LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA | The golf education of emerging phenom Gordon Sargent continued at the U.S. Open here last week where he was the low amateur among the 19 who teed it up at Los Angeles Country Club.
While the distinction of being low amateur was nice for the world’s top-ranked amateur, Sargent already seemed more focused on taking the lessons he learned at LACC and applying them down the road.
The U.S. Amateur and the Walker Cup are among the summer highlights ahead for the rising junior at Vanderbilt, whose prodigious power hints at a potentially spectacular future.
“It shows you what to work on,” said Sargent, 20, of Birmingham, Alabama, when asked about his takeaways from his first U.S. Open.
It was just the second major-championship start for Sargent, the 2022 NCAA champion who missed the cut at the Masters in April.
What might those lessons be that Sargent took from playing against the game’s best?
“They seem to limit their mistakes really well,” he said. “They don’t really hit it out of position too often. It’s just about consistency and limiting their mistakes.”
With rounds of 69-71-75-69, Sargent became just the sixth amateur to post two sub-70 rounds in the U.S. Open, adding his name to a list that features Viktor Hovland (2019 Pebble Beach), Brian Campbell (2015 Chambers Bay), Scott Verplank (1985 Oakland Hills), Lanny Wadkins (1971 Merion) and Marty Fleckman (1967 Baltusrol).
Sargent ended his final round with a 2½-foot putt for par bouncing directly back at him after hitting the back of the hole.
“Haven’t seen that happen in a while,” he said after finishing tied for 39th.
Amateurs Ben Carr (62nd), Aldrich Potgieter (64th) and Maxwell Moldovan (65th) also made the cut but finished near the bottom of the leaderboard.
Ron Green Jr.