"IF YOU LIKE GOLF"
online golf column
by
Chris Dortch

August 18, 2007

When fall semester classes begin at UTC next Monday, half the golf team won’t be there. The Mocs will be attending to previous engagements.

Don’t misunderstand. Coach Mark Guhne hasn’t suddenly softened and begun to tolerate ditching class, unless of course, his players have a legitimate reason to be away.

The U.S. Amateur, now that’s a legitimate reason. Two current Mocs, junior Jonathan Hodge and sophomore Derek Rende, will be making the trip to famed Olympic Club in San Francisco, joined by former Moc Bryce Ledford. Stroke play qualifying begins on Monday.

A fourth member of the team, sophomore Fredrik Qvicker, has currently got his hands full in the European Tour’s Scandinavian Masters after shooting a 5-under-par 65 in the first round. He’s one stroke off the lead in a field of pros that includes Jesper Parnevik and John Daly.

“It’s incredible,” Guhne said when his three players advanced through 36-hole qualifying in Knoxville last month. “It’s just another validation of our program.”

It has been a great couple of months for the Mocs. In May they advanced to their first-ever NCAA Regionals and Rende won the Tennessee Open. Then Rende, Ledford and Hodge played their way into the Amateur, Hodge for the second year in a row. Over in Nashville this week, three Mocs—Tyler Neff, Tripp Harris and Nick Blakely—made the cut at the Tennessee Amateur, Neff shooting a tournament-low 64 to offset an opening 81.

For Rende and Ledford, playing at Olympic Club represents the culmination of several years of hard work. Ledford had tried four other times to qualify. He wanted one last crack before trying to turn professional. “I waited all summer for this,” Ledford said. “It was worth it.”

Rende nearly qualified last year, but nerves might have gotten the better of him. He opened the grueling 36-hole test with a front-nine 33 and shot 68 in his second 18. But in between he shot 41 to close out his first 18.

“I started putting a lot of pressure on myself [after shooting 33],” he said. “I knew I was a good enough player to make it. I might have gotten a little ahead of myself.”

Rende won’t make that mistake now that he’s advanced to the elite Amateur field. He’s set no goals for next week.

“I just want to go there, play the best I can play, and try to have fun,” Rende said.

Ledford has no specific goals either, but has come up with a game plan he’ll try to follow, thanks to some guidance from Luke List, the former Vanderbilt All-American who finished runner-up in the 2004 U.S. Amateur. The two have played together all week.

“I want to focus on two things,” Ledford said. “No. 1, I want to be very confident in my short game. You’ve got to believe you can get up and down from anywhere, because you’re not going to hit every green, and there will be some tough conditions.

“No. 2, I’m going to hit a lot of 3-woods off tees. Luke said the Amateur courses have a lot of doglegs. It’s placement golf. You want to be in the fairway, because you know the rough will be high.”

As is the case at any USGA venue, Olympic Club has a rich history. There’s been a definite pattern at the U.S. Opens the club has hosted—the underdog has always come up a winner. In 1955, club pro Jack Fleck, a virtual unknown, beat the great Ben Hogan, playing a set of Hogan irons no less. Eleven years later, mighty Arnold Palmer suffered through one of his legendary collapses during what should have been an easy victory march, falling apart on the back nine and allowing Billy Casper to catch him and beat him in a playoff. And in 1987, Scott Simpson turned back Tom Watson, who at the time was the best player in the world.

Can one of the Mocs, from a team that has only recently climbed into the top 100 of the national rankings, pull an upset and bring home the Amateur trophy?

“I decided not to put any pressure on myself by saying I’m going to make match play, or whatever,” Rende said. “But we’re all going there to try to win.”

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