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Players From Faraway Places Find Their Way to the Pacific Coast Amateur
By Spencer Sorensen
TRUCKEE, Calif. – Besides the usual regional players found among the 84 players in the Pacific Coast Amateur Championship, this year three players in particular have traveled long distances to play in this event.
Jeff and Lee Knox came from the opposite side of the country as they hail from Augusta, Georgia. The father and son duo, who are members of the hallowed Augusta National Country Club, got an invitation to play this week’s event and jumped at the chance. Jeff was a former walk-on golfer more than 20 years ago at the University of Georgia. Still a stand-out golfer, Jeff is the marker at The Master's when the field has an uneven number of players. Lee is currently a junior at the University of Alabama.
The course is quite different than the tracks the two are used to playing, but the adjustment of playing at a high altitude hasn’t been too difficult. “We just have been getting used to the yardages; we came two days early and got a couple practice rounds in to figure out how far we hit it here in the mountains,” said Lee, who shot an even-par 72 Tuesday to take first round family honors.
Despite having more experience playing higher altitude courses including an annual tournament at Castle Pines in Colorado, Jeff shot a 4-over par 76.
“We have a friendly competition going on and right now I’m four (shots) back,” explained Jeff with a chuckle, “hopefully I can scratch my way back.”
The pair has two goals this week -- the first was to shoot even-par each day and second was to let Lee have a chance to gamble in a casino as he just recently turned 21.
If you think traveling from Georgia is a long way, imagine what Matt Perry has been through so far this summer. Perry came to the United States a little more than a month ago from Hamilton, New Zealand and has traveled extensively this summer trying to play in several tournaments before he heads back to the Southern Hemisphere.
Perry started his journey with a week in Atlanta. The following week he went across the country to Seattle, then back across the country to Florida for a week, then to Texas last week before arriving in California on Sunday. Perry has one more tournament after this week as he travels to Chicago to play in the Western Amateur.
Despite struggling on Tuesday shooting a 6-over 78, due to being indecisive with adjusting to the elevation changes, Perry is clearly enjoying himself at Martis Camp.
“It’s a pretty special place, it’s hard not to enjoy yourself out there even if the golf isn’t how you like it,” he said. “You just have to play well from the first tee shot to the last putt to make a good score because there aren’t a lot of holes that allow you to catch-up. It just gets harder.”
Perry will be participating in the 2011 Nomura Cup later this year as representing New Zealand and will likely keep his amateur status another year before looking to go pro.
— Spencer Sorensen is a P.J. Boatwright Intern working for the Northern California Golf Association.
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