Beau Hossler certainly captured the fancy of American sports fans last week at the U.S. Open, and in all likelihood Coloradans will have an up-close and personal opportunity this summer to find out what all the fascination is about.
Hossler (pictured), the 17-year-old Californian who held the outright lead in the Open during the second round in San Francisco, is a very good bet to be in the field for the 2012 U.S. Amateur, which will be played Aug. 13-19 at Cherry Hills Country Club and CommonGround Golf Course.
Any amateur who qualifies for the 2012 U.S. Open is exempt from qualifying for the U.S. Am. And considering Hossler not only earned a spot in the U.S. Open but made the cut and finished 29th overall, all he has to do to play in the national amateur is to enter by the June 27 deadline.
The same, by the way, goes for the low amateur at the Olympic Club, Jordan Spieth. It’s also the case for the other amateurs competitors in the Open, including 14-year-old Andy Zhang, the youngest player in the history of the U.S. Open.
Obviously, all of those exemptions depend on the U.S. Open qualifiers remaining amateurs for the next couple of months. Spieth, who as a freshman led the University of Texas to the NCAA title earlier this month, indicated on Sunday he plans to return to college and help the Longhorns “make another run.”
Patrick Cantlay, runner-up in the U.S. Amateur last year and low amateur at the 2012 Masters, is another matter. After completing his sophomore season at UCLA, he will make his professional debut at this week’s Travelers Championship on the PGA Tour.
The decision “was a combination of being comfortable with being a professional and taking it to the next level,” said Cantlay, who recently won the Ben Hogan Award, given to the top men’s player in college and amateur events over the previous 12 months.
Cantlay, of course, made a big splash last summer by shooting a 60 in the Travelers Championship, one of four PGA Tour events in which he finished in the top 25.
Spieth, meanwhile, was the top-ranked college golfer in the nation for much of the season and he won three college events as a freshman.
As for Hossler, whether to return to college is not a concern for the foreseeable future. You see, he still has his senior year remaining at Santa Margarita Catholic High School near Los Angeles before becoming a University of Texas golfer.
At the U.S. Open, Hossler drew considerable national TV attention, especially before dropping back with a final-round 76. The fans at the 18th hole on Sunday gave him a standing ovation.
“When he looks back” on this week, “he will get chills,” Spieth said of Hossler. “… Beau was leading the U.S. Open as a 17-year-old amateur. That’s out of this world.”
Despite being only 17, Hossler already has competed in the U.S. Amateur twice, including as a 14-year-old in 2009. He made it to the second round of match play last year, when Spieth was a quarterfinalist.
And in competing in the last two U.S. Opens, Hossler became the first high school golfer to qualify for the event in consecutive years since Mason Rudolph in 1950-51.
