Drew Kittleson (left) competes in the Masters.
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Drew Kittleson’s golf life can be traced through his nicknames.
Before he was Bridges Cup Contender Drew Kittlesonhe was US Amateur Runner-up Drew Kittleson. He won that title in 2008 as a 19-year-old at Pinehurst No. 2. Kittleson was only a freshman at Florida State University, but he climbed a field of older and more battle-tested players to reach the finals. match of the most prestigious amateur golf event in the sport. You may not remember his role in that event — Kittleson lost by one of the few younger players on the field in the final, 18-year-old Danny Lee, who became the youngest US amateur champion ever. But US Am ’08 was, he says now, the launching point for an amateur golf career that took him farther than he ever dreamed.
“I think I’ve played eight or nine USGA championships now,” he says with a laugh. “Yes, it’s very nice.”
Among those USGA championships are two other nicknames, US Open competitor Drew Kittleson and Master Contender Drew Kittleson. Kittleson’s stints at those events — at Augusta National and Bethpage Black in 2009 — were short-lived. He missed the cut in both starts – the first and last two major appearances of his career.
“I thought to myself, I know, I will play in 20 of them. Kittleson says with a laugh. “I wish I had stopped to smell the roses.”
Yet memories from each of those beginnings remain close to the surface.
“All the stories you hear about the little charms of Augusta National, they’re all true,” says Kittleson, recalling his time at the amateur-only club’s Crow’s Nest. “It’s like staying in your personal life The four seasons.“
After college, he tried the title pro golfer Drew Kittleson for a while, playing in various feeder tournaments in the early 2010s, but something was wrong. He was quite talented, but could never capture the same magic he had at Pinehurst in the Am. He gave up golf and went into private jet sales, then branched out to start his own kitchen and bath business in the Scottsdale area.
Through his golf connections, he joined Whisper Rock, a popular private club in the Scottsdale area, and soon, he had tried the simplest nickname of all: golf lover Drew Kittleson.
“We have this saying at Whisper Rock,”it’s all about hanging,” says Kittleson. “The ‘hanging’ aspect of golf is the most special part for me. You will know someone, you will meet someone, you will be with people you like, you will compete a little. My approach to the game has changed in every possible way since golf was a job and has opened more doors for me than I could have ever imagined.”
It was at Whisper Rock that Kittleson fell in love with golf again. And it was at Whisper Rock that he first found himself saying something surprising: he wanted to start racing on the amateur circuit again.
As he points out, two of his friends had just finished in the quarter-finals USA Amateur Four Ballwhich had Kittleson and another friend, Drew Stoltz, laughing.
“We were just giving them a hard time,” Kittleson says. “We were like, ‘okay, if you can do this, then we’re going to kill you guys.’ So the next year, Drew and I went and played the qualifier, and then all of a sudden, we were the runners-up, and then the next year we were the runners-up, too.”
After posting second-place and third-place finishes at the USGA Championship, Kittleson had the competitive bug again. He qualified for the US Mid-Am and reached the semifinals on his first try, and passed that at a U.S. Am venue in Denver — giving Kittleson the rarest kind of full-circle professional moment.
Shortly after his amateur return, Kittleson awaited another invitation: Bridge Cup, an annual high-level Ryder Cup-style amateur event between US and international teams. (GOLF’s parent company, 8AM Golf, hosts the event each year.)
After two successful races with the Americans, Kittleson will return to the US team this week in Korea. He says the event is one of his favorite weeks of the year – not just for the competition, but for the camaraderie.
“Golf has opened more doors for me than I could have ever imagined,” Kittleson said. “I’ve met some of my best friends in the world through the game, and I continue to meet amazing people and have these amazing experiences. I am forever grateful.”
