2017 Masters: What’s Next for the Amateurs?
By Gary Healy
How did the young amateurs perform at the 2017 Masters – just about as expected. But we’ll see some of them again at Erin Hills.
The 2017 Masters followed decades-old traditions. One of the most cherished is the inclusion of amateurs, and the Low Amateur award given out on Sunday to the amateur player who finishes the tournament in the best overall position. This year that award went to Stewart Hagestad, a financial analyst who has no aspiration to play pro golf.
While the award does describe the Low Amateur, it is not very often for amateurs in the Masters field that things go exactly according to plan.
Not since 2011 has the player who received the Low Amateur award was able to shoot below par. That was Hideki Matsuyama.
Other than Matsuyama, the amateurs who were able to make the cut and shoot the lowest score have not gone any lower than +4. Hagestad collected the 2017 award with a final score of 6-over par.
There are several reasons the amateurs struggle at The Masters.
For starters, it’s The Masters. There are going to be pre-round, mid-round, and even post-round jitters. Standing on the first tee in your very first Masters cannot be an easy situation.
The other reason can be simply Augusta National. It’s easy to get lost in some winning scores in the high teens and begin to think these guys have the course figured out, but Augusta National is a different type of animal. On a first time run-through, the track is almost impossible to manage, let alone score. The first time through can be one of the toughest tests for these young golfers.
In addition to Mid-Amateur Champion Stewart Hagastad, this year’s amateurs included: Curtis Luck (Asia-Pacific Amateur Champion, US Amateur Champion), Brad Dalke (US Amateur Runner-Up), Scott Gregory (British Amateur Champion), Toto Gana (Latin American Amateur Champion).
Let’s take a look at how they performed at the 2017 Masters.