Jimmy Beck turned a potential disaster into a Georgia Amateur championship.
The Kennesaw State junior was dangerously close to the white out-of-bounds stakes with his tee shot on his 15th hole — the sixth hole at Pinetree Country Club. Although he was safely in play, he remained 209 yards away from the pin on a less-than-desirable lie. He responded by launching a shot with a hybrid that stopped three feet short of the pin.
Beck made that birdie putt on the hole rated as the toughest on the course to move into a tie. He added a birdie on the next hole to take the outright lead and closed with two pars to shoot 2-under 69. That left him at 1-over 285 for the week, good enough for a two-shot win over Travis Williamson of Brunswick at the 92nd Georgia Amateur at Pinetree Country Club.
“I was probably lucky on No. 6 (his 15th hole) especially after the tee shot,” Beck said. “I was really just trying to hit it in the front bunker.” He wound up with a kick-in birdie.
On the next hole Beck placed his drive perfectly between the two fairway bunkers and dropped his wedge approach about 12 feet from the flag. He made the birdie and took the lead for the first time.
“I hit it about as good as I’ve ever hit it there,” Beck said.
Beck, a native of Columbus, began the day two shots behind two-time champion David Noll Jr. of Dalton and one stroke behind Ridge Purcell of LaGrange and Williamson. Beck competes at a high level; he was second at the Southeastern Amateur last month. Beck owns the competitive course record of 65 at Pinetree, but said he didn’t have a score in mind when the final round began.
“I wasn’t looking for a number,” he said. “Out here anything can happen.”
For Noll and Williamson it happened late. And it wasn’t good.
Williamson, a junior at Armstrong Atlantic, took the steady approach and trailed by one going to his 17th hole. There he hit his worse swing of the day, hitting his tee shot on the 197-yard par 3 into the thick grass beside the green. He wound up with a double-bogey and shot 72, 3-over for the tournament.
“One bad swing,” Williamson said. “I made a big number at a time when you can’t make a big number.”
Noll, who was battling sinus issues all weekend, drove the green on his 14th hole, but missed the eagle putt that would have given him a share of the lead. He wound up making bogeys on the last three holes to shoot 76 and dropped into a tie for fifth at 290.
Sepp Straka of Valdosta, David Watts of Chatsworth and Jeff Knox of Augusta tied for third at 5-over 289.
The win marked the first time the winning score has been over par since 1998 at Ocean Forest. Beck, who has won two college tournaments, became the eighth college player to win the Georgia Amateur in the last 10 competitions. To celebrate he and a teammate are leaving this week for a vacation in Spain — without golf clubs — and will return just in time for the U.S. Amateur qualifier.
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