Golf World - June 25, 2012

Cantlay turned pro one day after finishing T- 41 in the U. S. Open at Olympic Club.

pga tour

Cantlay turns pro after making u.s. open cut �� Having made the cut seven out of eight starts in PGA Tour events, including three major championships, U.S. Amateur runner-up Patrick Cantlay has decided it is time to make the jump to the pro ranks. The 20-year- old from Los Alamitos, Calif., who just wrapped up his sophomore season at UCLA then finished T- 41 in the U.S. Open will make his professional debut at the Travelers Championship.

Cantlay intends to sign with Excel Sports Management and be represented by Mark Steinberg. After the Travelers, an event in which he shot a second-round 60 as an amateur last year en route to a T- 24 finish, he will play in two other PGA Tour events in the next month—the AT&T National and the Greenbrier Classic.

By turning pro now Cantlay forgoes an exemption into next month’s British Open that he earned for being the No. 1 ranked amateur in the world last September.—Ryan Herrington

olympic club

Meeker is unsung hero
behind open success

�� Steve Meeker doesn’t have an ego. He’s soft-spoken, selfless and calm under pressure. Of the 5,300 volunteers behind the curtain of a successful U.S. Open at Olympic Club, it’s Meeker who deserves a curtain call.

When the USGA commits a U.S. Open to a private club, they ask for one point person from that membership—a general chair of the championship. Committees and boards have a lot of turnover, so one liaison simpli-fies the complex relationship.

Seven years ago, after the paperwork was signed return the Open to San Francisco, the club appointed Meeker, 66, a former board member and an insurance broker, to fill that role. “They might’ve been asleep at the wheel when they chose me,” he joked.

But on Meeker’s watch—he has worked with eight different club presidents—he helped manage multiple closures and significant changes to Olympic, such as adding new putting surfaces on both the Lake and Ocean courses, a new eighth hole at the Lake, two new bunkers (one, on the 17th hole, only weeks before the start of the Open), the narrowing of fairways, the growing of rough and the addition of “low-mow” areas around several greens.

lipouts

“I’m interested in the topic, but
not at this moment.”
—CamerOn WilSOn,
a Stanford sophomore who quali-
fied to play in the U.S. Open but
had to file a term paper on Islamic
modernism in the 20th century
two days before the first round at
Olympic Club.

“It’s going to be such a
pleasant change for them. I
think they come to a U.S. Open
expecting it to be a really hard
test. If it isn’t, they’re disap-
pointed. I think Merion will be
more of a fun test.”
–mike DaviS,
USGA executive director, on the
2013 host site.

“To hit drivers off of home
plate is pretty fun, especially
out into McCovey Cove. It’s
probably the coolest place
I’ve hit balls, maybe
besides Augusta.”
–DuStin JOhnSOn,
who took part in a TaylorMade
demonstration at AT&T Park with
members of the San Francisco Giants
the night before the U.S. Open.

“How do you hit a shot
after that? All you can do is
say a prayer and then try to
move on.”
–zaCh JOhnSOn,
after play for his group was held
up for 15 minutes during the first
round after a male member of the
gallery suffered a heart attack and
fell over onto the cart path.

“The key of Buddhism is for the
teacher to make himself obso-
lete to the student. That we’re
only working on technique after
rounds shows how much farther
ahead he is in the process.”
–Sean FOley,
swing coach for Tiger Woods, on
how pleased he is that Woods no
longer needs his services before his
tee times, as he did earlier this year.