Where does Jimmy Abdo get his fearlessness?
His father, Jim, wastes no time. “His mother,” Jim answers, as he looks across the table at his wife, Harriet, who 19 years ago escaped war-torn Lebanon with her newly adopted son, Jimmy, just a few weeks old at the time, in her arms.
“It’s in his blood,” Jim Abdo says of Jimmy. “He’s not afraid to battle.”
What Jim Abdo has always known about his youngest son everyone else learned last week at the Olympic Club, where Jimmy Abdo, a Division-III product ranked No. 4,929 in the world amateur rankings, orchestrated a spirited run to the quarterfinals of the 125th U.S. Amateur. Though Abdo fell a few victories short of the most improbable of titles, the Edina, Minnesota, native, in his mind, had already won.
“Losing sucks, but it’s hard to be disappointed,” Abdo said. “It was more than I expected to even be here.”
Jimmy’s right – he shouldn’t have been there.
Jimmy Abdo was born July 2, 2006, in Beirut, just days before the outbreak of the Lebanon War, also called the July War, an armed conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Harriet, who at age 16 had immigrated from Lebanon to Minnesota with her family, was already in Beirut, having flown there in mid-June, hoping to adopt another son like she’d done six years earlier with her oldest, Joey, who played college golf at St. John’s.
Harriet will never forget the moment she first held a 2-day-old Jimmy.
“I remember sitting with him – he’s as big as my arm, and I’m just looking at him, hearing bombs going off in the background – and I’m like, I know God has given you to me for a reason,” says Harriet, a gold cross dangling from her neck.
It took nearly three weeks before Harriet and Jimmy boarded a Black Hawk helicopter, which airlifted them from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut to nearby Cyprus. On July 25, they finally arrived in Minneapolis, where Harriet’s mother, Saada, was so excited to meet her new grandson that she rushed past airport security.
“Our Little Miracle,” read the headline on the front page of Edina’s Sun Current newspaper a couple months later.
It’s no coincidence that Jimmy idolized superheroes as a kid. Jim Abdo still vividly remembers that confident 8-year-old who carried an unmistakable swagger. During a PGA Junior League match, Jimmy, decked out in orange like Rickie Fowler, stepped onto a 200-yard hole and drove the green.
Jimmy would always tell his parents, “I’d rather be a player than a spectator.”
And he’s not wavered in that belief.
Jimmy Abdo was never the best player on his prep team at Edina High. He didn’t garner any real interest from Division-I programs, either. Ultimately, he ended up at Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter, Minnesota, where he arrived, according to his head coach Scott Moe, “thinking that it would be easier than it was.”
But just like the high-school junior who gained nearly 60 yards off the tee after working with biomechanics expert Dr. Luke Benoit, Abdo doubled his efforts following a lackluster fall. When he wasn’t in class or sleeping, he was at the Drenttel Golf Facility, beating balls into a screen in the dead of winter, rolling putts on artificial turf, whatever it took.
“I figured that was the only way to get better than everybody,” Abdo said.
Abdo ended last season with a win and runner-up finish while being named the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s rookie of the year. He also entered the transfer portal, though he remained there all summer without any serious looks, even after qualifying for his first U.S. Amateur.
When he arrived at Olympic, Abdo was armed with a ballooned chip on his shoulder and the mantra, “I’m not afraid of anybody.”
He birdied three of his last six holes of stroke play just to get into a 20-for-17 playoff, which he survived with a pair of pars. He then knocked off incoming Auburn freshman Logan Reilly, the top-ranked player in his class when he signed last fall, followed by victories over Houston grad Wolfgang Glawe and Northwestern’s Daniel Svard.
“He has the attitude that he can hit any shot,” Moe said. “And he’s not going to back down to any opponent or golf course.”
As Abdo and his feel-good story captured the hearts of amateur golf, members of his home club, Minnesota Valley Country Club, cheered him on from afar, watching the television coverage from the club’s bar while wearing T-shirts that read, I’M JIMMY. Abdo could’ve used one, considering he didn’t pack enough clothes for the week and eventually needed to buy a couple more outfits from the pro shop.
Not even Jimmy Abdo himself could’ve envisioned a Friday tee time at the U.S. Amateur.
Abdo eventually ran into the Fridge, also known as Tennessee’s Jackson Herrington, who beat Abdo, 4 and 2, on his way to the final, won by 18-year-old Mason Howell. His Havemeyer hopes were extinguished Friday evening on Olympic’s 16th green, but the fire within still burned.
“He had tears in his eyes when he hugged me,” Harriet said. “I just told him, ‘I’m so proud of you.’ He’s a fighter. He wanted to go to the end, but he’ll be back. Jimmy is the kid who if he wants something, he works so hard for it. Hopefully, he learns a lot from this.”
Jimmy already had: “I know that I can do it now.”
He’ll get more chances to prove it. By virtue of reaching the quarters, Abdo is qualified for next year’s U.S. Amateur at Merion. He also finally caught the attention of D-I coaches, who had somehow found a spot for the ultimate underdog; when Howell closed out Herrington on Sunday, Abdo was already weighing offers.
With classes starting soon at many schools, Abdo hoped to find a new home soon.
He won’t have to traverse war this time, either.
“None of this is possible without my parents and my mom deciding to come get me from Lebanon,” Jimmy said. “For them to now see me live out my own dream, it’s fulfilling for them because they’ve put just as much work into this as I have. … Anytime something goes bad on the golf course, I remind myself that I’m just lucky to be here.
“And it’s pretty cool to be here now.”
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