Amateur Hour
Presented by the Woodstock Country Club
With so much talk lately about the professional game, it’s easy to forget that most of the world of golf exists at the amateur level. For context, in the United States over 2.8 million amateur golfers played more then 82 million rounds of golf in 2021 and spent more than 307 million hours on the golf course. That’s a lot of golf by people who earned exactly $0 playing the sport.
Amateur golf doesn’t have to lack in excitement or competition. I’ve personally played more than 100 rounds of competitive amateur golf over the years, and I continue to find new ways to test myself. Most recently I’ve been on a quest to compete in Vermont’s State Amateur Championship, which came to a head last year. For the first time in a handful of tries, I qualified for the State AM. After making the 36-hole cut, I competed in the final day and ended up tied for 42nd place. Not the finish I hoped for, but as a 40-something year-old competing against mostly college golfers, it felt like first place. It was a good reminder that you don’t have to get paid to reap the benefits of this incredible game.
You also don’t have to compete to appreciate big time amateur golf. There’s plenty of room for spectating. From the end of July to the end of August, the USGA hosts its major amateur championships, starting with the US Junior Amateur and culminating with the US Women’s Amateur and the US Men’s Amateur.
Continuing the theme, this week we’re bringing you a few stories from the world of amateur golf. From Vermont’s US Amateur Championship pedigree to the most notable amateurs in history, we hope you enjoy this month’s On The Green, dedicated to the amateur game.
Fore Please,
Ross Evans
OTG Creative Director
Ridgewood Country Club, host of the 2022 US Amateur Championship; Photo Credit: Golf Digest
Amateur Status
In the modern sporting world which favors big stakes, NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) contracts, and big money, the glory of athletes retaining amateur status has certainly lost its shine. But the art of “playing for the love of the game” is not to be overlooked. Many golf fans don’t realize that one of the game's greatest champions, Bobby Jones, was in fact an amateur. Jones earned a living as a lawyer while he was playing against (and beating) professionals of his day. A prolific amateur that you’re likely less familiar with is Paul Simson. Simson has competed in nearly 70 USGA Amateur events over 52 years, including his two US Senior Amateur titles. Simson is also the winningest golfer in the history of Pinehurst, having won nine titles on the legendary course. Another notable (and seemingly lifetime) amateur is 31-year-old Stewart Hagestad. Hagestad played college golf at USC but opted for a career in real estate after graduation. His golf resume continues to impress though: Hagestad has won two US Mid-Amateur Championships (2016 and 2021), has competed in the US Open four times, and is the only US Mid-Am champion to make the cut at the Masters (2017).
Click here to follow the action at the 2022 US Amateur Championship.
Legendary amateur, Bobby Jones; Photo Credit: Getty Images
Vermont's US Amateur History
If you watched any of the US Open coverage in June, you likely heard the name Francis Ouimet no less than a dozen times. If somehow you missed it, or just aren’t familiar with the name, Francis Ouimet was an American amateur golfer from Brookline, MA. Ouimet grew up across the street from The Country Club and won the national title in 1913 when it was hosted at Brookline. Ouimet’s unlikely victory at the US Open was the first notable major victory by any American golfer. Ouimet’s win is noted as spurring on golf’s popularity in America. The victory also led to Ouitmet’s nickname as the “father of amateur golf.”
What wasn’t mentioned in the numerous pieces featuring Quimet during the US Open was his victory at the only USGA national championship to be hosted in Vermont: the 1914 US Amateur Championship at Ekwanok Country Club. Ouimet came to Vermont after an unsuccessful defense of his 1913 US Open title. He outlasted the field in a grueling schedule that included qualifying and five match play events to win the 1914 title.
For more on Ekwanok’s 1914 US Amateur Championship, visit the club’s website here.
Francis Quimet statue at Ekwanok Country Club
The Legend of Buddy Marucci
Perhaps my earliest memory of “big time” amateur golf was watching Buddy Marucci in the 1995 US Amateur Championship. Full disclosure: I wasn’t tuning in to watch a guy named Buddy Marucci. I was tuning in to watch Marucci’s playing competitor, a skinny 19-year-old named Tiger Woods. Despite Marucci not being the main attraction, I was in awe of what I witnessed. The 1995 US Amateur at Newport Country Club was the stage for one of the most epic (and on paper, lopsided) championships in USGA history. Marucci, a 43-year-old luxury car dealer from West Chester, PA, held his own and took the future greatest golfer in the world nearly the distance, eventually losing by two holes to Tiger Woods. That championship was everything that’s great about golf at the amateur level.
Though Marucci lost the ’95 championship, he went on to compete in 50 USGA championships and won his only national title in 2008 at the US Senior Amateur Championship.
If you missed it the first time around, or just want a shot of 90’s golf nostalgia, you can relive the epic Marucci vs. Woods showdown here.
Buddy Marucci tees off in the 1995 US Amateur Championship against Tiger Woods; Photo Credit USGA
