Astiazaran, Lee etch their mark into Pinehurst lore

125^TH MEN’S NORTH & SOUTH AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP SCORING

123^RD WOMEN’S NORTH & SOUTH AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP SCORING

By Alex Podlogar

You wonder what they might have said.

Did they feel the same way? Did those nattily-attired legends of yesteryear, donning their crisp pleated slacks and long skirts captured for all time in vintage black-and-white or sepia-toned photos, did they say what these kids of today say?

For Frank Stranahan or Billy Joe Patton or Jack Nicklaus or Hal Sutton or Corey Pavin – did this mean as much to them? Were Glenna Collett or Peggy Kirk Bell or Babe Zaharias or Morgan Pressel or Yani Tseng feeling this?

Curtis Strange did.

“I have three trophies on display in my house,” Strange once said. “They are the U.S. Open trophies, the Ryder Cup trophy and the Putter Boy trophy. I think it’s the best trophy in golf.”

Arnold Palmer didn’t have one.

In 2014, while watching the U.S. Open from the veranda behind the 18^th hole of Pinehurst No. 2, Palmer slumped his shoulders and lamented. “I would’ve liked to have won that one,” he said of the North & South Amateur. “I got close once, but Harvie Ward beat me. He hit a great shot on 18.”

History happens in the soulful stillness of Pinehurst. The championship matches of the 123^rd Women’s North & South Amateur and the 125^th Men’s North & South Amateur began in the stoic heat of a North Carolina afternoon on Saturday, broken occasionally by polite applause of a faithful gallery walking behind the players.

But history is made when that stillness is sharply snapped by the players themselves. When Mackenzie Lee buried a slick downhill putt behind the pin on the treacherous 13^th hole to snare a 2-up lead on Australian Jazy Roberts, she pumped her fist behind her right hip, cutting through the summer air left behind by yet another rain delay and thunderstorm with a guttural “YES!”

“I felt like I had control of the match throughout the whole day,” said Lee, who prevailed 2&1 to beat Roberts and win the championship. “But I was struggling to make putts the whole round. And when that one went in, it was just really satisfying. I was like, ‘OK, I’m back. I’m here. I’m right here. I’m not done yet.’

Six holes and one wedding later – this is true – it happened again, this time on the 1st green and the 19^th hole of the match between Carlos Astiazaran and teenage phenom Tyler Watts. One-down on the 17^th tee, Astiazaran, a transfer who will play at Vanderbilt next year, had made a clutch birdie on 17 and nearly won the match outright in front of a packed veranda on 18. That putt, though, had missed. “I hit a good putt,” Astiazaran said. “I just misread it.”

He got another chance on the 19^th after his ball came to rest safely in the fairway a foot from the sandscape and wire grass. Watts hit his tee shot in a bunker. Let it be said it might be hard to hit tee shots when rows of chairs are set up on the tee and the bride is waiting to be walked down the aisle. The bagpiper had to wait.

Astiazaran, though, clocked a pretty wedge pin-high to 12 feet. As he lined up the putt, the silence was deafening. It started to get agonizing as Astiazaran took an extra moment to read the putt. He stood perpendicular to his ball, his putter horizontal in his hands. He stared at the cup. Another beat passed. Then another. The birds’ chirping, it seemed, stopped. Perhaps time did, too. Finally, he approached the ball and stepped into his stance.

Before it dropped, Astiazaran started walking, a new confidence dripping off of him. And when it went down, a relentless release shook his wiry frame. “COME ON!” he shouted to the pines. “COME ON!”

“This is definitely by far the biggest one I’ve ever had in my career,” he said. “It’s so big. To win a playoff, too? I mean, look at my hand. I’m still shaking.”

With Putter Boy trophies in hand, the shock of the moment began to settle inside each champion. Their triumphs were shared throughout the day for all to see and enjoy – Lee’s and Roberts’ match followed the men’s, but with both being fast players their approaches into greens often came as Watts and Astiazaran were mere steps onto the next tee. It made for a compelling show.

“A lot of the shortcomings or disappointments I’ve had in the last four or five years, it all kind of shifted in my eyes today,” Lee said. “So many moments that I deeply embedded in my heart, that I took personally. I saw them all. It just really kind of healed me today. A lot of painful moments where I thought I could win and I didn’t, they were all kind of hitting together. I feel like someone put a nice aloe vera on my sunburn.

“As an SMU Mustang, this has a really, really special meaning to me. Mr. Payne Stewart. Bryson DeChambeau. They’ve had crazy achievements here, and while mine is not as grand as theirs, it’s still pretty big for me.”

“I was walking the clubhouse hallway and every time I’d look around and say to myself, ‘Wow, what would my name look like up there?’” Astiazaran said. “And, now, to say I did that is pretty special. I made a putt to win. I didn’t lag and win with a 2-putt. I earned it.

“I won at Pinehurst.”

Astiazaran shook his head.

“I won at Pinehurst.”