Golfers chase U.S. Open dream
HAVEN – More than 9,000 golfers entered the U.S. Open this year and roughly 100 will play their way to Shinnecock Hills on Long Island next month. The long odds of qualifying – golfers must survive 18- and 36-hole weeding-out tournaments – make it one of the biggest crap shoots in sports.
The chances of making it all the way through are daunting for the best players and astronomical for the dreamers.
“Yeah, but we don’t look at it that way,” said Max Hosking of Madison. “We look at it as, if you play your game and do what you know you can
do, everything will take care of itself.”
That’s why Ben Bendtsen III took a day off from his job as the owner and head baker at Bendtsen’s Bakery in Racine. Normally, he would be in the bakery by 3 a.m., preparing to crank out 300 kringles. Tuesday, he was battling the wind on the Irish Course at Whistling Straits.
It’s why Charlie Delsman of Colgate was wearing an ear-to-ear grin. Delsman, 33, has been chasing a little white ball for a quarter-century and has built up so much scar tissue from near misses in the State Amateur, State Open and tour qualifying tournaments that one would think he’d have chucked his clubs in a water hazard years ago.
Instead, Delsman, can’t get enough of the game. Married with two children, he caddies in Florida during the winter and at Erin Hills in the summer and plays tournament golf whenever and wherever he can.
“The dream is still there,” Delsman said. “I don’t have quite the opportunity (to play) with two little girls but I practice every day.”
Seventy-three golfers teed it up in U.S. Open local qualifying and five advanced to the next stage. Bendtsen and Peter Webb of Madison shot 2-underpar 70s, Delsman a 72 and Hosking a 73. David Spengler of Luxemburg shot a 74 and survived a four-way playoff for the fifth spot.
Bendtsen, 32, is the classic case of a golfer hoping U.S. Open lightning strikes. He tried his hand at mini-tour golf for a couple years but returned to the 85-year-old family business with no regrets. He’s talented enough to have won the 2008 State Amateur and the Racine County Open eight times but said it had been three years since his last serious practice session.
“One of the jokes at Meadowbrook (Country Club), where I belong, is that I don’t know anything right of the 10th tee box, because that’s where the range is,” he said. “Summertime, I’ll play three days a week with buddies, but I never hit balls or anything like that.”
It had been 10 years since Bendtsen last played in U.S. Open local qualifying. Usually, he forgets to send in the entry form before the deadline. This year, he remembered.
“I wouldn’t sign up if I didn’t think I had a chance,” he said. “I think if I play my best, I can get in there.”
The same goes for Delsman, who 15 years ago shot a 62 to win the WSGA Junior Boys Championship. He’s bounced around various mini-tours and has advanced to 36-hole sectional qualifying “a bunch of times” but has never made it past the last hurdle and played in the U.S. Open.
But what’s that saying about the lottery? You can’t win if you don’t play.
“A lot of scar tissue in there, but I’m young,” he said. “I’m 33. There’s guys that are rookies on the tour who are 40. I love the game. How can you not? Every day is a different challenge.”
Hosking, 27, won the State Open last year and had played twice previously in sectional qualifying.
“Last year, I shot 144, two 72s, and missed (advancing to the U.S. Open) by seven shots,” he said. “But qualifying for it is realistic, or else I wouldn’t be here.”
Delsman caddies in the winter at Streamsong in central Florida. Earlier this year, he looped for a Shinnecock member who said if Delsman qualified for the U.S. Open he could head to Long Island a week early and stay at the member’s house.
“If ever I was going to qualify, this would be the year to do it,” he said.
If it wasn’t for the support of his wife, Delsman said, he'd be doing something else by now.
But the dream is still there. It's still alive. He’s two good rounds away from playing in the U.S. Open.
“That can be a life-changing experience,” he said. “If you make it to the U.S. Open, anything can happen.”