His homeland has 27 golf holes. Now he is the US Low Amateur Open

Oakmont, without. – one hundred miles south of Cuba – and 1,500 miles south of Oakmont – Northern Sound Golf Club was set up early Saturday night.

At a time when a reporter tried their phone line at 6:45 pm on Saturday, 15 minutes before closing, Pro -Shop, Head Pro and Grounds Crew supplements were all dial. If they were celebrating, it would be for a good reason.

Their son -in -law, Justin Hastings, was a low US Open amateur.

Hastings will play in his first major Sunday championship in Oakmont, where he currently sits nine over par and T45, but he has already won the weekend. Hastings, which is from the Kayman Islands (a British territory of the three coastal islands), will leave with a medal no matter what shoots Sunday. He was the only amateur that made the cut, which makes it an early meeting while the US opens a low amateur.

Hastings, a 21-year-old man who just finished his old season in San Diego State, entered the week a US Open Longshot. He was not the most decorated amateur in the field, which included 2024 American amateur champion Noah Kent, nor was he the most decorated championship competitor after losing the cut in his earlier in April masters.

But Hastings are accustomed to life as a submissive person. He grew up in a territory with only 73,000 people in the middle of the ocean, and yet he is holding his weight in the open US, against the best field in Golf, in what many consider the toughest course in the world.

“There are some (pro) who have never heard (the Kayman Islands), so it’s always a funny,” Hastings said on Saturday. “There are some who have heard of him in the movies and say, Oh, it’s the tax shelter.“

It would be understandable if hastings would not want attention. After all, it would be difficult to find a player in this open SH.BA or any further from the cultural epicenter of the golf. He grew up playing in North Sound Golf Club, which is a special place in the Kayman Islands because it is only The golf course with 18 holes on the island. Those tired of north sound ocean footage and sandy dunes can only go to ocean footage and sandy dunes Ritz Carlton Golf Club located less than a thousand meters away.

“The conversation goes, How did you get into golf? And I never have a good answer to them, “Hastings said.” There is only one golf course. I’m quite lucky to have a good support system down there. My coach, my, has been really amazing for me since I was 5 years old. He has been running the national team for a while, and he is here with me, so we both have had a great time in recent years reaching where we are now. “

Golf, fortunately, has never counted wealth -based results – and especially not in the US Open, where Wee Francis Ouimes claimed a national championship in Brookline as a teenager grown up across the road. Scorecard is the big draw, and in that department, hastings have performed well. He qualified in the US open by means of a win in Latin American AMERICAAnd he will use that victory to play throughout the diplomas but the PGA Championship. After that, it’s time for the real world: Hastings will go back to the portrait and move straight to Otava, where he has status at PGA Tour Americas.

Meanwhile, he will receive Sunday afternoon to collect some equipment at the US Open – and maybe some interviews on national television will come out.

“Oh, yesyes,“He said about his Saturday’s country in NBC.” This is the first. “

Return home to the Grand Cayman, the business will quarrel as usual at the only Golf Island Islands facility on Sunday morning. It will be a day like everyone else, save for a expected trophy ceremony in the early hours of the evening.

Until then, the North Sound Golf Club will close again … and preparing a place in its trophy case.