Like many of you, I’ve heard the phrase getting old overnight a million times. Also like many of you, I never thought much of it … until it happened yesterday. I got old overnight.
No, it wasn’t my birthday. Yes, I’m only 42. I’m not talking about getting physically old -- I’ve been an old man physically since my mid 20s -- but I realized after watching the leaderboard for all the U.S. Open qualifying sites that my era of golf is almost over.
Allow me to explain.
The USGA had a link on its website where I could watch the scores of the 10 U.S. Open sectional qualifying tournaments, and I was glued to each one. I wanted to see which of my friends and favorite golfers would be earning a spot to play at Chambers Bay. Shockingly, there weren’t many.
The first of the 10 sites to officially post its final results was Purchase, N.Y. My buddy, two-time U.S. Open Champ Lee Janzen, qualified to play in his first Open since ’08. I was pumped to see him get in again and possibly make him buy me dinner, but little did I realize that my aging process was about to begin. As it turned out, Purchase was the only sectional without a college-age qualifier.
Over in Georgia, some 21-year-old kid named Matt NeSmith shot 63-64 to win by four strokes. Must be a fluke, I thought. At The Bear’s Club in Palm Beach, Fla., two amateurs, Jack Maguire and Sam Horsfield, made it through along with former World No. 1, Luke Donald. I told myself they must have gotten lucky. But it continued.
In Dallas, three of the six spots were nabbed by amateurs, including one by a fella named Cole Hammer. Since Cole Hammer is a name that sounds like it belongs in a Steven Seagal movie, I googled him. He’s 15 years old! He can’t drive his own car to the tournament. Now my head is spinning.
Surely in Columbus and Memphis, where most of the PGA Tour players chose to qualify, the old guard would teach those young hooligans a thing or two. Wrong … collegiate amateurs got through at both spots. On the West Coast, Cheng-Tsung Pan, a student at the University of Washington, birdied three of the last four holes to earn his chance to play. Doesn’t he know he’s supposed to be too nervous and inexperienced to do things like that?
My arthritis started to ache, and the urge to watch the local news and eat my dinner at 4:30 was getting stronger.
After the day of qualifying was over, 15 of 58 possible spots went to non-professionals. The U.S. and British amateur champs, along with the top-ranked amateur in the world were already exempt, so that brings the total to 18 amateurs playing in the U.S. Open. You know who isn’t going to play at Chambers Bay next week? Former major winners Vijay Singh, Davis Love III, Stewart Cink and David Toms. Steve Stricker is out, and so are the last two winners on tour, David Lingmerth and Steven Bowdich. They’ve been replaced by the likes of Ollie Schniederjans, Bryson Dechambeau and Gunn Yang. But is this a bad thing? Absolutely not.
These players represent a brand new era of a game that has become younger and more athletic. (Have you noticed that Jason Day, Jordan Speith and Rory McIlroy aren’t physically built like Lee Trevino, Raymond Floyd or Jack Nicklaus?) They all seem to hit the ball a mile and aren’t afraid of anything the golf course throws at them. And oddly enough, two important keys to winning at a nearly 8,000-yard course like Chambers Bay will be power and enthusiasm. These guys will definitely bring a lot of that. Honestly, it wouldn’t shock me if an amateur won the U.S. Open for the first time since 1933.
I can’t wait to walk the course and watch them during the U.S. Open practice rounds because these players are undoubtedly going to win many majors in the years to come. They are absolutely going to be Ryder Cup players and FedEx Cup champions in the near future. They are the new face of golf, and the players of my day are slowly jumping ship to the Champions Tour. And that’s a great thing.
Oh, and if any of you young players that I’ll get to meet next week are reading this, I have one favor to ask: Please don’t call me Mr. Damron. I’m just Robert. You snot-nosed kids have already made me feel old enough.
Former PGA Tour pro Robert Damron is a regular contributor to FOXSports.com's golf coverage. Follow him on Twitter @RobertDDamron.
