June 4 is not yet the longest day of 2018 in astronomical terms, but in the world of golf it is. “Golf’s Longest Day” – the day when 36-hole sectional qualifying tournaments for the USGA’s premier golf championship event, the United States Open, are held in ten U.S. locations and two more overseas.
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| Shintaro Ban, of San Jose, steps in to retrieve his ball after making an eagle on the par-five 18th hole at Lake Merced Golf Club in the June 4, 2018 U.S. Open sectional qualifying tournament. The two-foot putt clinched his spot in the field for the 118th United States Open, next week at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, on Long Island. (photo by author) |
It falls on the same day every year – the Monday two weeks before Fathers Day – because the week of Fathers Day is traditionally the week of the U.S. Open. These sectional qualifiers are, with few exceptions, the final chance for golfers across the country and the world to earn a berth in the toughest, and arguably the most important, tournament in the game of golf.
The California venue for this final hurdle before the main event alternates between Northern California and Southern California venues, and in 2018, as in other even-numbered years, the event was held in the Bay Area, at the conveniently adjacent courses at Lake Merced Golf Club and across the lake, at the Olympic Club, on their Ocean Course.
Eighty-six players vied for six spots in the field in the 2018 U.S. Open, which is returning to the storied Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, on New York’s Long Island, for the first time since 2004. The field was split between Lake Merced’s par-72 layout, recently the venue for a new LPGA event, the LPGA Mediheal Championship, and the Olympic Club’s par-71 Ocean Course, sister course to the renowned Lake Course, itself a five-time U.S. Open venue. Going off in the morning starting at 7:00 a.m., the players completed 18-hole rounds on one course before taking a lunch break and moving to the other venue to compete another 18-hole round of golf – it’s easy to see why it’s called “The Longest Day in Golf”, right?
At the end of the day, an Arizona State college golfer, rising junior Chun An Yu, of Chinese Taipei, took medalist honors. Yu laid a crisp 6-under 65 on the Olympic Club’s Ocean Course, carding seven birdies and a lone bogey in the morning round. Taking on the Lake Merced course in breezy conditions in the afternoon round, Yu again had a lone bogey against three birdies for a two-under 70, for a total of eight-under 135.
A South Bay golfer makes the grade
San Jose’s Shintaro Ban, a well-known name to South Bay golfers, came in one stroke behind Chun An Yu, posting a seven-under 136.
Ban, a 2014 graduate of Archbishop Mitty High School in San José, also played Olympic in the morning and Lake Merced in the afternoon, knocking down four birdies and an eagle, on the par-4 sixth hole, against two bogeys for a four-under 67 in the morning round.
The eagle came as a surprise to Ban, “(I) had a hundred yards in. There were a couple of people up there, but they didn’t react and I’m like, ‘Aw, it must be close’, and I walk up and they’re like, ‘Oh, it went in.’ ”
Ban carded another eagle in the afternoon round at Lake Merced, but it didn’t come without some troubles beforehand. “I struggled to make birdies on the front (nine) par-fives, and I really needed to take advantage of the back nine.” The 2018 UNLV grad put himself in a hole briefly in his afternoon round when a pushed drive on the 5th hole, a downhill, left-bending 399-yard par-four, landed him in a gully between the fourth and fifth fairways. His second shot, out of the gully, hit a tree, resulting in a total of four shots to reach the green, and a two-putt double-bogey. A birdie on the par-3 eighth brought him back to even par for the front nine.
Three birdies and two bogeys through seven holes on the back nine had Ban back under par for the afternoon and within range of advancement to the big show – the United States Open – next week on Long Island, but it was his performance on the final hole of the tournament that closed the deal.
The 18th hole at Lake Merced is a scenic, but problematic, par-five. It’s not the hardest hole on the course, but it is the longest, and it is distinguished by a generous helping of elevation change, dropping over 25 feet down to the lowest point in the fairway from the elevated tee box, and climbing more than double that back up to the putting green. With more than 200 yards to the flag after his drive, Ban had to take into account a climb of about 42 feet from his position in the fairway to the the left-front hole position.
“I didn’t expect to hit it to two feet.”
Lake Merced’s number 18 is a tough reach in two, so it was quite an accomplishment for Ban to place his second shot, a 5-iron from 215 yards, to within two feet of the hole. Ban’s approach shot went inside the excellent approach of playing partner Tim Widing, a USF Don who is originally from Sweden, who laid his second shot to about four feet.
Widing missed his eagle putt, a crucial error which led to him missing out on an opportunity to go to Shinnecock – at least directly. His five-under finish tied him with Edward Olson, of Aptos, California, and the two became the 1st and 2nd alternates from this event.
Ban took due care with the short but crucial putt, dropping it into the heart of the hole to close out his day at 7-under and ensure himself of a place in the field for the 118th U. S Open.
There was a lot riding on those two eagle putts on #18. If Widing’s had dropped and Ban’s hadn’t, there would have been a five-for-four playoff, with Ban, Widing, and eventual T-3 finishers Rhett Rasmussen, of Draper, Utah; Franklin Huang, of Poway, California; and Sung Joon Park, of Irvine, California, returning to the 10th hole to battle it out for the four qualifying spots behind Chun An Yu.
Next year the U.S. Open will return to Pebble Beach Golf Links for the sixth time, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the opening of the world-famous seaside course.
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