The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
MSU senior wins U.S. amateur
OAKMONT, PA. >> Even for James Piot, the scrappy Michigan kid who isn’t afraid to set the bar high, his target Aug. 15 in the U.S. Amateur was bordering on audacious.
He was 3 down and running out of time.
Standing on the 10th tee, Piot set a goal of playing the back nine at 4-under par. This was at Oakmont, as fearsome as any course in America, where the greens reputed to be the fastest in the land had been triple cut. More holes were won with pars than birdies.
Piot was up to the task. Starting with a 9-iron to 3 feet for birdie, he won four straight holes to take the lead over Austin Greaser and closed out his stunning rally with a 20-foot par putt that sent him to a 2-and-1 victory.
“It’s the greatest feeling in the world,” Piot said. “As an amateur, it’s the best
thing you can do.”
Piot didn’t win a hole on the front nine in the afternoon.
He didn’t lose a hole on the back nine, even if he fell just short of his goal. He was 3 under on the back.
The match ended on the reachable par-4 17th when Piot blasted out of a bunker across the slick green and into another bunker, got that out to 20 feet and made it for par. Greaser’s 8-foot birdie putt to extend the match spun out of the left lip.
“I just didn’t execute on the back nine,” Greaser said. “He did. Hats off to him, he played a great back nine. The cards fell his way this time. It’s going to sting a little bit.”
Piot, a 22-year-old senior at Michigan State, was mobbed by friends and teammates in their Spartans gear off the green and before long he was holding the gold Havemeyer Trophy.
He appeared to be gazing at a century-old list of champions from Bobby Jones to Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods.
Turns out that wasn’t the case at all.
“I was trying to see if it was real or not,” Piot said.