BROOKLINE, Mass. – It might be the greatest consolation prize in sports.
Oliver Goss didn’t win the 113th U.S. Amateur on Sunday, but as the runner-up he still has a spot in the first two majors of 2014.
“If someone told me at the start of the week I was going to have the opportunity to play the Masters and the U.S. Open next year, I’d be speechless,” said Goss, who lost to Matt Fitzpatrick, 4 and 3, at The Country Club.
Goss, 19, a soon-to-be sophomore at the University of Tennessee, said he and his teammates received badges to a Monday practice round at this year’s Masters.
“It was golf heaven,” he said. “It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever seen. I stood there, and I was like, ‘How do they play under this kind of pressure and with the difficulty of the golf course?”
In eight months, Goss will get to find out.