Goetz is medalist; weather wins day
It’s been a strange first few days at the 121st U.S. Amateur at Oakmont, but you could say Mark Goetz has dealt with it better than anyone so far.
The Greensburg resident and West Virginia student began on Monday with a six-under 64 at Longue Vue Club in Verona to place himself in a tie for second place. He woke up Tuesday ready to go at Oakmont Country Club for his second round. Then the rains came.
When the weather cleared, Goetz shot three-under on his first 12 holes before darkness ended his round. He began play at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, finished his last six holes with five pars and a bogey, which was enough to give him medalist honors at the end of stroke play and the No. 1 seed in the 64-person, match- play tournament through the weekend.
After that, there was a whole lot of waiting. When stroke play finished, 63 players made the cut, with 12 players tied for 64th, needing a playoff to decide which one would qualify to face Goetz in the first round of match play.
First, the weather flexed one more time, delaying the playoff for a few hours, before David Nyjfall finally broke the tie and
qualified on the third playoff hole, sinking a mid-range par putt to advance.
While all of that was happening, Goetz went and got some breakfast, saying he hadn’t eaten much before his morning round. He hung out around Oakmont. He just sort of waited.
After all of that, around 7 p.m., Goetz finally teed off on the first hole, beginning his opening match-play round nearly 12 hours after he began playing golf Wednesday.
“I really just wanted to make match play. Once I got into the event that was really the next step,” Goetz said between his Wednesday rounds. “I think my speed on these greens has been really good. Short game has been great. We’ve done a really good job getting myself around this place without getting in too many bad spots, or if we did, getting out of it quick and back in position.
“[The second stroke-play round is] my low round at Oakmont by three shots so for me. That’s big for sure.”
If the grind was tough, Goetz locked in more quickly than Nyjfall, which is all he has to do. Both parred the first hole, then both hit tee shots into the left rough on the second. The difference, though, was that Goetz hit a six iron off the tee and Nyjfall went with driver. Goetz found his ball and Nyjfall’s was lost to the long grass.
Goetz ended up with a bogey, one stroke better than Nyjfall. They played two more holes before darkness, again, forced an exit from the course, with the match even after four holes. Goetz bogyed the par-5 fourth, while Nyjfall got a par.
“It’s the most memorable two days of my career by a mile, there’s nothing that will even come close,” Goetz said. “This place can beat you to your core. It’s disgustingly hard. If you play scared out here, you’re a little bit tentative, man it’ll bite you in the butt so fast. So I really didn’t have any expectations this week, and it’s because of how difficult this place is.”
Only one pairing finished their match Wednesday, with Ricky Castillo defeating Donald Kay, 5 and 4. The rest will begin again starting at 7:30 a.m. Thursday.
The prevalence of bad weather has caused some drastic measures by the USGA. They decided after Wednesday’s action to implement split-tee starts for the rounds of 32 and 16. The round of 16, which was supposed to take place Thursday afternoon, has been moved to Friday morning, with the quarterfinals being played Friday afternoon. That is wildly uncommon for the U.S. Amateur — USGA spokespeople were not aware of any other U.S. Amateurs that have implemented split-tee starts — but one that was deemed necessary by all the delays this time around.
Whoever adjusts to this new, jammed-up schedule, all while battling the difficulties Oakmont provides anyway, will have the best chance to advance to Sunday for the 36hole championshp match. Locally, at least, Goetz is the favorite. After all, he has played better than he ever has at Oakmont to this point, and better than anyone else on the course, to boot.