Jack Is Back At Cherry Hills; U.S Amateur Day One Complete

Though Bobby Wyatt leads (Ron Balicki's recap here) after the first round of stroke play qualifying in the U.S. Amateur, the real story of day one was delivered by David Shefter, writing of Jack Nicklaus' cameo to watch reinstated amateur Gary Nicklaus en route to an opening 71 (scores here).

Cherry Hills played to a 76.013 scoring average in round one.

Comments

[KLG]

How many times has Gary Nicklaus been reinstated? Just askin'.

[Elyse]

while it's great that nicklaus beat the field by over 5 strokes and Jack was there to remind us of his us open as an amateur at cherry hills...in no way is it a bigger story than mr 57 calling his 64 "ho hum"

roll tide

[jmr]

hurray for reinstated ams . . . what a joke.

[Tighthead]

This would be Gary's second reinstatement.

I'm okay with guys who played mini tours getting reinstated, and club pros, but if you were all-exempt on the PGA Tour you can't go back.

[BrianS]

Total joke. If he wins, the second place finisher should refuse to accept the award, like the 1972 USA Olympic hoops team.

[JRP]

I co-sign every person on here who stated that this is a joke. The reinstated amateur rules are pathetic....but what should we expect from the same organization that regulates technology? Failures.

[Amen Coroner]

Once a pro always a pro?

[smails]

are we really arguing over whether Gary Nicklaus should be an amateur and try to beat the likes of Patrick Cantlay? Let 'em have at it--i hope he wins, but i'll bet on the other guys.

[Fact Checker]

I think Cantlay signed with Steiny so he's a self stated pro now.

[dbh]

Don't bet on Patrick, smails.

Tighthead, I was just informed by Dillard Pruitt you'll be hitting 3 off the tee the next time you tee it up.

[JRP]

The Sham Am.

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

Dillard Pruitt? You mean the PGA TOUR slowpoke who won the Chattanooga Classic and THEN 11 years later won the Sunnehanna (for the second time) and Canadian Amateur? Chuckling interferes with typing...

Amen: Once a professional golfer, always a professional. Once a golf professional past the apprentice stage, we can talk but you have lots of splainin' to do and maybe a 10-year wait. I don't like to lose, but really don't mind when I get my ass kicked by a better golfer (happens all the time). Unless he is a reinstatement special. I don't think I am alone in that.

[Ghost of Perry Maxwell]

Ghost dont like reinstated ams either, whole reinstated idea is bs

[Tighthead]

dbh - I trust you have recalled my previous angst about Pruitt winning my national am? When you have WON A PGA TOUR EVENT you are of national prominence and can't go back.

F-ing Ghost of Tighthead will still be whining about this in 50 years.

[Smitty]

Hold on, guys! Does Gary use a belly or long putter? Ha-ha!

[Tiny]

Full circle. Fat Jack is back.

[fwiw]

wow.

[digsouth]

Tiny, you read my mind.

Like a virgin, you cannot undo being a pro. Even you semi-pros, who are probably also semi-virgins. USGA(G)

[Amen Coroner]

The line is so blurry now with these college kids who play year round in college, at high end invitationals, major int'l amateur competitions, and an occosional pro event. Besides the only thing that matters is playing with the best. Do you think Jordan Speith et al are actually scared of anyone this week or simply eager to take on all comers in the ultimate sporting search whereby one can examine his or her own game? Not me cause I always am looking for ways to improve.

Klg, what does it matter when you are that good that you have qualified for the toughest Am competition in the world?

[KLG]

@Amen: Not sure I get your point. Kind of sounds like Trevino (sort of) dissing Jones back in the day because six of his Majors were Amateur Championships by saying that, "Hell, I could beat a bunch of amateurs" (I paraphrase). Yes, he could have. Jones was a financially comfortable but not particularly rich amateur by post-Gilded Age standards who played golf part time. And he did not disdain the professionals of his day, btw, which misunderstanding might have motivated Lee to some extent. Along with a likely well founded animus towards ANGC and Clifford Roberts. And no, I don't think Jordan Spieth is afraid of anyone on the golf course. Nor should he be. He is an outstanding golfer and outstanding young man by all accounts. I just don't think he is all that much of an amateur, even if he does currently play for the "love of the game." There must be a word similar to "cognoscenti" for that but I can't come up with it right now, except for "amateur." Get back to me in 5 years if Jordan Spieth is still playing in the US and British Amateurs and both Opens while practicing law most of the year, and I will revise and extend my remarks. In any case, I would imagine that the top 300 professionals in the world could qualify more or less easily in any given year for the US Amateur, in which case neither Jordan Spieth nor any of one his cohort would be the betting favorite. But that would seem to miss the entire point of this particular Championship. Wouldn't it?

[Jeff]

What's all the fuss over amateur status? The whole thing is silly. I mean, what the heck is an amateur anyway? And why should it matter? Talk about a complete waste. The U.S. Amateur is so dead and gone. Shoot it already.

[Amen Coroner]

Klg my point is akin to asking who was the last re-instated pro to win the US Am?

[jstiles]

He has qualified for USGA Mid Am and should do better at that venue. Mid Am doesn't have all the full time semi-almost-pros from college who get all the free golf equipment, practice, and training they want.

[Ghost of Perry Maxwell]

USGA MIDAM is full of reinstated pros, wrong jstiles

[johnnnycz]

Turning pro and then getting re-instated as an amateur should be handled by golf's PTB much in the same way as a one would undertake a sex-change operation: To first take the plunge, one needs to be in for the long haul and commit, for those confused or flakey souls who change their minds every 2 days...then going back to amateurish golf should be a loooooong and arduous journey no matter how good they were or how much money they won....5-10 years sounds about right.

regulars here know that I used to play full time.... 99.999% mini/micro-tours in the late 90's and I still to this day cannot allow myself to play against any amateurs in any club match for sort of official trophy and/or prizes even though they tell me I am more than welcome to enter/play, I just feel like such a pirate/poacher if I end up kicking it around and end up winning with a 3 or 4 over par...I just can't get myself to do it....the exception being my home club in grand ole Cowtown where I learned the game and still hold membership status and it's fun to actually play 3 days of semi-serious tourney golf in a row w/ my regular "talented hacker" buddies old and new once every 2 or 3 years.

[dbh]

@Tighthead, no, I just chose the most egregious example I could think of the bona fide TOUR pro become reinstated amateur. I actually completely agree with you. I was too glib; sorry if it struck a nerve.

[DTF]

John Harris won the US Am at Champions back in 1993. Has a reinstated pro won it since?

[Tighthead]

dbh - not a nerve at all, I was flattered. The Pruitt one has always grated - he beat a friend of a friend in the final, and I have whined about it on here a time or two.

A guy who had one on tour beat a financial planner.

[Amen Coroner]

Thanks DTF. Upon closer inspection Harris re-gained his amateur status in '83 so it only took him 10 years to find enough of his former pro game to win the US Am. If being a re-instated am is so egregious then why didn't he win in '84?

[jstiles]

Ghost, yes on reinstated numbers, but the mid am field will be weaker than am field with no current college, no current all americans, no current all conference at mid am. I think that is one reason mid am was created in the first place, to give the reinstated pros somewhere to play.

Mid Am doesn't have all the full time semi-almost-pros from college who get all the free golf equipment, practice, and training they want. College players are really pros but by definition, paid and outfitted very well to play and practice and travel.

[Hilltop]

I bet Gary will be hitting the Senior Tour in seven years.