Cole discovered USGA treats players in U.S. Amateur right

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Len Cole of Hampden can’t say enough about how impressed he was with everything surrounding the U.S. Amateur Golf Tournament he participated in this week at the Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, Fla.

“It was quite a thing, really,” said Cole. “It was just like a PGA Tour event. They treat you like royalty. It was amazing.”

The treatment included all-day buffet tables for players and their families, Cole’s name on a gold plate on a locker, and guest speakers at dinner that included former PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman and United States Golf Association officials.

Cole found it strange at first that Beman would speak to the group and that the PGA Tour, which owns the TPC at Sawgrass course and several others like it, would allow the USGA to use its course. Beman had a convincing explanation.

“He said all golf was based on amateur play and that it always would be,” said Cole. “I don’t think it will be the last time the Amateur is held at a TPC course.”

Cole played in the two medal-play qualifying rounds, scoring 74 on Monday and 81 on Tuesday and early Wednesday. His 155 total missed the cut to the final 64 by nine strokes.

Those 64 began match-play competition Wednesday and will continue until the final 36-hole match on Sunday.

Cole noted that the course can be unforgiving for even the slightest mistakes.

“If you miss the green, there’s a 3- to 4-foot elevation difference between you and the green, sometimes 5 feet,” said Cole. “Sometimes you can barely see the pin, and it’s only 30 feet away.”

Tossed into that mix is water, lots of water.

“All 36 holes have water,” said Cole of the two courses which were used by the 312 players.

“Everyone knows about the 17th,” said Cole of the par-3 hole with the island green which has fascinated players and TV audiences for more than a dozen years, “but three of the others are half surrounded by water.”

All of the water, which Cole said ran the full length of most holes, put a premium on accuracy. That was mixed in with thunderstorms which soaked the area the first two days – limiting the roll of the ball.

“It was definitely hard on the driver,” he said. “After a big drive, you’d still have a 3-iron to a green that’s small and has a lot of trouble around it.”

Despite all that, Cole was hot when he started Monday morning.

“I birdied three of the first six holes,” said Cole. “After that, it wasn’t downhill, but it certainly wasn’t hot.”

Cole was able to finish his round Monday, but about half the field couldn’t because of the thunderstorms. They had to finish early Tuesday morning, and since the late starters Monday were the early starters Tuesday, the second round was slow to start.

“We were supposed to start at 1:59, in the next-to-last group,” said Cole. “We didn’t actually start until 4:10, because of the lightning.

“I warmed up three times before we actually started.”

Cole’s group was told that the round would be halted at five minutes before 8 p.m., and Cole said they all wanted to finish in order to make flights.

Cole triple-bogeyed his first hole, No. 10 on the Stadium course, and never made a birdie.

With four holes remaining, Cole said they knew they had to pick up the pace even more.

“On the next-to-last hole, we were just racing,” said Cole. “The guy at the green said they were going to blow the horn any second. And they did.

“Since nobody had teed off on the last hole, we couldn’t finish. We were stuck with one hole left.”

So he went out Wednesday at 7 a.m., made a final bogey, and flew home.

He thinks he’ll try to qualify again next year because the Amateur will be held at Newport Country Club in Newport, R.I. Also, he thinks he’ll try in 1999 because it will be held at Pebble Beach Resort in California.

“I won’t do it every year. It’s a huge time commitment,” he said.

But Cole was glad he made the effort this year.

“What an experience. What a trip,” said Cole. “It’s a combination of the Masters as one of the players and being on vacation at the same time.”

One group from the Bangor area that will be going to Pebble Beach, Calif., in January for a tournament is the NYNEX/Yellow Pages team of Matt Billings, Don Flanders, Tim Mayo, and Neg Norton.

That foursome won the Cadillac Invitational at Penobscot Valley Country Club in Orono on Monday. They will play two qualifying rounds in an attempt to make the 18-hole final.

The tournament was a fund-raiser for the Maine Chapter of the National Kidney Foundation, and spokeswoman Pegi Whited said the event raised more than $20,000 for the foundation.