OAKMONT, Pa. – Two of amateur golf’s best, Ricky Castillo and Cole Hammer, were among those who ventured back out to Oakmont Country Club on Wednesday morning to finish up their final rounds of stroke play at the 121st U.S. Amateur.
Only one of them will be continuing on to match play.
Both players, playing alongside fellow Walker Cupper Alex Fitzpatrick in one of the championship’s premier groups, sat at 2 over with seven holes to play when they resumed action, but they went opposite directions. Castillo, the rising Florida junior, holed a few birdie putts to safely advance to the Round of 64, which will begin Wednesday afternoon. Hammer, a senior-to-be at Texas, couldn’t get any putts to drop, and a costly double bogey and closing bogey left him at 5 over, likely a couple of shots out of a playoff.
“My last true amateur tournament, and this golf course is pretty good for me; it’s just frustrating it happened this way,” said Hammer, a semifinalist at the 2018 U.S. Amateur who has now missed out on match play in three straight U.S. Amateurs – each one by the narrowest of margins, too. “Yes, it’s a lot of experience, but it really doesn’t seem like I’m using it.”
Castillo went to bed Tuesday evening knowing he didn’t finish like he wanted to. He three-putted for bogey at Oakmont’s first hole, his 10th, and followed that with bogey – albeit a good one – at the second.
“I just had to get my mind right and just know that if I played solid the last seven holes I’d be in a good position,” said Castillo, who hit the green in two at the par-5 fourth and made birdie before holing a 35-footer for birdie at the par-3 sixth and sticking one close for another birdie at the par-4 ninth.
Now, he’ll sit and wait to see who he’ll face in the first round of match play, which will start no earlier than 12:45 p.m. ET. Castillo made it to the quarters in the this championship two years ago at Pinehurst, but as he said, “He’s just happy to be out here and play a course like Oakmont.” That’s because his U.S. Amateur last summer, at Bandon, was over before it started; he had to withdraw before the first round because of illness.
Hammer, meanwhile, will have to regroup before his final season with the Longhorns, who are on the short list of national-championship contenders despite missing the 54-hole cut at the NCAA Championship last May. Hammer also struggled that week at Grayhawk, particularly on the greens. So, a couple of weeks later he put an arm-lock putter in play for his U.S. Open sectional, and it paid off as Hammer qualified for the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.
“It works at sectionals, was fine at the U.S. Open, and then OK at the British,” said Hammer, who also teed it up at Royal St. George’s.
“Now, I’m done with it,” Hammer added after a disappointing performance with the flatstick this week.
He was in good position when he cozied a birdie putt from the fringe to about 3 feet at the par-4 fifth hole. But then he needed three more putts and walked away with double.
When he missed his birdie try at the last, Hammer dropped the putter in disbelief. It likely had struck its last ball for Hammer.
“It was an experiment and now I have to go figure out what my next step is,” Hammer said. “I used to make a ton of 10- to 20-footers, and I didn’t make any with this.”
He paused, perhaps thinking back on his past triumphs over adversity, and then added: “I’ll figure it out.”