What is it like to be the oldest golf player in the USA’s amateur

San Francisco – Someone should always be the oldest player in the field, and this week the amateur championship in the US, that determination has fallen into Greg Sanders.

“I wouldn’t say I feel old,” said Sanders, 61. “But I feel like a fish from the water.”

It was a summer day of Mark Twain in San Francisco, cold and foggy, and Sanders was fresh in his first round of stroke in the ocean course in Olympic club. That he would not shoot at his age did not surprise him – not so much time and greens so strong in a course that made him hit long handcuffs in the first 4s. For a vintage golf player, Sanders knock too far away. But for most of the day on Monday, he would hit his approaches behind his game partners, Jake Olson, 20, and Anh Minh Nguyen, 18, are both younger than his two sons.

“My view has been very realistic since the beginning,” Sanders said. “For a separate second, I was thinking that I shouldn’t even play in this because what are my chances?

Moreover, he would win his way right and square by winning a great title in his adoptive state. A native of Misuri, Sanders moved to DOWN After the college and spent the next 37 years there, raising a family with his wife, Lisa, while working as an oil engineer. Anchorage, where he settled, was not exactly a golf, but it could hardly matter, as Sanders were not exactly a golf jungle. He had grown up playing tennis and did not begin to become serious about his swing until the 1930s. Until then, he would fall with a small, tight community of anchorage players, who played a small area of the area’s courses. There were not many options, or many months to practice. The Golf season in Alaska lasts barely than wine.

“Nowadays, we have monitoring and simulating all this,” Sanders said. “But early we didn’t have any ease of internal practice, so in April, I would go out and hit the wedge in the snow.”

It took another decade, Sanders said, before he felt his game could keep in competition. He has now done so well that he will win state amateur Alaska 11 times. The latest of those titles, in the anchorage Golf Course, just over a week ago, came with an exception to the American amateur (before that, the field strength in this case was not recognized as up to Snuff). For the first time, Sanders had punched his ticket to compete against children. (And when the old US champion Open Louis Brown, who was born two months before Sanders, withdrew from this week’s competition, Sanders became the most graybeards in the field).

Although he would never stand at the Olympic Club, he knew the country would be a challenge. Only reaching it turned out quite difficult. From Anchorage, Sanders flew to Phoenix, where he and his wife now spend the freshest months, then beside Tennesses to visit grandchildren before throwing a flight to the west that was delayed. He retired to San Francisco too late for a round of Saturday practice.

His first close appearance on Sunday was a moment Alaska. Sanders found himself staring at a bear.

“When you have Par-4s from 470 to 520 yard, it puts so much pressure on the driver,” he said. “Set it this way, it’s not old Golf.”

On Monday morning, Sanders left for a youth starting source, exploding his opening machine up to each of his partners. But a precursor in the former was followed by three direct rods, and then a trio-Bogey in the 6th when he lit his intention shot down and beyond the outside of the borders that he did not know-a weakness of his practice loss. He ended with a 10-par-par, 14 blows from the pace set by the first round leader Charlie Forster from England.

Day had been a physical and mental test. Sanders has reached the age at which damage increases without explanation. His left foot was annoying her on Monday, as she has been off and for the last six years, a stubborn problem with an unknown cause. Sometimes, his mind worked against him, too.

“I feel like playing a bad hole. I just have to get out of the way, which is irritating because I don’t want to think that way,” Sanders said. “Part of it is that I’m just not used to playing with players this good and this new.”

For the second round of Tuesday of the brain game, Sanders will be against the same field. The test, however, will be stouter, in the longest course, with difficulty.

This is the bad news. The good news is that you expect much more golf. Sanders is excluded in the high high amateur northern and south high championship next week in Pinhurst, followed by US High Amateur Championship at OAK Hills Country Club in San Antonio.

“That’s what I’m looking forward to,” he said. “I won’t be a fish out of the water there.”

Other prominent Monday:

Tee 1 nerves: While the champion of the Royal Club at the Olympic Club, Jacob Good, 21, benefits from the knowledge of the course. However, on Monday, he also claimed with the added pressure to hit the championship opening in front of a large, partisan crowd. “Probably probably the most nervous I have ever been,” Good said. Good, a locals of San Francisco, is a recent graduate at the University of Washington, where he spent the past four years playing the Golf team because, as he says, “I was not so good.” The school now clearly thinks differently, as good will return for a fifth year on campus, where he will play with a golf scholarship. He will do so with some Polish in his resume after recently capturing the state amateur in California. In the round of Monday’s opening in the game, Goode shot a 3-top 73 and landed T103 going to the second and last round of Tuesday and the last.

Royalty in Olympic: Royal Who says USA does not have a sense of humor? The evidence appeared at this time of 12:46 pm in the Ocean course, which presented the following group: King/Tsar/Royalty. As in William King, Kansas, Pavel Tsar of Florida and Keenan Royalty of Carolina North.

Super group: The day after the Foreign Land Music Festival finished at the Golden Golden Park nearby, a super band got the scene at the Olympic club. She presented Jackson Koivun, Ben James and Ethan Fang, Rno. 1, 2 and 3 amateurs in the world, respectively, playing together in the ocean course. Koivu finished the day on 2nd; James in 2-bi; and fang on 3-over.

That name sounds known: This week’s amateur championship has some in favor of Luke Poulter (the son of Ryder Cup Ian’s legend), John Dery II (the Great Champion’s son John), and Reed and Dean Grayerman (Max Greyerman’s brothers PGA Tour). On Monday, Poulter ended at the same time; Dary II shot 4-bi; And Grayerman went 1 and 7th respectively, respectively.