Inside the 3 -legged well that destroyed an open offer in the SH.BA

Qualification of the final phase of the US Open with 36 holes in Columbus, Ohio, always draws a sparkling list with hope. This is because it is held every year in the PGA Tour’s wake Memorialwhich is played in Dublin, only 20 miles north. This year’s field, which gathered Monday at Kinsale Golf and Fitness Club, included such PGA Tour lamps as Eric Cole, Rickie Fowler, Max Homa and Cameron Young, all, in a happy coincidence, landed on a five-for-one Play for the last six points of qualification available; Providing the fifth point of the Play Off, in the role of David (VS Goliaths), was 29-year-old Pro Chase Johnson, who played his college golf in Kent State nearby. For USA qualifiers, this was almost high enough to come.

Play -off can and perhaps MUST They have included a sixth player: Jim Knous, a former 35-year-old Tour Pro Ping who now works as a Ping Fitter and Engineer in Scottsdale, Ariz. Knust is not alien in large stages. In 2018, he graduated in Tournament with the Corn Traged to win his PGA Tour card for 2019-20; At his first start that season, in Safeway Open, he shot a pair of 69 on the weekend to tie for the 10th. However, the rest of the season was tougher – eight abbreviations lost in 17 starts – and, after finishing 166 in the FedEx ranking, Knous moved.

When three years later he watched the road to the tournament, Knous ended further down FedEx (189). After injuries and another two years trying to return to the promised land, Knous decided that the life of the vagabond was not for him. He wanted stability and more time about his wife Heidi and their three children, and never adapted to the lonely lifestyle in the tournament. Knous, who studied mechanical engineering at the Colorado Mining School, received his talent in ping; He has maintained his professional status, but has focused his competitive energy at more local level.

There are a number of Jim Knous’ who every year try to qualify in the US Open: Journeymen, Dreamrs, simply their principles with enough game to be still dangerous on each given day. Most – actually, ready all From them – come out empty. From the record 10.202 players who entered the local qualification for Oakmont, only 908 advanced to one of the last 13 qualifiers. By that group, right 16 Local qualifiers hit their tickets to Open, some of whom had to fight in the main champions and multiple PGA Tour winners to get there.

This year he scored the ninth running of Knous’ in qualification; He would be 0-for-8. He sailed through his local qualification, in Estania Club in Scottsdale Last month, shooting a three-nine 69-year-old to grab one of the four points. When he arrived at Columbus a few days ago, he was still feeling good about his game. The ridiculous thing about golf, the less you fix and quarrel over your mechanics, often the better you play, whether you are a 25-Handicap or a plus-5. “Just one kind of exit and highway,” Knous said. “Something about this-inhill I wonder if I’m playing better than I was as a full-time professional.” He added, “There is really much in my mind, and maybe that’s a good thing.”

Surely somewhere on the Knous brain holidays, however, was the reality he has never played in an open, or big period. And you probably couldn’t have blamed him to come ahead when he reached his 13th day of day-21-Oborri of China 210-Oborn PAR-3 4-in good position in two under par.

“A little 5-Well, a little in a soft breeze,” is how Knous described his next shake. “We really couldn’t see it green, we couldn’t see where the hole was. There was a steep edge in green to the right and behind the stake.

Was, in fact, perfect Club he would do it. Four under 13.

“Then I said, oh, this is my day. That will happen when such things happen. You let your mind go like this for a while. But then, yes, I had to close.”

***

Knous played the other Five holes even to sign for a 68. Another round like him – hell, and even a 70 would be enough – and he would have been forced to Oakmont. In the afternoon round, starting from the first hole, Sheen Knous’ began to fade; He cheated the par-3 that he would enter the morning and made the turn to 38 to fall to three under the day. Fatigue was approaching him and his shaking was deserted. Knous ate what he defeated and with electrolyte bumps.

When that bird 11 and 13, he was again in excellent position. Eric van Royen the elegant double winner of the PGA Tour, was blocking the field (it would end at 13 under), but it seemed clear to the point that six underneath would enter while the last five would be destined for a play-off.

After a noise in 14 threw it back to four under, Knous said: “I knew what to do from there. I knew I needed to play the last four in at least one under.”

He overtaken par-4 15 and made a bird up and down to par-5 16. In par-3 17, he lost an 18-foot test from the hole. From this point Knous knew JUST What he had to do: Birdie par-4 closer to his first start of the US, submit it for a place in a play off or good, it was probably better not to consider any other possible results.

Elite players have a strange ability to remember not only their results in every hole, but the flight of each stroke, the scroll of each stroke, the rough cut, the green grain, the strength of the wind. And so here, we will remove the floor of the honored player from Colorado.

“Eighteen was complicated,” knous began. “Par-4-is a fierce, tough ball with a large old tree on the right side. I pull the ball so it just naturally doesn’t look good with my eye. So I’m trying to keep it on the trees, attract it slightly left in the rough, a hard type.

Knous had left himself about 3 meters.

“Now, I just stuck in my routine for that short kick. I read it, I had a strong reading, set my left line, and thought it would curb well. I could have hit it a harder fraction than I liked. Maybe that’s adrenaline, maybe that knows?”

***

You have probably brought out Where is this going. If Knous had expressed Putt, that would not really be a story. Well, it would be. But simply a very different story – one of the perseverance and gravel and an eternal dream fulfilled. This tale has no such happy ending. And yet, the dense story of his day is still attractive and guiding, because without anger, there is no glory and without pain. Knous knows it. So does every other golf player who has played for trophies and salaries. Output competitive golf slides can reward players in spectacular ways, but more often violates them.

“I was shocked that I didn’t do it,” continued Knous. “I would be so strong for those three to five feet all day.”

As the knife ball slipped from the hole, the tongue of his body spoke volumes. He lifted his shaft paved on the edge of his lid and leaned to it. He lowered his tight blade and scolded him against the green as if he had rebuked the surface he had opposed. As Knous rests his right hand over the waist, his eyes remained climbing to the ground. He could not bear to look up.

It is a delicate conversation, looking for a golf player of Knous’ as to the loss and disappointment. Most of us know the sensation at the level of the weekend rise-making a pair of 18 to lose a $ 10 Nassau, slamming a wedge blow to lose a friend of friends-but losing a 3-party with an open American place on the line? This is another degree of stting.

“I was pretty crushed at the moment,” Knous said. “Obviously it would have been a Play off hard to spend with all those amazing players. But, of course, as a player himself, I I want be in that play off. “

He went on: “I was nervous. It was a time since I was in such a situation. I think the other – I don’t want to say a unlucky thing, but circumstantial thing, was the fact that I was in the last group, and this stroke meant a lot to me and other people in that play off. first, seeing the camera. “

Knous has learned part -time at a Golf Academy near his Scottsdale home. He advises his students on how to manage nerves. Get your routine, practice it tightly, stick to it. “And when the pressure comes,” he said, “that’s all you can rely on.”

Sometimes the breakdown of crutches, other times it holds. When Knous was chasing his PGA Tour card in the 2018 Korn Ferry tournament, he came to the last hole knowing that he had to do before. After hitting his approach at 50 meters, he remained his bird, trying 6 meters and buried his subsequent attempt. “Maybe the hit where I’ve felt the biggest pressure,” Knous says now.

Columbus, he said, was also up there.

“This will follow me for a while,” Knous said. “We hope to simply overcome it with time.”

***

Knous will tell you The sun came out in the morning after its qualification in Columbus. He himself was raised early, too, on the first flight to Phoenix. On that afternoon, he was on his table in Ping HQ.

By Wednesday, he would have had some time to process his intestinal conclusion. To begin to accept it and wait ahead. Asked to describe the challenge of passing the open qualification, Knous said it was more difficult than Monday Qualification for a PGA Tour event, something he has done twice.

“Really really, really hard,” he said. “I like to try to beat a bunch of tournament players or compete with them. But there is no doubt, it’s very difficult. I feel like I had my A or A+ game all day on Monday and again came short.”

Knous will try again, of course. Because that’s what he does. During lunch break, you will often find it in green practice on the ping campus, shredding and setting and generally trying to keep his game sharp. After all, his next go to the US Open Qualification is only 11 months away.

“Maybe the 10th time will be charm,” he said.