OAKMONT, Pa. – Harrison Ott needed to bring an extra fire extinguisher.
The Vanderbilt senior drew red-hot Michael Thorbjornsen in the opening round of match play at the 121st U.S. Amateur. Thorbjornsen entered the week at Oakmont Country Club as the prohibitive favorite, still streaking from dominant victories at the Massachusetts State Amateur and Western Amateur. Ott, meanwhile, was still trying to build confidence after a prolonged slump.
While Ott appeared to be on his way to smothering the Stanford sophomore, leading 3 up through 12 holes, Thorbjornsen, as it turned out, was just slow cooking his opponent.
Five holes and five birdies later, and Ott was done.
“I just get in this zone where I’m so fired up and locked in that all I can see is birdies turn into pars,” said Thorbjornsen, whose scorching finish scored him a 2-and-1 victory and a Round-of-32 matchup opposite North Florida’s Nick Gabrelcik, the reigning Phil Mickelson Award winner as college golf’s freshman of the year.
Match-play scoring from the U.S. Amateur
As Thorbjornsen approached the par-3 13th green, facing a 25-footer for birdie, he had been uncharacteristically cold. He lipped out birdie putts at Nos. 9 and 10, and then his birdie roll at No. 11 scared the hole. He found a few divots.
“There can be some panic, but I just knew something was going to happen that could flip the switch,” Thorbjornsen said. “I just had to keep believing in myself and stay positive.”
The switch flipped moments later, as Thorbjornsen drained the putt at No. 13 to get back to 2 down.
Last month, Thorbjornsen notched 18 birdies in 30 holes to rout Matt Parziale for the Mass Am title, and then he fired a course-record 62 at Glen View Club before making early work of another Vanderbilt player, incoming freshman Gordon Sargent, in the Western final.
Thursday’s run, Thorbjornsen said, was his best yet. Following the can-opener at No. 13, Thorbjornsen added birdies at Nos. 14 and 15, each inside of 7 feet. He then hit the shot of the match, a 4-iron stinger to 3 feet at the 231-yard, par-3 16th hole, and rolled in a fourth straight birdie.
“I spend a lot of time on the range hitting that shot, trying to see how long and how straight I can hit it,” Thorbjornsen said. “That’s the shot that I feel the most comfortable hitting.”
Thorbjornsen closed out Ott with a 10-foot curler on the par-4 17th hole. When the putt dropped, Thorbjornsen scooped his ball out of his hole, took his hat off and traded handshakes with his opponent.
Thankfully for Ott, Thorbjornsen’s hot hand was only figurative.
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