One of golf’s best amateurs had to change his game. He couldn’t afford not to.

He saw Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolff. Or actually he couldn’t. 

Preston Summerhays is the son of a golf coach, is a member of a golfing family, counts Jon Rahm and Tony Finau as friends, and his game looks like it. He has all the makings of a future star. But even he was behind. In this case, several yards so. 

At the 2018 U.S. Amateur, at Pebble Beach, Summerhays said he was getting outbombed. 

“I was 16 years old and I had to play against Matty Wolff and Viktor Hovland, who were also playing that week, and I left that week missing the cut and just being pissed because I wanted to be able to compete with these guys,” Summerhays said on this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar. “And obviously Pebble Beach, where the rough is super long and it’s a long course, especially when it gets cold and wet, oh, my distance just wasn’t going to cut it.”

Today, it does. On Subpar, Summerhays said he can touch 189 mph ball speed and averages somewhere around 177; for perspective, the leader on the PGA Tour last season, Cameron Champ, averaged 190.94. So yeah, Summerhays can get it out there now.  

His secret? In an interview with GOLF’s Zephyr Melton at last year’s Amateur, Summerhays’ dad, Boyd, described it in eight words. 

“Go swing as hard as you freaking can,” the GOLF Top 100 Teacher said he told his son. “It’s as simple as that.”

And he did, starting with a training regimen of going to the range and swinging out of his shoes for three 30-minute sessions per week. Still, the Arizona State freshman is just keeping pace. 

“One-eighty-nine, I mean that’s big on Tour right now,” Subpar co-host Drew Stoltz said. “What’s your cruiser speed, like you’re playing? I’m sure that was one you were trying to go at.” 

“Ball speed, I’m around 177 178,” Summerhays said.  

“Where does that fall right now in terms of college?” Stoltz asked. “Like if you’re just out there playing a tournament, where do you fall on the scale, from longest to shortest?”

“I would say I’m above average,” Summerhays said. “I’m not the longest guy out there.” 

“Like 70 percentile or something like that?” Stoltz said. 

“Yeah. But college golf, there’s some long guys out in college golf right now,” Summerhays said.

“It’s sick,” Stoltz said.  

“It’s insane,” Summerhays said.  

To watch the complete episode of this week’s Subpar podcast, please click below. 

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Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.