Kraft Wins U.S. Amateur; Driveable Four Plays Huge Role

It was one of those shame-somebody-has-to-lose matches, but Kelly Kraft bested Patrick Cantlay at Erin Hills. Ryan Lavner reports on Kraft's improbably rise and notes this, which suggest they're not hurting for money at SMU.

On Sunday, he had some company. Eight of his former SMU teammates boarded a private jet at 6 a.m. Sunday and arrived at Erin Hills as Kraft concluded his warmup on the range. They cheered lustily after each won hole and crisp shot and if Kraft walked off the tee without incident. Another SMU player, Buckley, advanced to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur. That’s free publicity for new Mustangs coach Josh Gregory, who returned to his alma mater after leading Augusta State to back-to-back national titles. Incredibly, an SMU player now has won the U.S. Amateur three times in the past 14 years (Hank Kuehne, 1998; Colt Knost, ’07).

Lightly recruited out of high school – he never made it out of regionals – Kraft said he chose SMU because his hometown of Denton was 45 minutes north of Fort Worth. He won only one AJGA event before beginning his freshman year. “When I got to SMU,” he said, “winning the U.S. Amateur probably wasn’t a thought.”

The match turned when Cantlay opted to lay-up on a 252-yarder with an 8-iron at No. 15. Sean Martin offers an interesting explanation of what happened and how Ben Kimball's course setup move impacted the championship, which old-line USGAers will hate but naturally, some of us think there needs to be more of this.

Cantlay pulled his short-iron tee shot into a fairway bunker. With about 75 yards remaining to the green, he blasted his sand shot over the green and atop a large hill. He made bogey to lose the hole and return the match to all square. He bogeyed the next hole to fall behind Kraft, who went on to win, 2 up.

“I pulled it 15 yards or 20 yards,” Cantlay said of his tee shot at 15. “I wasn’t trying to hit it there. I felt like my best opportunity was to spin a wedge back to the hole location, so I decided to lay up. And I figured 8-iron would be short of the bunkers, but not when you pull hook your 8-iron, it gets a big bounce, (and goes) in the bunker. That was that.”

Martin had this from Mike Davis, the culrpit of such course setup antics.

“I enjoy standing close enough where you can actually hear the player and the caddie debating what to do,” Davis said. “I like any time, particularly when you get down near the end, when it’s that nervous point, and you force the player and the caddie to really think.”
The USGA did that. And it defined this national championship.