A big 11 days of golf get under way tomorrow at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., fittingly, the home of five-time PGA champ Walter Hagen, with the PGA Championship. Should be a terrific weekend, with the strongest field of the year’s four majors and all kinds of story lines:
- Can Tiger win his 15th major after this agonizingly long drought without a major triumph? Let’s hope not.
- Can Phil Mickelson win his sixth after his spctacular victory at the Open Championship at Muirfield? Let’s hope so. Most everyone IS rooting for this fellow, me included.
- Can former Salem CC golf director Kirk Hanefeld make the cut at the age of 57? We hope so. Go Kirk!
- Watch out for Jordan Spieth.
Now to the other special event in golf — the 113thh United States Amateur from The Country Club in Brookline. After meeting and chatting with — and hitting a few practice balls alongside — defending champ Steven Fox during Amateur Media Day last month, you cannont wish anything but the best to this humble, clean cut, young man from University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.
Fox hasn’t done much since his dramatic victory last year at Cherry Hill outside Denver, but he’d enjoyed a marvelous ride as U.S. Amateur champion, competing in the Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship, though missing the cut in all three. Defend well, Steven.
Local hopes rest with Indian Ridge’s Colin Brennan, the 2012 MGA Richard D. Haskell Player of the Year and soon-to-become professional. This is Colin’s first and last Amateur. May he give it his best shot in the two days of stroke play qualifying at Brookline and Charles River and maybe — just maybe — he’ll pull off a Jim Hallet and make a strong run in match play. His caddy will be Salem CC member and long-time chim Matt O’Keefe, a fine player in his own right.
Congrats, lastly, to ageless wonder Cy Kilgore, 59, who won his record 17th Tedesco club championship, rallying from a three-down deficit after 11 holes in the 18-hole final and won out on the 19th over Chuck DeGrande.