August 17, 2001
Texas A&M sophomore Stephen Reed of Houston will compete in the 101st United States Amateur Golf Championship starting on Monday at the East Lake and Druid Hills Golf Clubs.
Reed will tee off the first round at Druid Hills (par 72/6,561 yards) at 7:30 a.m. on Monday and will play Tuesday?s second round beginning at 12:15 p.m. at East Lake (par 70/7,091 yards). He is paired in the first two rounds with Kevin Haefner of Rochester, N.Y., and Ryan Gildersleeve of Clearwater, Fla. The first two rounds will consist of 312 players competing in a stroke play format with the top 64 scorers advancing to match play, which begins on Wednesday and runs through Sunday?s 36-hole final. All matches are 18 holes except the final match.
ESPN will televise the first three days of match play from 1-4 p.m. (CDT) and NBC will televise the competition on Saturday and Sunday from 3-5 p.m. (CDT).
Last season as a freshman, Reed led the Aggies in scoring with a 74.43 average and posted four top 20 finishes, including a fifth place showing at the Big 12 Championships and a tie for 12th at the NCAA Central Regional, narrowly missing an individual berth in the NCAA Championships. He tied the A&M freshman record with a second-round 66 at the Red River Classic.
A former All-America by the American Junior Golf Association, Reed won three straight Texas Christian Interscholastic League (TCIL) state championships at St. Thomas High School in Houston. In 2000, he won the Taylor Made-adidas Golf Texas Junior Classic, becoming the first African-American since Tiger Woods to win an AJGA event. Reed qualified for the U.S. Amateur by winning the sectional qualifier last month in Houston with rounds of 72-66=138 at River Bend Country Club.
Renowned as the home course of the great amateur Bobby Jones, East Lake was designed by Tom Bendelow and opened in 1910. The club was formerly known as the Atlanta Athletic Club. Revisions were supervised by Donald Ross (1915 and 1925), George W. Cobb (1960) and Rees Jones (1995). The 1950 U.S. Women's Amateur (won by Beverly Hanson) was contested at the East Lake course (of the then Atlanta Athletic Club), but this 2001 U.S. Amateur is the first USGA championship contested at East Lake Golf Club. The club hosted the 1963 Ryder Cup and the 1988, 1998 and 2000 PGA Tour Championships.
Jeff Quinney of Eugene, Ore., outlasted James Driscoll of Brookline, Mass., to win the 2000 U.S. Amateur in 39 holes at the Upper Course at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J. Quinney withstood a late charge from Driscoll, who won holes 34, 35 and 36 to send the match to extra holes. Weather then forced suspension of play and the championship was completed on Monday when Quinney rolled in a downhill, 30-foot birdie putt to win.
All eight of last year's quarterfinalists return through exemptions, including Quinney. The other returning quarterfinals are: Jerry Courville of Milford, Conn.; Luke Donald of England (not playing, turned pro); James Driscoll of Brookline, Mass.; David Eger of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.; Hunter Mahan of McKinney, Texas; Bryce Molder of Conway, Ark.; and Gary Wolstenholme of England.
The U.S. Amateur Championship is open to amateur golfers who have USGA Handicap Indexes not exceeding 2.4. The Handicap limit was lowered from 3.4 in 1999.The USGA accepted 7,762 entries for this year's U.S. Amateur, the second-most to the 7,920 entries for the 1999 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach (Calif.) Golf Links. Sectional qualifying was conducted over 36 holes at 97 sites from July 25-August 7.
The champion receives an exemption into the 2002 U.S. Open and an invitation to play in the 2002 Masters Tournament, if he remains an amateur. He also receives a 10-year exemption into the U.S. Amateur field so long as he remains an amateur.
NOTE: Log on to the USGA Internet site at www.usga.org for the latest and most complete U.S. Amateur Championship information.