For most recreational golfers, playing the USGA Championship is the closest they will get to what the pros feel like on a weekly basis.
The conditions of the course are mint and the pressure is intense. Just ask Subpar co-host Drew Stultz, who, along with partner Drew Kittleson, finished runner-up for the second year in a row at the USGA Amateur Four-Ball Championship.
The tournament, held this year at the Kiawah Island Club in Kiawah Island, SC, kicked off with two rounds of best stroke ball play. The field is then reduced to the top 32 teams, who compete in a play-off match. You have to win four matches in a row to get to the tournament final – that’s a lot of golf in just five days.
In the championship game, Team Drew faced off against a dynamic UC duo in Berkeley players Aaron Du and Sampson Yunhe Zheng, who ultimately won games 2 and 1. On this week’s episode of Subpar, Stoltz and Kittleson offer an inside perspective on what it’s like to compete for the top level in the amateur game.
“I thought if I was in better shape it would help, and it didn’t help at all,” Kittelson said. “We were stretching at the end. No normal person can be fit for that much golf. Your feet are in ruins.”
Stoltz agreed, adding that a caddy tracker revealed they walked 18 miles in one day of play. Then of course, you have the items. The wind blew constantly, especially during the match portion, chapping lips and noses.
But the Drews persevered, and ended up facing Du and Cheng, the top seed in the tournament, in the final.
Stoltz noted that the teams they faced were much younger this year, and it was difficult to gain an inch.
“You don’t have the loose bags that you get from guys who work and have jobs,” Stoltz said. “Lost green with a 9-iron or something, it only happens when you’re not too sharp.”
“You should make the 20-foot ones,” Kittelson added. “They just made it.”
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The match was close throughout: tied at the innings until Du and Cheng led 1-up in the 11th and 2-up in the 13th with birdies. Kittleson and Stoltz fought with a birdie of their own on the 15th, but Du and Zheng followed with another birdie on the 16th, closing the match on the 17th.
“I’ve had four putts 10 feet or in, maybe 12 max, to win holes, and I’ve lost three of them,” Stoltz said.
Despite the fact that the Drews fell short for the second year in a row, Stoltz said they enjoyed the experience.
“It’s fun for us,” he said. “We want to win, we care, it sucks when we lose, but it’s also, when we’re done with it, before some of our games, it’s like, OK, here’s our options: we win, we keep going, we drink great wine tonight, have a great dinner, laugh, Hang around. We lose, we go to work tomorrow. Let’s stretch this out as long as humanly possible.”
For more information from Stoltz and Kittleson on their run at the 2023 US Amateur Four-Ball, check out the full interview below.