The memory of his grandfather was never far from Tyler Strafaci’s mind as he relentlessly pursued his dream of a U.S. Amateur championship at the visual treat that is David McLay Kidd’s design, the Bandon Dunes course at the Bandon Dunes Resort along the Pacific Ocean on Oregon’s southwestern coast.
Frank Strafaci Sr. had won the 1935 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, finished ninth in the 1937 U.S. Open and had played in 16 U.S. Amateurs, reaching the quarterfinals in 1947 and 1949.
Tyler Strafaci, with his dad, Frank Strafaci Jr., on the bag, joined his grandfather as a USGA champion Sunday, capping a wildly entertaining 36-hole final with SMU junior Ollie Osborne by reaching the par-5 18th green in two and getting a two-putt birdie that gave him a 1-up victory. It was the fourth straight Strafaci match that ended on the final hole.
The 22-year-old Strafaci of Davie, Fla. will be a fifth-year senior at Georgia Tech. I’m under the impression that that wasn’t originally the plan. What was supposed to be Strafaci’s senior season in Atlanta came to a sudden halt this spring because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Like many college seniors, Strafaci faced a tough decision: Get his professional career started or accept the extra year of eligibility the NCAA was offering and remain an amateur. Strafaci remained an amateur and has had a summer he won’t soon forget.
On the Fourth of July, Strafaci joined his grandfather as a winner of the North & South Amateur Championship at the Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst Village, N.C.
Strafaci’s victory Sunday enabled him to join George Dunlap (1933), that Jack Nicklaus fella (1959) and Hal Sutton (1980) on the list of players who have won the North & South and the U.S. Amateur in the same year.
Strafaci became the fourth Georgia Tech golfer and second Yellow Jacket in a row to win the U.S. Amateur. The other three are Bobby Jones, who won it five times, Matt Kuchar (1997) and teammate Andy Ogletree (2019). If you’re a golfer, you want to get yourself on lists that Jack Nicklaus and Bobby Jones are on.
The victory Sunday also makes Strafaci an automatic selection for captain Nathaniel Crosby’s United States Walker Cup team, giving him an honor that somehow eluded his grandfather, despite Frank Strafaci Sr.’s glittering amateur record.
The Walker Cup, which will be held at the iconic Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla., Crosby’s home course, will be played in the spring for the first time in a while. It will be wedged in between a busy college golf postseason May 8 and 9.
“That’s why I always wanted to be the first Strafaci to make a Walker Cup,” Tyler Strafaci told the USGA website following his win Sunday. “It’s been a rough couple of years because I’ve been pretty close to it and now that I’m on that team, I feel I’ve made (my grandfather) proud and I feel like it’s just unbelievable.
“I mean, it’s something I’ve dreamt about and something that my father has told me about, stories about my grandfather. So, it’s awesome.”
If you’re a frequent follower of this blog, you’re aware that I am a big fan of both the Walker Cup and the Curtis Cup, the biennial matches between sides from the U.S. and Great Britain & Ireland. The matches are usually on an on-off schedule, but with this year’s Curtis Cup postponed until next spring, it will be a rare Walker Cup-Curtis Cup bonanza in 2021.
Of course, all of this assumes we can get some kind of handle on the coronavirus. Nobody is rooting harder for the world’s scientists, bio-tech types and Big Pharma more than this golf blogger is.
In many ways, the 36-hole final was a microcosm of Strafaci’s week as he found himself 5-down after the 12th hole in the morning, but kept battling. And it wasn’t one of those matches in which somebody lost it. Strafaci and Osborne, a 20-year-old from Reno, Nev., played wonderful golf, combining for 25 birdies and an eagle.
Right after Osborne ripped off wins at the 10th, 11th and 12th holes in the morning to build his 5-up advantage, Strafaci answered by winning 13, 14 and 15 to cut his deficit to 2-down. Strafaci was 1-down after he won the 17th hole and that’s the way it stood after they halved the 18th hole with birdies, only the fifth hole that was halved in the morning 18.
When Strafaci drained a 30-foot birdie bomb on the 20th hole, he was all the way back as he tied the match. A 34-footer by Strafaci from off the green for par at the next hole got him a half and kept the match tied.
Strafaci and Osborne settled in for a while with a lot more holes halved than in the morning. Strafaci grabbed a 1-up lead with a win at the 25th hole and they halved the 30th hole with birdies before Osborne won the next hole to even the match with five holes to go.
It was about then that the marine level overtook what had been a bright, sunny day and turned it foggy.
Strafaci ripped a driver off the tee at the 314-yard, par-4 14th hole, the 32nd of the match, and his ball emerged from the fog and settled six feet from the hole. Osborne holed a 20-foot birdie putt, but Strafaci dropped his six-footer for eagle.
Strafaci won the next hole and suddenly he was 2-up with just three holes to go. But like Strafaci, Osborne’s grit was on display all week and he won the next two holes – with a couple of loose swings by Strafaci contributing to the wins -- to send the match to the 18th tee tied after 35 holes.
Strafaci had one more great shot left in his bag as he drilled a 4-iron from 245 yards away to reach the par-5 finishing hole in two. It was a shot that added a Havemeyer Trophy and a U.S. Walker Cup team berth to the Strafaci family’s rich golf legacy.
In the midst of a worldwide pandemic, a U.S. Amateur somehow delivered an absolute gem of a championship at Bandon Dunes.
Next year, the U.S. Amateur will return to Pennsylvania to one of the USGA’s favorite sites, the Henry Fownes classic at Oakmont Country Club in suburban Pennsylvania. Oakmont was its typically challenging self during the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s 104th Open Championship last week with the winner, Pittsburgh area mid-amateur Jimmy Ellis, finishing at even-par.
Maybe even by this time next year the ’Burghers will be allowed to come out to the golf course and watch.
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