Olympic’s
latest
Amateur
sensation
By dave shedloski
after Saturday’s third round of the 112th U.S. Open, Dennis Miller tweeted that, “Beau Hossler makes Francis Ouimet look like Hume Cronyn
(the actor from the film, “Cocoon.”)
This would be Dennis Miller the comedian, not the club professional from
Youngstown, Ohio, who was one of the
more celebrated sectional qualifiers
before the Olympic Club yet again
became immersed in the fortunes of
an amateur sensation.
Hossler, who has braces on his
teeth and traces of ice in his veins,
wrapped up his third round late
Saturday afternoon bounding up
the steep hill from the 18th green to
Olympic’s clubhouse, stopping along
the way to hug his mother, Amy Balsz,
and father, Beau, while galleries stood
and applauded him. Then he was off
to the NBC tower for a live interview
with Bob Costas.
Finally, if all that wasn’t enough, he
stood before the microphones in the
makeshift interview area next to the
player’s locker room, and, wearing a
serious look on his baby face to hide
those braces, averred that he was re-
calculating his goals for the champi-
onship. “I still have the goal to be low
amateur,” he said, “but my goal now is
to win the tournament.”
It might have sounded preposterous
if you didn’t know where the 17-year-old
stood on the leader board. He knew
where he stood, and it was in rarified air.
By scrounging together a second
even-par 70 on Olympic Club’s Lake
Hossler ranked third in the
field with 10 birdies through
54 holes at Olympic Club.
course, Hossler, already in his second
U.S. Open appearance, remained
within reasonable range of former
U.S. Open champions Jim Furyk and
Graeme McDowell, who shared the
54-hole lead at one-under 209. He was
T- 8 and just four strokes behind at
213, earning a pairing in the sixth-to-last group with one of the year’s
hottest players on the PGA Tour, two-time winner Jason Dufner.
Olympic Club had seen amateurs
perform well before in the U.S. Open,
but not as well as Hossler. Johnny
Miller, paired in the third round with
Jack Nicklaus in the 1966 Open, shot
a 74 and was nine behind the leaders in 10th place at 216. Matt Kuchar
also was 10th after a third-round 76
left him at 215 in the 1998 championship. They would finish T- 8 and T- 14,
respectively, but Hossler had bigger
ambitions.
Jack Nicklaus had finished second
to Arnold Palmer in 1960, and a
couple of amateurs, Marty Fleckman
in 1967 and Jim Simons in 1971, held
54-hole leads, but the last amateur to
finish top man was Johnny Goodman
in 1933. Simons was the last to finish
in the top 10 when he ended up T- 5
after leading through 13 holes of the
final round at Merion GC.
Hossler seemed more surprised
by his minor celebrity and popularity
among the gallery than his profi-
ciency on the tough, tilting Olympic
layout. “Yeah, it’s amazing. I can’t
tell you how much I appreciate the
support from everybody out there—
not only my family and friends from
home, but all the people in the Bay
Area. It’s really special.”
A senior-to-be at Santa Margarita
Catholic High School in Orange Coun-
ty, Calif., Hossler exhibited remark-
