GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS | It may be the sweetest story of a long and grueling summer of elite amateur golf.
Kazuma Kobori, a 21-year-old New Zealander, won the Western Amateur earlier this month. The Western Am is golf’s third-oldest major amateur championship and the amateur game’s most grueling week.
The story of his win has been told. He beat the deepest field of the summer in one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world. It’s the backstory that is interesting, one that involves his caddie and befits the organizing sponsor, the Western Golf Association. The WGA is a non-profit organization best known for conducting the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship, an annual playoff event which is being contested this week at Olympia Fields Country Club in south suburban Chicago. The main purpose of the WGA is to fund the Evans Scholar Foundation, the largest caddie scholarship program in the world.
The Japanese-born Kobori announced his arrival in the amateur game in 2019 when he won the New Zealand PGA Championship at age 17. Because of COVID-19, Kobori passed up the chance to play American college golf and built his game by playing amateur and professional events in his homeland and in Australia. In 2022, he came to the United States to play in five of the seven Elite Amateur Golf Series events, plus the U.S. Amateur. He experienced little success, with his best finish being 21st place at the Southern Amateur.
He returned to New Zealand at summer’s end and continued to hone his game. The work paid off. He won the 2023 Australian Amateur, one of the most important amateur events in the global game.
“I hadn’t won a tournament in the U.S. and actually missed almost every cut in the Elite Amateur [Golf] Series last year. I made every cut this year, and to finish it off with a win is just incredible.”
Kazuma Kobori
Kobori returned to America this summer, intending to play all seven EAGS events. The results were much improved. Coming into the Western Amateur, Kobori had recorded three top-10 finishes and stood No. 49 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Enter Jack Hammond, a member at the host club, North Shore Country Club in suburban Chicago. Hammond had agreed to host one of the players, a common practice on the summer amateur circuit. He was randomly assigned Kobori, who showed up on Hammond’s front door on Saturday before the marathon week.
Kobori played two practice rounds and the first competitive round carrying his own bag. After that round, Hammond volunteered to caddie for him, and Kobori quickly accepted. Hammond, 44, caddied at North Shore for a few years as a youngster and played college golf at Fairfield University in Connecticut. Kobori made a wise decision.
The odyssey began. Eighteen holes during the second round, followed by a 36-hole stroke-play day and then two days of morning and afternoon match-play rounds. Hammond’s therapy consisted of compression socks and a cold beer between matches; a fellow member fetched him a hot dog on the 13th hole on each of the last three days. “Caddies need their dogs,” Hammond said.
As word of Hammond’s looping gig spread, Kobori became the club members’ favorite, kids in particular. Fist bumps from the youngsters after a well-hit shot became commonplace, to the point at which Hammond had to shoo them away occasionally.
Of Kobori, Hammond said: “He could not have been nicer. He was quiet, polite, and stuck to his routine.”
Hammond marveled at the way Kobori kept his composure all week, despite regularly being outdriven by 50 yards or more by his competitors.
In winning the Western Amateur, Kobori vaulted to the top of the Elite Amateur Cup standings, earning the season-long title and exemptions into the PGA Tour’s Bermuda Championship in November and two Korn Ferry Tour events next season.
“I hadn’t won a tournament in the U.S. and actually missed almost every cut in the Elite Amateur [Golf] Series last year,” Kobori said. “I made every cut this year, and to finish it off with a win is just incredible.” His WAGR ranking jumped 19 spots, to No. 30.
At the closing ceremony, the ever-classy Kobori gave a shoutout to Hammond. “Regardless of how I played, I know I wouldn’t have won this without him,” Kobori said. “I had already played in every Elite Amateur Series event this summer, so physically I wouldn’t have been able to do this without him. I’m so happy that he helped.”
Kobori will tee it up at the U.S. Amateur this week at Cherry Hills Country Club near Denver. Here’s hoping some Cherry Hills member reads this tale and is inspired by Hammond to loop for Kobori. As it was for Hammond, it would be an experience never to be forgotten.
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Top: Kazuma Kobori and Jack Hammond
Charles Cherney, Western Golf Association