My Year in Golf: Andy Zhang reflects on his historic season
Editor's note: Andy Zhang became the youngest player - and the first from China - to play in the U.S. Open, moving into the field on the Monday of competition week after Paul Casey withdrew due to injury. Zhang would go on to make appearances in Switzerland, Korea and Australia, while also playing in the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Junior. Needless to say, it was a historic year for the 14-year-old. He took some time to reflect on his year with this "My Year in Golf," completing our series on 2012.
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It has been a fun year, so I think it’s good to make this little document so when I look back few years from now I will still think it happened yesterday. I want to thank my mom, dad, sister, (caddie) Chris Gold and (coach) Andrew Park. Without you guys my year would not be the same!
It all began on a windy day in Florida… it changed my year, my life and history . . .
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January
This is the month of the beginning. It is the beginning of a new year, a new relationship, and a new story to be told. My dad went up to Chris ...
Masuda: Zhang is proof that dreams are always worth chasing
Editor's note: For our entire "My Year in Golf" series, click here.
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"Psst! "
I looked around to see who was trying to get my attention.
It was David Shefter, newsman extraordinaire for the USGA.
"Hey, (Brandt) Snedeker just withdrew (from the U.S. Open). Jordan Spieth is in."
We all had kind of expected Spieth to join the party coming into the week.
I smiled, and being the inquisitive dude that I am, asked, "Who's next?"
"Your kid, Andy Zhang."
Yep, he had become "my kid" - from both the USGA and the six other Golfweek staffers in the seventh row of the media room at Olympic Club in San Francisco.
Days earlier, Zhang played the part of a wide-eyed 14-year-old who had narrowly missed out automatically qualifying for America's championship, losing to Florida State All-American Brooks Koepka in a one-hole playoff at Black Diamond Ranch in Lecanto, Fla.
"I was a bit nervous (on the tee at the 18th)," said Zhang, a native of China. "So much was on the line for me. I had birdied the 18th before, but I just went right with my tee shot, and that made it difficult."
He didn't have ...
2012 in architecture: 7 courses that made a difference
It would be nice to be able to tie a thematic ribbon around golf course architecture and summarize a whole year in review with a catchy phrase. The slow pace of design, development, permitting, construction and grow-in render such pronouncements a bit forced and artificial. And yet there are ways to hand-pick certain moments of the past year as if they were road markers on a longer journey.
There’s no doubt that a common theme throughout the U.S. for 2012 has been a new realism in golf course design and operations, with many facilities taking a closer look at budgets and trying to simplify maintenance. The more pragmatic approach extends to tee placement and playing yardages for average golfers – more and more of whom are setting out at 6,200-6,400 yards (for men) rather than flexing their imaginary muscles and trying to take on courses at 7,000 yards or more.
Equally comforting is to see many courses actually shortening their forward tee markers so that the most frequent users of them (it’s not a violation of PC norms to observe empirically that most such players from these tees are women) are playing more often at ...
Stein: Cherry Hills' beauty, epic U.S. Am matches top 2012
Editor's note: For our entire "My Year in Golf" series, click here.
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Before I came to Golfweek, I had an internship with the U.S. Golf Association. Needless to say, it was definitely one of the coolest experiences of my life.
I got to travel to four of the USGA's championships over the summer: U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links, U.S. Women’s Open, U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Amateur.
The one I was looking forward to the most was the U.S. Amateur. It is the biggest amateur event known to the golfing world, so every amateur player strives to play in this championship, and seeing the top players in the world play at one course was indescribable.
Cherry Hills has an impressive track record with USGA championships. The 1960 U.S. Open when Arnold Palmer drove the first green in the final round and went on to win; the 1990 U.S. Amateur when Phil Mickelson won; and the 1993 Senior Open when Jack Nicklaus won after coming back after a hard defeat at the U.S. Open as an amateur just 33 years before.
The images of the course replay in ...
Williams: A fast-paced, unpredictable year on the road
Editor's note: For our entire "My Year in Golf" series, click here.
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The No. 1 criticism I hear about our sport is that it can lack excitement – golf moves too slow and takes too long to play. My fourth year covering it at the women’s amateur and college level was nothing like that. And if there was a theme to the year, it was that match play lends a totally different feel to competitive golf.
I had never seen links golf in the flesh until traveling to Nairn, Scotland for the Curtis Cup in June. Early week, the eight U.S. team members, all current college players, told me how much of an adjustment they were having to make to links golf. Just from following them around Nairn Golf Club, I could tell the howling, bone-chilling north wind was going to be a major factor. The pot bunkers and gorse were downright frightening.
As an aside, I had the chance to escape mid-week with my colleague Alistair Tait, and fit in a quick (a very quick) round at Royal Dornoch, just down the road. I knew it was going to be tough when Alistair and I halved the ...
Schupak: Augusta National still makes the heart beat faster
Editor's note: For our entire "My Year in Golf" series, click here.
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I was there when Bubba Watson hit the most memorable golf shot of the year. You know the one.
I attended 22 golf tournaments this year -- big and small -- but one topped the rest: taking my best friend from high school to his first Masters.
Something about Augusta National makes the patter of my heart beat a little faster. It always has. I remember my first time in 1999. It was a Wednesday practice round. I could hardly sleep the night before. I always tell people that few things live up to the hype like your first time at Augusta.
But some of us in the golf industry get jaded. I'm not going to name names but I know several longtime golf executives for whom a trip to the Masters each spring is as appealing as a trip to the dentist's chair. I don't want to become one of those guys.
Yet truth be told, when Evan, my high school pal, said to me this spring, "How cool would it be to go to the final-round of the Masters?" my response was lukewarm. Part ...
Babineau: Dramatic Ryder Cup comeback takes the cake in 2012
'Twas the morning of Christmas, and after another year spent traversing the globe to cover this great game, there are more than sugar plums dancing in my head. A few golf orbs are flying, too. Here are a few parting thoughts as we close the final chapter of 2012:
For all its hype – and even though we get one only once every other year – the Ryder Cup, thankfully, sure lives up to its tall billing. When I look back at the season that was 2012, which began in January at Kapalua and ended in December closer to home at the PNC Father-Son Challenge, it’s the Ryder Cup at Medinah outside Chicago that emerges front and center.
This autumn’s edition seemed destined to be a U.S. rout mid-Saturday afternoon, that is until Englishman Ian Poulter slipped into a phone booth, donned a cape and birdied the final five holes to pull out a huge point in four-balls that at least gave the Euros a tiny glimmer of hope. The visitors entered Sunday's singles session trailing their hosts by four points.
“You just never know when digging deep like that can make a difference,” Luke Donald said standing ...
Balicki: Plenty of tears - good and bad - were shed in 2012
Editor's note: For our entire "My Year in Golf" series, click here.
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Tears of joy. Tears of heartbreak. Smiles of elation. Frowns of disappointment.
I’ve seen plenty of them all this past year along the travels on my amateur and college tournament trail. And no matter the case, each left a lasting memory in my year in golf.
Topping the tears of joy list had to be the Smith family - dad Larry, mom Vicki and son Nathan.
The family shared and shed those tears in early September at Conway Farms Golf Club shortly after Nathan, 34, of Pittsburgh, scored a 1-up victory over Canada’s Garrett Rank to secure a record fourth U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship.
When the 36-hole final match finally came to an end, Vicki made her way onto the 18th green and embraced her son.
“Nathan never cries, but he did this time,” Vicki said shortly afterwards. “We hugged and he broke down. And, of course, so did I.”
Larry has been Nathan’s caddie in each of his U.S. Mid-Amateur victories (2003, ’09, ’10, and ’12). Sitting in the clubhouse about a half hour after play he was asked what this one meant ...
Romine: From raccoons to big comebacks, '12 was a year to remember
Editor's note: For our entire "My Year in Golf" series, click here.
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Like a good number of my colleagues, my year in golf did not include a major. It didn’t include the Ryder Cup. In fact, it included just one professional event – the Children’s Miracle Networks Hospitals Classic at Disney, which is right in my backyard.
But what it did include were trips and events that a lot of golf writers didn’t get a chance to experience in 2012.
Rather than knock out five or six hefty paragraphs recapping my year in golf – or my half-year considering I was hired full-time in April – here’s a list of some things (golf-related) I learned this year in my first year in the business.
I learned that…
• No lead is safe. And no, I'm not talking about the Ryder Cup. Jim Liu led 5 up through 18 holes of his championship match against Andy Shim in the U.S. Junior Amateur. And by the time the players walked off the 15th green for the second time that day, Shim had won 4 and 3. It was the largest final-match comeback in the tournament’s 65-year history.
• Oh ...
Achenbach: Our focus should be on growing recreational golf
Editor's note: For our entire "My Year in Golf" series, click here.
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I’m supposed to be optimistic.
So here I go:
Golf is irreplaceable. It is the world’s greatest game. It is hypnotic for both spectators and participants. We can watch it all our lives. We can play it all our lives.
I conclude that golf is the anti-aging sport.
I look at golf’s major championships, and I say to myself, “Super Bowl times four.” Golf is captivating at its highest level and seductive at an everyday level. Golfers and golf watchers alike are lucky to have discovered the game.
So what’s wrong? Why don’t I really feel optimistic?
I have to be truthful: My concern focuses on recreational golf, and my confidence was dented in 2012. Despite modest increases in rounds played, other factors threaten the future of the game.
Golf remains too expensive. That being said, I salute all golf courses in the United States with greens fees less than $50.
Golf remains too time consuming. I am betting more and more people will leave the game because they are unwilling to spend an entire day preparing for and completing one 18-hole ...
From waggles to weddings to Woods, Jeff Rude looks back at '12
Editor's note: For our entire "My Year in Golf" series, click here.
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Flipping through the calendar, front to back, I remember being there ...
When Hank Kuehne and Rickie Fowler played a money game against Jesper Parnevik and Luke Donald at Medalist Golf Club a few holes away from where Tiger Woods was practicing by himself.
When somebody’s tee shot hit Michael Jordan’s cart at Derek Jeter’s charity outing and MJ playfully yelled out, “Some people shouldn’t be golfing.”
When C.C. Sabbathia told me at Jeter’s deal that when he pitches well people don’t think he’s fat and when he pitches poorly people say that he needs to lose weight.
When Tony Jacklin went on and on at Concession Golf Club about the Ryder Cup and you couldn’t get enough.
When Kyle Stanley somehow blew a seven-stroke on Sunday at the Farmers Insurance Open and cried a river, a week before he remarkably came from eight back to win at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
When Stanley said he was at peace with the blowup two days later and then showed he wasn’t kidding.
When Dana Quigley played the Allianz ...
Yasuda: Reflecting on a year filled with growth potential
Editor's note: For our entire "My Year in Golf" series, click here.
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Looking back on 2012, a single number jumps out at me: 7.4.
That figure represents the percentage increase in rounds played in the U.S. through September, according to the latest industry report.
Viewed simply as an empirical measure, it's something, perhaps, that only a statistical geek would love. But for me, it symbolizes much more: It's a reminder of just how resilient golf is, and more importantly, how much healthier it can be.
For more than a decade, I've written about the game's stagnation and attended countless conferences promoting solutions to attract more players to the sport. Generally speaking, those gatherings exhibited an interest in addressing golf's woes, but hardly an unwavering commitment to solve them. The latter finally surfaced in 2012 when Joe Steranka – in his last major initiative as chief executive of the PGA of America – put his association's resources behind Golf 2.0, the industry's first master plan to retain existing players and to target a spectrum of consumer groups to recruit newcomers.
It's still too early to grade Golf 2.0's performance ...
Martin: Finding the unknown golfer highlights 2012 season
Editor's note: For our entire "My Year in Golf" series, click here.
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Michael Weaver and Steven Fox sat with their fathers on the porch of Cherry Hills’ clubhouse in August, throwing back some of the course’s famed milkshakes while sharing stories of their day’s success on their cell phones.
Golf was on the flat-screen television, specifically a tape-delayed broadcast of their victories in the U.S. Amateur’s semifinals, allowing them to relive the greatest day of their golfing lives. It was a moment these fathers and sons would remember the rest of their lives, regardless of the following day’s outcome.
They’d turned into quasi-celebrities for this one week in Denver. They signed autographs after their victories in the U.S. Amateur semifinals and were invited to a luxury box for that evening’s Denver Broncos preseason game, where they’d be shown on the JumboTron. They weren’t even the best players on their college teams this year, but they’d earned invitations to the Masters and the U.S. Open, and they did so with their fathers on the bag.
My myriad duties at Golfweek allow me to see a lot of moments ...
McCabe: From McIlroy's ride with the cops to gators on the course
Editor's note: For our entire "My Year in Golf" series, click here.
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Some frame a photo and offer it prominent space in their memory to commemorate an entire year. No harm there. But it speaks more passionately to the grandness of this game we cherish to embrace an album of snapshots, most of them taken not inside the ropes, but on the periphery.
They may have been out of sight to most, but they are in my mind at season’s end.
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You ask yourself what would have happened had Ian Poulter not done the unthinkable at the close of Saturday’s four-ball session in the biennial Ryder Cup? Making five straight birdies to steal a point from the Americans, Poulter not only gave the Europeans hope, he scored – in my humble opinion – the greatest golf highlight of the season.
But here is the question that lingers from that epic three-day event: Has anyone stopped to think what might have been had Erica Stoll and Maggie Budzar not been so professional, so proficient, so conscientious?
Erica Stoll and Maggie Budzar?
That’s right, amid a star-studded cast of golf’s greatest players in the sport’s most thrilling theater ...
My Year in Golf: Baldry goes inside the tour of dreamers
Editor's note: For our entire "My Year in Golf" series, click here.
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While driving into the media parking lot on Sunday at the Wegmans LPGA Championship, I stopped and rolled down the window to talk with Meredith Duncan, who was clutching trial-sized toiletries she had picked up in the Wegmans fan zone. The LPGA’s funny girl was hurting that morning, emotionally spent from this maddening game. When I think back on my year in golf, the scene with Duncan is seared in my mind.
I cover a tour of dreamers. Some of the women on the LPGA live enviable lives, traveling the globe first class and living in tony, gated communities with memberships at top-shelf clubs. A handful of players make more money in one year than most of us will ever see.
Duncan, however, brings us back to reality. She estimated it would cost her $35,000 to play 2012 and made $3,301 in earnings. After writing about Duncan’s need to recycle cans, mow yards and sleep on air mattresses to make ends meet, I received several emails from fans wanting to donate to her PayPal account or inquire about a corporate sponsorship. Some had ...
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Photos: Cherry Hills Country Club
Cherry Hills Country Club
