Chip shots
If Andy Mayhew and Austin Greaser read or heard about my column in last Sunday’s paper, they might have considered quoting Mark Twain, who once said: “Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”
It was my impression after scouring results of many of the U.S. Open local qualifying events around the country that none of our golfers from the Dayton area had advanced to the sectional round. And I wrote that.
Fact is, teenagers Mayhew and Greaser were successful and each did it in dramatic fashion.
Mayhew, a 19-year-old Oakwood High School graduate who will be a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati, came up with a sensational finish in the qualifier at Maketewah Country Club on May 15.
Greaser, a 16-year-old junior-to-be at Vandalia-Butler High School, did the same May 18 in the qualifier at Kearney Hill Golf Links in Lexington, Ky.
As of this writing the two had not been informed where they will compete in the sectional. But it is likely they will be assigned to Springfield Country Club on June 5. The Open is June 15-18 in Wisconsin.
Grouped with seven others who shot 72 in a sudden death playoff for the last of 10 qualifying spots at Maketewah, Mayhew stunned the others by opening the playoff with back-to-back birdies to score a quick knockout.
Six were eliminated when they failed to birdie the first hole and the seventh, Matthew Wetterich, was toast when he couldn’t match Mayhew’s second birdie. Others in the playoff included: Mayhew’s UC golf teammate Jake Fox, UD golfer Brendan Keating, Cincinnati’s Bill Williamson and teen-ager Miles Jena of Middletown.
Greaser couldn’t play in the Cincinnati qualifier on a 6,752-yard course because of a previous commitment so he teed it up three days later in Lexington on a 7,079-yard course. The extra length didn’t seem to faze him.
Playing in the last group with two holes remaining, he needed a pair of birdies to shoot 71 and get into a nine-man playoff for four spots in the sectional.
“It was pretty crazy,” said the kid who won the Optimist International championship in the 14-15 age group a couple of years ago at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. On the 17th hole he hit a pitching wedge from 145 yards to 6 feet and made the birdie putt.
On the 535-yard par-5 18th he hit a 300-yard drive that went through the two-part fairway into the rough. Still 200-plus yards away, he hit a 7-iron over the flagstick only to have the ball roll off the green. He had “an awful lie” in the rough but got up and down and earned a spot in the playoff that started on the par-5 14th.
Eight players were competing for four spots. Three, including Greaser, birdied the first hole and headed for home.
Ninety-two players will participate in the Ohio Amateur qualifier at Moraine Country Club on Tuesday. The Ohio Am is July 11-14 at Springfield Country Club.
The Diana Schwab Get A Girl Golfing event is June 16 at Rollandia Golf Course, not June 9 as previously reported.
The 32nd Ohio Senior Open will be held Wednesday and Thursday at Firestone CC in Akron.