US Amateur returns to charm, contradiction of SF’s Olympic Club

The Lake Course at Olympic Club, hanging on the western edge of San Francisco, is a marvelous blend of challenge, charm, and contradiction.  

From the third tee, you can see the Golden Gate Bridge. But on a foggy day, not unusual, you might not be able to see the fairway from the first tee.

At Olympic, where the 125th U.S. Amateur will be played starting Monday, also offers what members call reverse camber, meaning on certain holes, such as the fourth, you need to hit left but you are leaning right. 

To some, Olympic, which opened in 1924, on the dunes west of Twin Peaks, is best known as the place Arnold Palmer blew a 7-shot lead in the 1966 U.S. Open, losing to Billy Casper. It’s a place without a water hazard and only one fairway bunker, but there are dozens and dozens of trees. 

The first two days of the Amateur are qualifying at stroke play on both the more famous Lake Course and the Ocean Course. A field of 312 players with minuscule handicaps of 2.4 or lower will compete for one of the 64 spots in match play, which begins Wednesday on the Lake.

Not surprisingly, there is no defending champion. The winner invariably turns pro as did Spain’s Jose Luis Ballester, who last year defeated Noah Kent 2-up in the final at Hazeltine.  

This is the fourth amateur at Olympic. Charles Coe won in 1958, Nathaniel Crosby—yes, Bing’s son—in 1981, and Colt Knost in 2007.

Along the way in his distinguished career, Arnie did win an Amateur, in 1954. Phil Mickelson also won one, Jack Nicklaus two, as did Northern California’s Lawson Little Jr., and Tiger Woods three. The record, not unexpectedly, is five, by Bobbie Jones, whose final triumph in 1930 was part of the historic Grand Slam, when he took the US and British Amateurs and US and British Opens.

While the amateur game doesn’t have the glamour in this era of the big-money PGA Tour tournaments, the championship is still a great attraction.  

Especially with the format.

It’s been said that while stroke play may be a better test of golf, match play may be a better test of character.  How does a golfer respond when he or she is one down and approaching the final hole?

The top players this year, off their records, would seem to be Jackson Koivun, who plays for Auburn University (and was born in San Jose); Benjamin James, University of Virginia, and Ethan Fang, now at Oklahoma State after transferring from Cal.

Recognizable names include John Daly II, University of Arkansas, who, unlike his father, has been able to keep himself on the straight and narrow, and Luke Poulter, University of Florida, son of one-time European Ryder Cup star, Ian. Another interesting entrant is Baron Szeto of Moraga, who played at Cal Poly SLO and recorded a hole-in-one during Amateur qualifying at Ohio State’s Scarlet Course.

Wonder how he will handle reverse camber?