ARDMORE, Pa. – Having just finished 36 holes of stroke play at this 126th U.S. Amateur in 2 over par, Luke Poulter walked out of the scoring tent behind Merion’s 18th hole on Tuesday afternoon and exclaimed, “I’m going to need a miracle.”
His caddie has seen miracles around this place before.
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Florida head coach J.C. Deacon, who is on the bag for his star rising senior, reached the semifinals of the 2005 U.S. Amateur at Merion before his opponent, Dillon Dougherty, won each of the last two holes with improbable shots that still get Deacon emotional thinking about them.
“I went from winning and playing in the Masters to it being over just like that,” Deacon said.
Trailing Deacon 1 down with two holes to play, Dougherty missed the green left at the par-3 17th, prompting Deacon to say to himself on the long walk down to the green, I’m going to the Masters. But Dougherty then chipped in for birdie to win the hole and tie the match. On the next hole, the par-4 18th, Dougherty hit the broadcast booth with his approach and faced a 50-yard shot from a nasty lie. But again, Dougherty produced some magic, hitting a full flop that clanked off the flagstick to stone dead.
Deacon chipped to 8 feet and had that putt to force extra holes.
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“I just remember being so nervous like, What is happening right now?” Deacon said. “It hit a good putt, but just missed on the high side, hit it too hard. It was over like that. … I was in such disbelief. I can still hear the crowd screaming in that same disbelief. I’m getting goosebumps just talking about it right now.”
Being at Merion for the first time in 21 years this week, Deacon recalls a lot of fond memories as well. He remembers the fight he showed getting through a 19-for-17 playoff, then finding out on the range that he was playing his buddy Andrew Parr in the first round of match play. There was the up-and-down par on No. 17 to extend his Round-of-16 match against George Zahringer, which he would later win on No. 18. He defeated another Canadian buddy Mark Leon, who’d later be his assistant coach at Florida for a few seasons, in the quarterfinals; Deacon won 2 and 1, highlighted by a 35-foot birdie at No. 14.
Leon shared a photo from their match earlier this week on social media.
“Look at the crowds,” Deacon said as he showed the photo. “They were enormous. There were like 10,000 people out here. It really felt like a pro tournament. So much good energy….
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“It’s been the coolest week ever being back.”
Deacon hopes it’ll keep going a little longer. When Poulter double-bogeyed the par-4 12th, he dropped to 3 over, and with putts not dropping for a few holes after that, he grew increasingly frustrated.
But he stepped up on the 212-yard, par-3 17th and hit his tee ball to 8 feet, then rolled in the birdie putt to get back on the cut line. His up-and-down par from off the front of the 18th green gave him life, as 2 over will almost certainly be a playoff.
“We just have to get in this playoff, and I’ll repeat this story to him again,” Deacons said. “Dude, it’s not easy to win this tournament. I was telling him that today; he made that double bogey, and I go, ‘Dude, that stuff happens in this tournament. If you’re going to win this tournament, you have to be able to handle this stuff.’ And he did, to his credit; he played 1 under in his last six. That was big.
“Fingers crossed. I don’t want to leave.”
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