With 17 golfers playing off for four spots, Wednesday morning at the U.S. Amateur had the potential to be a long, hard slog.
And, yet, they settled it quite civilly, requiring but two holes to sort it all out. Six made birdie on the first playoff hole to advance to the next playoff hole. Then two of those took bogey on the second, and the 64-player field was set.
Among the survivors was incoming Georgia freshman Zach Healy. For that, he’ll give no small amount of credit to his caddie. Shrewdly he enlisted former Norcross High classmate Bailey Tardy, one of the most accomplished high school girls players around. Tardy, who is committed to Georgia in 2015, was just coming off match play herself at the U.S. Women’s Amateur (she lost in the round of 64). She also has U.S. Women’s Open experience, making her entirely overqualified for the task at hand.
And, best of all for Healy, she is a member at the Atlanta Athletic Club. Every nugget of local knowledge is gold.
Healy was scheduled to go off at 1:50 Wednesday against Cheng-Tsung Pan of Chinese Taipei in the first round of match play.
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