The other guy from the Augusta State golf dynasty of 2010-2011, the one who never once claimed to be top five in the world, the one never asked to leave Athens on the next electric cart out of town, the steady one, grabbed himself a little headline Monday.
Henrik Norlander is going to the U.S. Open, his first major, after finishing low man in sectional qualifying at Ansley Golf Club-Settindown Creek in Roswell. His 4 under 140 over 36 holes led the field of 31 who played for two spots in next week’s Open at Pinehurst, N.C.
In second, two back of Norlander, was 22-year-old just-graduated LSU golfer Carter Smylie Kaufman. He goes by Smylie, a family name borrowed from a grandmother’s cousin. That also was a homonym for his attitude, upon putting up a five-under 67 in the morning round and barely living off the interest of that deposit to the end. He had only one stroke to spare to the two players behind him, who will be U.S. Open alternates.
“If you had told me I’d do this last December or January, I probably would have laughed in your face. Everything has just clicked these last two months,” a smiley Smylie, another first-time major player, said.
What we learned Monday was that, yes, there were other golfers on the upstart program in Augusta that once claimed back-to-back national titles other than the mercurial Patrick Reed. Why, Norlander even was a three-time All-American at the school.
Reed, an Augusta State (now Georgia Regents) Jaguar after the Georgia Bulldogs cut him loose, owned the PGA Tour early this season. His “top five” comment during the Florida swing bemused many of his peers. Meanwhile, his former teammate Norlander was scuffling along on the Web.com Tour, having gained and lost his PGA Tour privileges in 2013.
Norlander took a decidedly different route to Pinehurst than did Kaufman. There is no one way to qualify for the U.S. Open.
The Swede started in reverse, two over for his first five holes of the “longest day in golf.”
“This was great boost for me, a really good patience test for me,” Norlander said. Feeling not the first stirrings of panic after the slow start, rallying when on other occasions this year he has flagged (five missed cuts in nine Web.com starts), Norlander suddenly started hitting everything straight. He was 4 under on his back nine in the morning, and come the afternoon, “I maybe missed one green,” he said. His was a very steady 2-under 70 over his second 18 holes, as he went unchallenged to the lead.
The young Kaufman is obviously a morning person. In one nine-hole stretch of his first 18, the kid posted seven birdies, going to 5 under for the day. It wasn’t that easy out there — the greens were as slick as oilskin — but Kaufman was making light of the place.
It fought back in the afternoon — he managed but a 3-over 75. Finishing early, Kaufman sweated out a few challenges from the rear, having built, as it turned out, just enough cushion.
He is on a golfing high right now, and can likely float from his home in Birmingham all the way to Pinehurst. He finished second in the SEC Tournament, sixth in the NCAA regionals and 19th in the NCAAs. And seemed astounded by it all.
“The last couple months I’m playing better than I ever dreamed I could play,” he said.
“I’m ball-striking the crap out of it now,” he gushed.
Ansley Golf Club-Settindown Creek was one of 12 sectional qualifying sites in the U.S., England and Japan. Among the small field here were two players with Georgia Bulldogs connections.Senior-to-be Mookie Demoss finished a 2 over, done in by an afternoon quadruple bogey 7 on his 34th hole of the day. And former Bulldog Adam Mitchell finished 7 over.
Georgia Tech’s Ollie Schniederjans, one of the favorites entering the day, received a harsh lesson on the fickleness of his chosen sport. Two weeks ago, in preparation for the NCAA Tournament, he shot a 62 on this course, with a hole-in-one on the 137-yard No. 7. At the NCAAs he stayed hot, losing in a three-hole playoff for the individual title.
Then Monday, the No. 4-ranked amateur player in the world went out in the morning and shot an 83. Out of it, he nonetheless returned for the afternoon 18, and for his trouble shot a 76 to finish 15 over for the day. The afternoon round featured a two-stroke penalty for playing the wrong ball on his way to his second quadruple bogey of the day.
“Everything that could go wrong went wrong. It was almost laughable,” Schniederjans, from nearby Powder Springs, said.
He was just about golfed out after a long college season, Schniederjans said.
“I just didn’t have the grind in me like I usually do,” he said. “I was worn out and couldn’t keep my intensity. I’m a little disappointed in myself because of that.”
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