Ollie Schniederjans is dead-eyed serious about his undergrad studies in excellence. A real student in the art of hanging flesh on the biggest of dreams. Thus, some could say that losing a round of 16 match at the U.S. Amateur was a valuable learning experience.
And it was, in the same way that sticking a fork in the light socket could be called a toddler’s valuable introduction to electricity.
There could not have been a soul on the Atlanta Athletic Club grounds more deflated by Thursday than the hometown favorite who ran into birdie buzz saw named Gunn Yang.
“Who is that guy?” said a slightly stunned Schniederjans, the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world. “I’ve never heard of him. He’s going to be incredible. He’s the best player in the world — today, he is.”
Yes, for perhaps the first time in his distinguished golfing life, Schniederjans can say he was out-Gunned.
Ambushed, too, for down in the lower reaches of the rankings, down below the water table, is where you will find the San Diego State sophomore (No. 776 to be precise).
Three consecutive birdies Yang threw at Schniederjans at the finish, unmindful of the couple hundred fans trailing them who were just looking for some excuse to break into the Georgia Tech fight song. Yang closed out the match with the bold flourish of a guy who had nothing to lose, driving to the narrowest part of the fairway on the par-5 18th, casually flying the water in front of the green and taking his two-putt birdie from 18 feet like it was his birthright.
This was supposed to be Schniederjans’ stage, his town, his tournament. He grew up just down the street, is a senior at the local institute of technology and had reached such a height of popularity in these parts that those in the gallery were beginning to say his name without spraining their tongues.
He had big plans for this week, and he wasn’t afraid to give them voice.
“I’m so disappointed, extremely disappointed, because it would have been amazing here on the weekend if I was still here. And that’s not going to happen now,” he said.
His coach at Georgia Tech, Bruce Heppler, talks about how Schniederjans designs to be more than an average PGA Tour player, about how he wants someday to be counted among the best. That was one of his player’s inspirations for returning for his senior season when he just as easily could have gone pro — to learn how to cope with being No. 1, the marked man.
“You don’t learn that stuff finishing 15th in a Web.com event,” Heppler said.
“When he stepped to the tee on Monday, I told him: You want to know what Rory McIlroy will feel like when he steps to the first tee at Augusta? You’re feeling it now,” Heppler said. “The players going against Rory are better, of course, but the emotions and feelings and nerves, they’re all the same, regardless of the competition. When you’re the guy, the world No. 1, in your hometown, all he could really do was screw it up.”
Schniederjans struggled just to get out of the stroke-play portion of the U.S. Amateur early in the week. And Thursday was nothing but a long, hard slog. It took Schniederjans 20 holes to rid himself of Louisiana high school senior Sam Burns in the day’s first match. He was 3 up with four holes to play and still backed himself into the corner of elimination, allowing Burns to win two of those closing holes with a bogey. The best Schniederjans could say was that he survived and advanced.
In the afternoon against Yang, Schniederjans expressed his dominance with three birdies on his first four holes to get out to a 2 up lead. But then he hit an errant tee shot on No. 5 and, Yang said, “That’s the time when I kind of was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to focus on my game again, because he can make a mistake.” The seed of hope had been planted.
From there, the underdog stayed at the favorite’s heels until growing a whole new set of canines on those closing three holes. Yang hit his wedge approach to No. 16 to 10 feet for birdie, hit another wedge tee shot to seven feet on No. 17 and was flawless on the 18th.
Schniederjans played well; he would have shot a 3-under 68 under stroke-play conditions. But, the mid-range putts eluded him. “It was like brutal,” he said, “I couldn’t buy a single ball to drop on the greens, and he made them.”
This is what he said he learned from the U.S. Amateur experience: “I got to figure out how to get a little more focused, less careless. I played a little too fast, a little bit careless sometimes. I need to give it a better chance every time. I misread too many putts, misjudged too many shots.”
School at Tech starts Monday. The lessons there shouldn’t breed such anguish.
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