SAN FRANCISCO — Jacob Goode made his intentions clear to new swing coach Dana Dahlquist the first time they met in February of 2024.
When the pair started working together, Dalhquist asked Goode what his goals and ambitions were for the pair to work together.
“I want to win the U.S. Amateur in 2025,” Goode said.
An ambitious goal, sure. But for an amateur who, at the time, was not listed in the World Amateur Golf Ranking or on a college golf team in his junior year of college, it seemed outlandish. Bombastic, even.
Not for Goode. For him, it was his lone goal, his driving force to keep getting better, practicing day in and day out around his studies at the University of Washington while trying for years to get on the men’s golf team.
He played in the 2023 U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills in Denver, his first U.S. Am, but missed the cut. “This is easy, I could just do it again,” Goode remembers thinking to himself when he thought ahead to what was coming to his home course, the 2025 U.S. Amateur at Olympic Club, where he has been a member for years.
But the U.S. Amateur is the most difficult men’s amateur competition in the world. On Monday, the famed course in San Francisco will host 312 of the best amateurs from around the globe vying to hoist the Havemeyer Trophy come Sunday. One of those players is Goode, the local kid who got into the field after winning the California Amateur who will now play the biggest tournament of his life on his home course.
“It’s more just an acceptance that playing this tournament, it’s gonna be really hard, and it’s gonna be at your own course,” Good said. “Just find this unique challenge. Because either way, people are gonna be like, Oh, if I made the cut, you know, it’s his home course. If I miss the cut, and like, what is he doing? You know, he sucks.
“I’ve got nothing to lose. Just got to play well and and do me.”
How much things can change in 18 months.
‘There’s a little bit of potential here’
There wasn’t a lot to do during COVID around the world, especially in San Francisco, the place in the United States where the infectious disease first took off before spreading rapidly across the country.
Golf was one of the safe havens for those looking to get some time outside. For Goode and his friends, like Oliver Vilkin, Olympic Club became their safe haven.
The famed course sits within a few hundred yards of the Pacific Ocean on the west side of San Francisco and has a 100-year history of hosting some of the best golf events in California and the United States. It has hosted numerous U.S. Opens and U.S. Amateurs, and in 2021, it also hosted the U.S. Women’s Open for the first time. In 2028, the PGA Championship is heading to the Bay Area. Then in 2032, the Ryder Cup will be hosted at the Lake Course, one of two 18-hole layouts on property.
The Lake Course hosts most major events, though the Ocean Course is no pushover, either. That’ll be the stroke-play co-host for this week’s U.S. Amateur, with the match-play portion moving to the Lake Course on Wednesday for the remainder of the championship.
For Goode and Vilkin, it’s a place they spent hours and hours during those COVID summers. There was no other place to be, so why not play golf?
“We must have played every day for like six months during COVID,” Vilkin, who’s on the men’s club golf team at SMU, said. “The only place we could escape was the golf course.”
It was Goode’s senior year of high school; Vilkin was a junior. But back then, they played golf for fun. Goode wasn’t being recruited, nor was it a priority of his to play high-level amateur golf.
“If you looked at the scores, it wasn’t all that great,” Goode said. “Looking back on it, I thought I was all that. I really wasn’t. I think if somebody had watched me play, they would be like, ‘OK, there’s a little bit of potential here.’ You just have to take the risk.
Goode recalls when the Bay Area had a stretch of great weather in May and June that year, he went a week straight of playing on two of the toughest courses in the world and didn’t make a bogey.
“I was just like, ‘Where the hell did this come from?'” Goode recalls. “And it was just only hitting a fade on all the shots except for the wedges. And I just ended up playing really well. And I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is fantastic.'”
His coach at the time reached out to a couple of programs to gauge interest, like UC Davis, but the program’s 2021 recruiting class was full, so Goode didn’t think much of it.
He continued playing throughout his senior year of high school, and in the summer of 2021, before his freshman year of college, got new irons and immediately shot a 66 on the Lake Course with a bunch of mid-60 rounds.
“There were always these little glimpses of what I could be,” Goode remembers saying.
Heading into his freshman year at Washington, he decided to shoot an email to men’s coach Alan Murray, a shot-in-the-dark attempt to see whether there was a chance he could get on the team. There was no response.
A delayed college offer
Murray recalls the first time he heard about Goode was through an email from someone at Olympic Club, letting him know about a member who was in school at Washington.
Meanwhile, Goode said the first time he finally spoke with Murray was after he qualified for the 2023 U.S. Amateur. He continued to send emails throughout his sophomore year, but it was before his junior year when he finally heard back, but Murray still wasn’t giving him the attention Goode thought he deserved.
“I kind of expected him to be a little more interested in the fact I was the only U-W guy there at the Am,” Goode said. “You know what, screw this guy. I’m just going to do whatever I need to do, just keep plotting along. Clearly, I’m doing things right.”
Throughout his junior year, he continued to practice on his own and grind his way through small amateur events. That summer, Murray wanted to get Goode on the team, but with a large signing class with numerous freshmen and Title IX rules, there was no room for Goode on the roster, still going into his senior year.
“I didn’t give it any attention,” Goode said of the signing class. “Then I saw the results of the team, and I was like what is going on?”
The Washington team struggled last year, and Goode questioned why he wasn’t given a chance to play on the team. It came down to a numbers situation, but even Murray was questioning his decision-making.
Some other coaches had reached out to Goode and gauged his interest in coming to play for them, but he never wavered from wanting to don the purple and gold.
“Looking back and kind of just kicking myself, really, that I wasn’t smart enough to speak with him sooner,” Murray said. “I feel bad for Jacob that I wasn’t smarter sooner.”
Last fall, Murray and Goode finally met, and the player’s persistence paid off. Goode said he was still interested in playing college golf, and Murray wanted to see what he was made of.
Goode began practicing some with the team, a tryout, so to say, and it was his time to shine. Goode played with the team at numerous courses in the spring before the team competed in the Southern Highlands Collegiate in Las Vegas, and Goode finished second by a shot. That was enough for Murray.
“It was pretty, pretty, pretty clear how impressive his game was,” Murray said. “His perseverance is something that probably doesn’t get recognized enough. This journey to get on the college golf team is, you know, Paul Chang at Virginia, kind of a similar deal.
“You don’t hear that. There aren’t too many of these. It tells you just what a high caliber individual Jacob is, really and you know, nobody’s more deserving of this opportunity than him.”
After five years, Goode finally had his spot on the college golf team of his dreams. He’ll officially make his debut this fall for the Huskies as a fifth-year senior.
Winning the California Amateur
Goode officially signed with Washington on June 10. On June 16, he teed it up at the California Amateur with a chance to officially punch his ticket to Olympic Club.
Winners of the state amateurs get into the U.S. Amateur, and Goode did not have enough WAGR points yet, even with some tournaments on his resume. The California Amateur at Granite Bay was an opportunity to officially get back into the U.S. Amateur and, more importantly, his home U.S. Amateur.
The California Am is two rounds of stroke play, with the top 32 players advancing to match play. Goode finished T-13 after stroke play, and one by one, he plodded his way into the championship match, including winning on the second playoff hole of his semifinal. In the championship, Evan Liu awaited Goode.
Liu, from Rancho Santa Fe, California, is one of the top recruits in the 2027 class. He was a clear favorite. But Goode left no doubt.
He thrashed Liu 8 and 6, winning the California Amateur while wearing his Washington gear, his first win as a Husky. And more importantly, he officially had his ticket to Olympic Club.
“I’m just proud of him,” Vilkin said. “You know, it’s cool seeing it, seeing his dreams actually become reality is awesome because I get to live through him to a certain extent. I never got that chance either.
“Honestly, everyone else should actually be looking forward to it and rooting for a kid that’s just been told no and actually gets to have a chance and go out and live out his dreams at his home course in the biggest amateur championship in the world.”
Dream come true at Olympic Club
Come Monday morning at 7:20 a.m. local time, Jacob Goode will stand high on the hill next to Olympic Club’s pro shop looking north toward the Golden Gate Bridge before pounding his driver, smashing the opening tee shot on the first hole. It’s a shot he has hit hundreds of times, though none have been as impactful as the strike he will make this morning.
“It’s funny. We’ve been talking about it for years. When they first announced the U.S. Am, we were like, ‘Damn, imagine how cool it would be if you won the U.S. Am on your home course?’ Vilken said. “Then, at one point this summer, one of my buddies looked at me after he won the Cal Am and we looked at each other and we’re like, ‘Is it crazy to say we think he’s going to win the U.S. Am?’
“I don’t think so. Momentum is a crazy thing.”
The emotions are sure to be as strong as the Pacific Ocean winds that encompass Olympic Club every day, but not a single player in the field has more course knowledge or higher expectations than Goode. He may be a late bloomer, but his only goal is to get into match play at his home course. Because then anything can happen.
“It’s just going to be a blast. It’s going to be so much fun,” Goode said. “And playing the courses in that condition, especially the Ocean, is going to be really fun. It’s gonna be a great time.”
The moment he imagined for years is finally here, and it’s Goode’s moment to shine.
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