2020 United States Amateur at Bandon Dunes

[Darth Putter]

For the third year in a row, the United States Amateur comes to one of America's great resort courses.

The main course used will be Bandon Dunes with Bandon Trails being used as the other course for stroke play on Monday and Tuesday.

 

tee times: https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/championships/2020/u-s--amateur.html#!tee-times

 

The number of golfers has been cut from 312 to 264.

 

"tv"

Due to the USGA switching from Fox to NBC everything will either be on Golf Channel or NBC's new streaming service Peacock.

Golf Channel will have coverage on Wednesday-Friday from 7-9 pm EDT (since it's on the west coast)

Saturday and Sunday coverage will be from 7-10pm EDT

 

Andy Ogletree is the defending champion. He is the first US Amateur to defend his title since Gunn Yang in 2015. The last man to successfully defend his title is, of course, Tiger from 1994-96.

 

Also at stake are spots in the US Open. Six amateurs are already in and the USGA will add the next top 7 in the World Amateur Rankings to fill out the field. The rest of the spoils will have to wait for the 2021 tournaments.

[tiderider]

hot damn ... thanks for this info ... prime time watching match play at bandon ...

[Darth Putter]

Twins have us seeing double and 25 other intriguing storylines heading into U.S. Amateur

 

 

[Tin Whistle]

Quite a few young men took it awfully low on day 1...no wind?...no matter, at Bandon it’s all about the golf...

[tiderider]

thoroughly enjoyed what i was able to watch ... i'd watch any kind of amateur match on a great course like bandon ... fabulous story, the way strafaci won the match friday, and then went on to win it all ... didn't like some of the etiquette gupta failed to display against strafaci ... trying to stand directly behind the guy while he's putting? ... 

 

https://golf.com/news/u-s-amateur-finalist-shooed-away-opponent-on-green/

 

 

Edited August 17, 2020 by tiderider

[ebrasmus21]

DONT TOUCH THE SAND!!!!

[cxx]

Too late.

[tiderider]

12 minutes ago, ebrasmus21 said:

DONT TOUCH THE SAND!!!!

that was just so odd ... like he's petting something ... what caddie thinks it's ok to touch the sand? ... 

[Krt22]

4 minutes ago, tiderider said:

that was just so odd ... like he's petting something ... what caddie thinks it's ok to touch the sand? ... 

Im fairly certain that guy isn't a caddie anymore lol

[VNutz]

As a big Bandon fan, I was absolutely thrilled to watch it in all it's glory this weekend. Friday and Saturday provided some fantastic late afternoon viewing and proved just how treacherous the wind there can be, making seemingly benign holes play brutal. I loved seeing the fog roll in on the back 9 Sunday as it made for a very cool change of scenery, but at the end I was a tad disappointed in that you couldn't see some of the holes shine like they could have. Regardless, some spectacular shots and play and a great championship.

[tiderider]

that 15th is a devilish par three ... and the 16th is fabulous ... glad i got to see it with a lot of wind and then without much at all ... 

 

[iBanesto]

Ollie Osborne's swing is sweet!

[Philomathesq]

1 hour ago, tiderider said:

thoroughly enjoyed what i was able to watch ... i'd watch any kind of amateur match on a great course like bandon ... fabulous story, the way strafaci won the match friday, and then went on to win it all ... didn't like some of the etiquette gupta failed to display against strafaci ... trying to stand directly behind the guy while he's putting? ... 

 

https://golf.com/news/u-s-amateur-finalist-shooed-away-opponent-on-green/

 

 

Agreed. I don't want to impute any bad faith to Gupta, but he sure seemed like a guy that was willing to go over the line in order to win. I love a competitive spirit, but I don't like it when such spirit drives one to purposely interfere with one's opponent.

Edited August 17, 2020 by Philomathesq

[jkumpire]

This is where they should play the us open this year. Marvelous course, no room for fans, enough space for tv. Would test pros without trashing the course for a year under the thumb of the USGA.

Great event too, great matches.

[caniac6]

Could they have played any slower? USGA talks about pace of play, and allows these guys to take as much time as they want.

[stingerfade]

13 minutes ago, caniac6 said:

Could they have played any slower? USGA talks about pace of play, and allows these guys to take as much time as they want.

Ozzie Osbourne played fast

[caniac6]

Just now, stingerfade said:

Ozzie Osbourne played fast

I don’t think the final match was as bad as some. Gupta was brutal.

[ebrasmus21]

Have to admit that on Sunday, with little to no wind, it was interesting to see holes won with bogey or worse.  I think it’s a combination of the players having little experience on links course along with Bandon being a challenging “resort” course. 

[Yuck]

I think Ollie O has more upside potential than the Winner.

[Steele47]

9 minutes ago, Yuck said:

I think Ollie O has more upside potential than the Winner.

 

Yep.  

[deadsolid...shank]

After watching and seeing the course, and some of the green side shots they had, I’m amazed at the amount of people (in the Bandon threads) who say leave the lofted wedge at home. 

[scores]

I need to play this course

 

[Oh Hi Carl]

5 hours ago, Philomathesq said:

Agreed. I don't want to impute any bad faith to Gupta, but he sure seemed like a guy that was willing to go over the line in order to win. I love a competitive spirit, but I don't like it when such spirit drives one to purposely interfere with one's opponent.

I agree that Gupta seemed to be near the etiquette line.  He played really slow and almost seemed to do it as gamesmanship when playing against a much faster player.  Strafaci played really slow too, but I think that was more the situation than anything else.  He didn't get in his opponent's way.  

 

As for the sand incident on Friday, I was surprised that there wasn't more negative reaction to Strafaci's dad's behavior.  Maybe that's because most people probably learned about the incident from watching clips on social media and didn't see the whole thing unfold.  His dad was yelling at the rules officials and berating them when they were debating what to do, while the caddie was lying and saying he didn't touch the sand.  His aggressiveness towards the officials was disturbing as they were dealing with a confusing situation, especially as the caddie denied what he did.  Then, Strafaci's dad blurted out something along the lines of "what's worse is that they were talking about it!"  I took that to suggest that he was accusing Pinto of talking to his caddie about the condition of the sand, as if Pinto was trying to cheat.  I don't know what else he would've meant.  His behavior was totally unpleasant and it bothered me throughout the weekend that the announcers gave him a pass on it.  

Edited August 18, 2020 by Sonja Henie

[Philomathesq]

10 minutes ago, Sonja Henie said:

I agree that Gupta seemed to be near the etiquette line.  He played really slow and almost seemed to do it as gamesmanship when playing against a much faster player.  Strafaci played really slow too, but I think that was more the situation than anything else.  He didn't get in his opponent's way.  

 

As for the sand incident on Friday, I was surprised that there wasn't more negative reaction to Strafaci's dad's behavior.  Maybe that's because most people probably learned about the incident from watching clips on social media and didn't see the whole thing unfold.  His dad was yelling at the rules officials and berating them when they were debating what to do, while the caddie was lying and saying he didn't touch the sand.  His aggressiveness towards the officials was disturbing as they were dealing with a confusing situation, especially as the caddie denied what he did.  Then, Strafaci's dad blurted out something along the lines of "what's worse is that they were talking about it!"  I took that to suggest that he was accusing Pinto of talking to his caddie about the condition of the sand, as if Pinto was trying to cheat.  I don't know what else he would've meant.  His behavior was totally unpleasant and it bothered me throughout the weekend that the announcers gave him a pass on it.  

I saw what happened and I don't recall thinking the dad was "yelling" at the officials. He saw a clear violation of the rules and was understandably upset that immediate action was not taken. He's also a dad and was trying to help his son get to the next round, even if his son would have preferred to win in a different manner. 

 

Ultimately, most people will overlook or forget about the dad because: (1) he wasn't playing; and (2) he was right. 

 

 

[EricWGolf]

15 minutes ago, Sonja Henie said:

As for the sand incident on Friday, I was surprised that there wasn't more negative reaction to Strafaci's dad's behavior.  Maybe that's because most people probably learned about the incident from watching clips on social media and didn't see the whole thing unfold.  His dad was yelling at the rules officials and berating them when they were debating what to do, while the caddie was lying and saying he didn't touch the sand.  His aggressiveness towards the officials was disturbing as they were dealing with a confusing situation, especially as the caddie denied what he did.  Then, Strafaci's dad blurted out something along the lines of "what's worse is that they were talking about it!"  I took that to suggest that he was accusing Pinto of talking to his caddie about the condition of the sand, as if Pinto was trying to cheat.  I don't know what else he would've meant.  His behavior was totally unpleasant and it bothered me throughout the weekend that the announcers gave him a pass on it.  

I watching the whole thing on TV, and I didn’t get the impression the Strafaci’s dad was berating the officials. I thought he was talking to the caddie directly.

 

And what I heard him say when the caddie denied touching the sand was “I saw you. Everyone saw you.  And the worst part is that we just talked about this.”

That, combined with the way he ran toward the bunker to see what was going on as soon as he saw the caddie jump into it makes me think that the same thing had already happened earlier and he had told the caddie to be careful about the rules.  

[EricWGolf]

2 minutes ago, Philomathesq said:

I saw what happened and I don't recall thinking the dad was "yelling" at the officials. He saw a clear violation of the rules and was understandably upset that immediate action was not taken. He's also a dad and was trying to help his son get to the next round, even if his son would have preferred to win in a different manner. 

 

 

If it had been my loop at an amateur major, son or stranger, I would have been calm and cool and told my side of the story . . . until the other guy flat out lied about it.  Then I’m throwing down for my loop.

[Jobu]

50 feet of visibility on camera, it must have been much worse in person.  I thought i was watching Sled Storm.

[MattyO1984]

I definitely enjoyed watching the highlights that were posted on YouTube, seemed like a really interesting match although, I honestly cannot understand how they continued playing in the conditions that they were out in. 

[Oh Hi Carl]

8 hours ago, Philomathesq said:

I saw what happened and I don't recall thinking the dad was "yelling" at the officials. He saw a clear violation of the rules and was understandably upset that immediate action was not taken. He's also a dad and was trying to help his son get to the next round, even if his son would have preferred to win in a different manner. 

 

Ultimately, most people will overlook or forget about the dad because: (1) he wasn't playing; and (2) he was right. 

 

 

OK, that's a reasonable interpretation.  I'm sure he was pissed when he heard the guy blatantly lying.  

[Oh Hi Carl]

9 hours ago, EricWGolf said:

I watching the whole thing on TV, and I didn’t get the impression the Strafaci’s dad was berating the officials. I thought he was talking to the caddie directly.

 

And what I heard him say when the caddie denied touching the sand was “I saw you. Everyone saw you.  And the worst part is that we just talked about this.”

That, combined with the way he ran toward the bunker to see what was going on as soon as he saw the caddie jump into it makes me think that the same thing had already happened earlier and he had told the caddie to be careful about the rules.  

I guess we have no idea what might have happened earlier, although I doubt if the dad saw any possible infraction he wouldn't have raised it with an official.  

 

https://golf.com/news/us-amateur-caddie-bunker-incident/

 

This article says he said "And you guys talked about it afterwards, which is the worst part." What does that mean?  Seems like an unfounded accusation against Pinto to me.  

 

 

The official points out that while he didn’t see the action itself, he can see the hand print, and wants an explanation for what he was doing with his hand.

At that point, we hear from Strafaci himself, who says he was wondering what Brewer was doing, but confirms that he didn’t personally see him touch the ground. Another rules official approaches and Brewer reiterates his innocence.

“Sorry dude. He saw it, everybody else saw it,” Strafaci Jr. says. “And you guys talked about it afterwards, which is the worst part.”