Kumpula Opens U.S. Amateur With 1-Under 69
August 17, 2015 | Men's Golf
OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. – Oregon State men's golfer Conner Kumpula opened the 115th U.S. Amateur Championship with a solid 1-under 69 in the first round of stroke-play competition on Monday.
Kumpula, a junior from Albany, Ore., had two birdies and one bogey at the par-70, 7,078-yard Olympia Fields Country Club South Course and is great position to advance to match play. His birdies came on the par-4, 377-yard 16th and par-5, 539-yard 18th holes.
Alex Franklin, who finished his college career at Oregon State this past June, is competing in his third U.S. Amateur. He shot a 6-over 76 on the par-70, 7,216-yard Olympia Fields Country Club North Course on Monday.
The top 64 golfers in the 312-player field after Tuesday's second round of stroke-play competition will advance to match play on Wednesday.
The U.S. Amateur Championship is the oldest golf championship in this country, one day older than the U.S. Open. Except for an eight-year period, 1965-1972, when it was contested at stroke play, the Amateur has been a match-play championship.
Throughout its history, the U.S. Amateur has been the most coveted of all amateur titles. Many of the great names of modern professional golf, such as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lanny Wadkins, Craig Stadler, Jerry Pate, Mark O'Meara, Hal Sutton, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, grace the Havemeyer Trophy.
It was, however, legendary amateur Robert T. Jones Jr., who first attracted national media coverage and sparked spectator attendance at the U.S. Amateur. Jones captured the championship five times (1924, 1925, 1927, 1928 and 1930). His 1930 victory was a seminal moment in golf history, as Jones won the four major American and British championships in one year and completed the Grand Slam by winning the U.S. Amateur at Merion Cricket Club in Ardmore, Pa.
Sixty-six years later, in 1996, Tiger Woods attracted similar levels of interest and enthusiasm at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, Ore., when he won a record third straight U.S. Amateur, having registered 18 consecutive match-play victories. In 1994, Woods, at 18, had first entered the record book as the youngest U.S. Amateur champion, following his three consecutive Junior Amateur titles (1991-1993). That record has since been broken twice, first by 17-year-old Danny Lee in 2008 at Pinehurst No. 2 in the Village of Pinehurst, N.C., then in 2009, when 17-year-old Byeong-Hun An won at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., with a 7-and-5 victory over Ben Martin, of Greenwood, S.C.
