Writing from Olympia Fields, Illinois
Tuesday, September 24, 2012
How nervous does a player get when the introduction on the first tee is followed by the phrase, “United States of America?”
“I wasn’t too nervous,” Cameron Champ of Sacramento, Calif., said Monday after he and Casie Cathrea teamed for a 1-up victory in their afternoon best-ball match of the Junior Ryder Cup at Olympia Fields Country Club. “I was only nervous about letting my teammate down.”
There was no change of that, for he played the final two holes on the South Course in cold-blooded fashion, first scrambling for a halving par by sinking a downhill 20-footer on the 17th, then escaped from the edge of disaster 15 yards to the left of the 18th fairway, hitting the green with a 244-yard 4-iron and a 45-foot two-putt for par.
Don’t all 17-year-olds hit their 4-iron 244 yards from the rough? Uphill? And with a 10-yard draw to boot?
No wonder Champ wasn’t nervous. He’s 17 going on 30. Either that or he doesn’t know what he’s playing in yet.
It’s likely the former. The Junior Ryder Cup, in which the American side holds a 6 1/2-4 1/2 advantage, with one match left to complete, entering Tuesday’s dozen singles matches, isn’t Champ’s first golf rodeo. That helped, both in the morning, when he teamed with fellow Californian Beau Hossler – you might remember him leading this year’s U.S. Open – to grab a half-point in their morning match.
“I ended up calming down and hit two good tee shots in the morning and afternoon,” Champ said.
Champ and Cathrea, from Livermore, Calif., both members of the First Tee of Sacramento, found themselves in the best afternoon match. They birdied five of the first seven holes and were only 1-up on Toby Tree of Southwater, England and Bronte Law of Woodford, England. And the Brits pushed it to the last, where Champ’s remarkable second – Cathrea was also on the green in two, leaving her first putt short – helped secure the point.
“This means a lot,” Cathrea said of the victory.
Champ’s 20-footer on the 17th kept the American duo 1-up, ensuring at least a halve if they lost the 18th. The split there gave the hosts a full point, and allowed both of them to take a deep breath.
Hossler, the most accomplished player in the field, scored only a half-point. In the afternoon mixed best-ball match, Hossler and Samantha Wagner lost 2 and 1 to Gavin Moynihan of Dublin, Ireland, and big-hitting Emily Pedersen of Copenhagen, Denmark, largely because Moynihan made everything he looked at in the first few holes. The Europeans were 3-up after five holes, never lost the lead, and rarely lost control of the tee.
Play was delayed 90 minutes by morning frost. The lone match that didn’t finish before darkness has Americans Gavin Hall and Alison Lee 1-up on Matthias Schwab and Quirine Eljkenboom after 16 holes.
Unlike the Ryder Cup proper, where emotion often boils over, the Junior Ryder Cup is more low-key. There’s live scoring, but a corporate tent is not to be seen, and the spirit of the game is evident. Spectators, largely parents and Olympia Fields members, applaud a good shot no who hits it. The best shot of the day, Hossler’s long approach to the ninth hole in the afternoon, stopped 18 inches from the cup, and brought forth the largest hand of the day.
The Junior Ryder Cup is the second youth-oriented affair surrounding the big show. The first was Saturday’s Youth Skills Challenge at Medinah, the climax of a summer-long competition conducted by the Illinois PGA.
Several thousand children from 6 to 17 started at courses through the state, with 496 juniors advancing to the quartet of regional finals. Eight players advanced to the finals at Medinah, where the 32, covering four age groups, drove, chipped and putted on No. 3, the first play of any kind on the pampered layout in three weeks.
Illinois PGA executive director Michael Miller called the Challenge a great success.
“The program demonstrates the important role that PGA professionals play in growing the game of golf among young people, and also highlights the incredible enthusiasm we’ve seen regarding the Ryder Cup being played in Illinois for the first time.”
The eight winners, each of whom received cool Ryder Cup-style trophies:
Boys 6-8: Joshua Pehl, Sugar Grove
Boys 9-11: Jack Mahoney, Algonquin
Boys 12-14: Ricky Costello, Homer Glen
Boys 15-17: Michael Rosinia, Countryside
Girls 6-8: Zell Wilson, Chicago
Girls 9-11: Lauren Boudreau, Lemont
Girls 12-14: Megan Furtney, South Elgin
Girls 15-17: Ciara Rattana, Western Springs
– Tim Cronin