Unforgettable Moments at Hazeltine: A New Amateur Champion Emerges
The 2024 US amateur championship concluded Sunday at Hazeltine, a course that has seen many legendary Sunday finishes like the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in 2019 or the Ryder Cup in 2016, and of course, how could we forget the legendary duel between Tiger and Rich Beem in 2002. This week an amateur wrote his name in the record books at this historic course, Jose Luis Ballester became the first from Spain to win the US Amateur. Not only did he win, he did it against one of the strongest fields in the world with a World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) event rating of 996.2581 to add context the average event holds around a 20-35 rating on WAGR. So how did he do it? By doing what we are always told to do in match play "try and make pars." In the championship match, he won 5 holes by just making par. He stayed patient and let his opponent make mistakes while seizing the opportunities when he had them. This coupled with his good deminer, and pro-level course management helped put the Sundevil over the top. This event gives us a glimpse of the future of the college golf world where almost half of the best amateurs are from outside of the USA. 24 of the 50 best amateurs in the world are from other countries. This new wave of young golfers will come from all over the world. College coaches seem to be the first to notice this, as the number of international golfers in the NCAA has seen an upward trend. With Jose Luis Ballester’s victory this week a whole new wave of Spaniards has been motivated to take on the game of golf and as more internationals write their name in the history books a plethora of motivated kids shall follow them to the college golf level.
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