
    Ghim was the rare player in the field who has tackled Beverly before. He played in the 2011 Western Junior, finishing 11th. Thus, good memories upon his return, and in one of his tournaments with an all-adult field. He was eligible to play in one more PGA Junior, but, with his enrollment at Texas imminent, thought it best to get into the big-time swing this summer.
    “For the first round, not bad,” Ghim said. “There are a couple of things I have to work on.”
    One of them isn’t putting. With a 10th tee start, he ran down three straight birdies from the 18th through the second holes and had four in all.
    Drakeford, who calls Traraigon South, Australia, home, birdied seven of his first 14 holes and was in sight of a 64, the mark established by Tom Weiskopf in the 1967 Chick Evans Pro-Am in advance of the Western Open. It has since been matched three times, but the Beverly that Weiskopf traversed, albeit with persimmon woods and a wound ball, was, at 6,867 yards, 149 yards shorter than the Beverly of today.
    “I missed three eight-footers on the front nine or it could’ve been scary,” Drakeford said of his round.
    He came in on a high, winner of last week’s Porter Cup in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Beau Hossler of Mission Viejo, Calif., who came in second in the Porter, scored 67 for a share of fourth place, including a sizzling 30 on his back nine.
    Drakeford was finished when Dou teed off. The Beijing resident who spent some of his formative years in Canada was 6-under after 12 holes and parred in, finishing on the front nine.
    “It was really windy two days ago, and I thought the course was going to play tough,” Dou said, recalling a practice round. “The wind was a lot softer, not moving as much.”
    
    – Tim Cronin