Christmas 7—The last couple of weeks have been full of new challenges on the golf course for Brian Quackenbush.
This week’s Palmetto Amateur is one of them. Quackenbush is a regular in the event and knows Palmetto Golf Club better than just about anybody on the property — but with the course closed for re-grassing, the 48th edition of the Palmetto Am is being played on the Hollow Creek course at The Reserve Club at Woodside.
There’s no more home-course advantage for Quackenbush, who still has started the four-day tournament with scores of 67 and 70 to get to the weekend at 5-under par as he continues a strong summer stretch that last week contained his biggest and best new challenge yet — the US Senior Open.
“I feel pretty good. It’s a strong field, just like it is every year,” he said. “The course, I wouldn’t say it’s as difficult as last week up at SentryWorld for the US Senior Open, that was brutal. But this is a stern test, you know? That said, I think if you keep the ball in play , if you’re hitting a bunch of shots from the fairway, the greens are so pure you can get on a little heater and make some birdies. I think that’s what you saw yesterday with Carson (Brewer) going 8-under par. And Joseph (Lloyd), who I played with today, was 5 under. He got on a little heater on the front nine, so it’s out there.”
Quackenbush and Lloyd, a junior who plays for Fresno State, went out as a twosome with the first tee time of the day Friday and made their way around the course in right around 4 hours, a brisk pace considering how much ground there is to cover from green to tee at Hollow Creek.
Quackenbush said his second round was steady, just like his first, with really only one mistake which led to a lost ball and a double bogey on the par-4 14th. He canceled that out with birdies on the par-4 15th and 18th holes to leave himself in a good spot heading into the weekend.
And, even though he’s a local, he came into the week with as much course knowledge as anyone else in the field.
“Zero. Zero,” he said. “I’ve played the Nicklaus course, like, maybe twice. My good friend Will Durrett (76-73) brought me out here, like, twice over the past few weeks and played practice rounds. It’s a really good course. It’s much different than Palmetto, but it’s in really good shape. It’s a good test, and the fact that they took us on out here — the hospitality is great. I was really concerned this year that we might not have the tournament, but the fact that we were able to switch it over here and keep it going is just awesome.”
Quackenbush admitted that he’s challenged by the blind tee shots at Hollow Creek, but acknowledged that probably everyone else faces the same difficulties. He said the key to those is committing to a line and hitting it.
He said he’s got a lot of supporters cheering him on this week, which is typical for his home event. One thing he didn’t realize until he got back was how many people back home were following along with his scores at the US Senior Open and keeping up with how he was playing.
Quackenbush missed the cut last week by five shots, posting rounds of 82 and 75 for a 36-hole total of 15-over 157, but that didn’t diminish the experience of earning a spot in a major and playing among the world’s best.
“That was absolutely awesome,” he said. “I think that may have been my favorite, even above the US Ams and Mid-Ams and the Junior that I barely remember from 30 years ago. They treated you well. The course was perfect. You saw all your legends and heroes that you grew up watching. … Wisconsin really kind of rolls the red carpet for you, too. We had 10-20,000 people or so a day. I don’t know, it was a lot.
“And that course is the real deal. They renovated that for, like, four years. Nobody played on it, except for a couple of people with AstroTurf to hit off of. It was five-inch rough, and we played it 7,200 yards , par-71, and they can stretch it another 3-400 yards and they probably could play a US Open out there if they wanted to. Great, great golf course.”
He also narrowly avoided disaster when he had a run-in with Bernhard Langer, the two-time Masters winner and eventual US Senior Open champion to break the PGA Tour Champions’ record for career victories.
“I didn’t run Bernhard Langer over in the locker room, although I almost did on Tuesday,” he said with a laugh. “It was close to, like, knocking out the eventual champion, so glad I didn’t do that. … It was like my first day there, and I kind of opened the door, and the door wasn’t see- through, and he’s walking in with his carry bag. I almost knocked the poor guy over. He was, like, ‘Hey, hey.’ I had to apologize.”
Quackenbush has played in plenty of USGA national championships before, and he said playing in enough of them gives a player a bit of a feel for how the set-up’s going to be. This one was on another level, though.
“Like, you hit it in that five-inch rough and you’ve got 100 yards in, and you think, well, I’m just going to kind of wedge it to the middle of the green,” he explained. “And the thing comes out and goes, like, 80 yards instead of 100 and it goes, like, 15 yards off line into a hazard, and you felt like it hit it good. I had a couple of those where it cost me a penalty strokes and everything, but you learn. And hopefully I can get back again next year, because that was an awesome experience.”
In the meantime, he’s heading into the weekend in contention at Hollow Creek. He finished his day Friday with a lengthy birdie putt on the 18th green after hitting his approach long to a front pin, and while that’s a great way to finish a round it’s not going to distract him from sticking to his process.
“It’s nice. It makes lunch more enjoyable,” he said. “I’ve been working with my coach Gary Cressend over at Augusta Country Club a lot on patience. Patience in my golf swing. Patience in how I play. Patience in how I approach the whole day around a tournament. I think an aspect of that is just making every single shot its own unique shot. The fact that I made a birdie on the last hole with a freaky putt that was going too fast is nice, but I’m also going to kind of leave it there and approach the first shot tomorrow completely fresh.”