In many ways, it is at a U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship that
you find the heart of the game.
When the U.S. Mid-Amateur came to Stonewall in 2016, I was
fascinated by all the guys who were reinstated amateurs and former college
standouts, some of whom had stopped playing competitively at some point, but missed the game.
My bag at Stonewall, Michael Mitani of Irvine, Calif., was a
junior contemporary of that Tiger Woods fella in Southern California. He didn’t
make match play, but he could really play. They all could.
It was designed for the career amateur, guys who are at
least 25 and out of college. These guys have jobs. They find time to keep their
games at a high level, but it isn’t necessarily easy. And this, the U.S.
Mid-Amateur, this is their championship.
The three co-medalists in a U.S. Mid-Amateur qualifier
administered by the Golf Association of Philadelphia at Carlisle Country Club
Friday all fit that profile to some extent.
Take Daniel Hurley of Washington, D.C. He is 33, the brother
of PGA Tour veteran Billy Hurley. He got married, started a family, changed his
career course and is now in management consulting. He was good enough to reach
the 2011 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship, but he lost the urge a little. Then he
got it back.
Hurley fired a 2-under-par 69 over the 6,400-yard, par-71
Carlisle layout to share medalist honors with Chuck Nettles of McMurray and
Daniel Walker of University Park, Md. After a seven-year absence, Hurley is
headed for the U.S. Mid-Amateur, which tees off Sept. 22 at Charlotte Country
Club in Charlotte, N.C.
“I got married in 2013,” Hurley told the GAP website. “I
watched my brother grinding on the PGA Tour. I was actually happy to take a
break. I went to business school, changed careers. I had a lot going on. I just
had the itch to play again.
“I didn’t think I had the game anymore and it’s fun to be
back. I missed competing.”
Hurley toured the back nine in 2-under 34, dropping a 15-footer
for birdie at the last. That not only earned him a share of medalist honors, it
helped him avoid a playoff that awaited the guys who finished at 1-under 70.
The 29-year Nettles, who plays out of Oakmont Country Club
and St. Clair Country Club, lost out in one of those playoffs a year ago and
failed to reach the U.S. Mid-Am at the Capital City Club in Atlanta.
Nettles, who works for Babb, an independent insurance
agency, had four birdies to offset two bogeys in joining the group at 2-under
69. Like Hurley, Nettles dropped a tough 12-footer for birdie at the last to
get it to 2-under.
The 35-year-old Walker has a position in corporate finance.
His heroics came early in his round as he found the hole with a wedge shot from
98 yards away for an eagle on the 364-yard, par-4 fourth hole at Carlisle.
An eagle also decided the playoff among four players who
came in at 1-under 70 for the fourth and final ticket to Charlotte.
Justin Young of Salem, Va. dropped an eagle putt from the
right fringe on the third playoff hole, the 501-yard, par-5 ninth at Carlisle,
to punch his ticket to the U.S. Mid-Amateur.
Greg Burkavage of Baltimore is the first alternate and Jimmy
Ellis of Venetia is the second alternate after matching Young’s 1-under 70. The
fourth player at 1-under 70 was Lancaster’s Jarred Texter, a scholastic
standout at Penn Manor 15 or so years ago who is a reinstated amateur after
giving it a shot as professional golfer.
Six players matched par at 71, including Brett Diakon of
Perkasie, Reading’s Joshua Krumholz, a product of Governor Mifflin and Rider,
Jeffrey Long of Ashburn, Va. and three Marylanders, Bart Mease of Gaithersburg,
Keith Unikel of Bethesda and Brett Williams of Lutherville.
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