Three Tide Golfers In U.S. Amateur

Three current University of Alabama golfers hope to do what their Crimson Tide teammate Michael Thompson did last year: make it to the finals of the U.S. Amateur. Or maybe what former Bama star Jerry Pate did: win.

Senior Matthew Swan of Montgomery, redshirt freshman Phillip Weaver of Tuscaloosa and incoming freshman Bud Cauley of Jacksonville, Fla., will represent Alabama in the field of the 108th U.S. Amateur. It will begin Monday and continue through held August 24 at Pinehurst Resort and Country Club in the Village of Pinehurst, N.C.

It will be the first U.S. Amateur appearance for Weaver. Cauley is making his second, having qualified in 2007. Swan is making his fourth career appearance, having qualified first following his junior year in high school at Trinity Presbyterian in 2004 and again in 2005 and 2006. He advanced to the third round of match play at the 2005 U.S. Amateur, drawing his Alabama teammate Joseph Sykora in the first round.

Swan and Cauley are both veterans in international competition. Swan, All-Southeastern Conference in 2008, was a member of the four-man USA team that won the Toyota World Junior Golf Team Championships in Japan in 2005. Cauley also represented the USA in that event, making a splash as the co-individual champion earlier this summer.

Weaver will be the first of the Alabama Golf trio to tee off on Monday morning. He has a 7:50 a.m. tee time off the No. 1 tee on the Pinehurst No. 2 Course and is paired with Douglas Hurson of Bethesda, Md., and Danny Green of Jackson, Tenn.

Swan will start off from the No. 1 tee on that same course at 12:45 p.m. CT. He is paired with Abraham Lee of La Canada, Calif., and Michael McCoy of West Des Moines, Iowa.

Cauley is in the third to last grouping for the day, teeing off at No. 10 on Pinehurst Course No. 4 at 1:35 p.m. CT. Cauley’s threesome will include Conrad Shindler of Westlake, Texas and Erik Barnes of Marion, Ind.

The tournament begins with two rounds of stroke play held on Monday and Tuesday and will be played on both Pinehurst No. 2 Course and Pinehurst No. 4 Course. All of the match play rounds will be played on Pinehurst No. 2. After the second round of stroke play Tuesday, the field of 315 golfers is reduced to the low 64 scorers who advance to match play.

Match play begins on Wednesday. All matches are 18 holes except the final match which is a 36-hole championship final match that will be played on Sunday, August 24.

First round matches will air on the Golf Channel from 12 noon to 3:00 p.m. CT on Wednesday. Thursday’s and Friday’s matches air from 11 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. CT. The semifinal matches will air on August 23 from noon to 3:00 p.m. CT and the championship match will air from noon to 3:00 p.m. CT on Sunday, August 24.

Golf fans can follow the scoring live on the U.S. Amateur’s official website, www.usamateur.org.

Crimson Tide golfers have made their mark on this event. Jerry Pate won it going into his senior season at Alabama in 1974. Thompson, a senior All-American on the 2008 team, made it to the finals at last year’s 2007 U.S. Amateur, falling 2 and 1 to Colt Knost in the championship final. Cecil Ingram, son of former Tide football player and former UA Director of Athletics Hooter Ingram, advanced to the semifinals in 1979. And Tuscaloosa’s Dicky Pride, who is currently playing on the PGA Tour, advanced to the semifinals in 1992.