A U.S. Golf Association title sticks with a person, and you could see that in the eyes of John Crooks and Buddy Baker on a rainy morning at the Country Club of North Carolina.
Crooks, the 1967 U.S. Junior Amateur champion, and Baker, the 1958 winner, spent several seconds looking for their names on the deep silver bowl that serves as the championship’s trophy. They asked each other where they each kept it. Crooks’ family put it in he living room, next to the family album collection. Baker’s family kept it in the den half the year, then moved it to the local club.
Crooks, the longtime Campbell men’s and women’s golf coach, defeated Andy North at Twin Hills Golf and Country Club in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, back in 1967. You always wonder, in golf, if you’re good enough, Crooks said.
“That kind of confidence stays with you,” he said of his USGA title.
When the U.S. Junior is played at CCNC in Pinehurst, North Carolina, on July 19-24, Crooks and his fellow college coaches will be walking along observing. As of June 1, coaches are allowed to recruit once again. In that way, the 73rd U.S. Junior Amateur will mark a return to normalcy in junior and college golf. The event was one of 10 USGA championships not played in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
CCNC officials had planned to keep a careful eye on the 2020 U.S. Junior, scheduled for Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, as the field was expanded from 156 players to 264. Instead, CCNC will be the first to debut the expanded field, utilizing both its Dogwood and Cardinal courses for stroke play before match play moves exclusively to Dogwood.
This will be the first U.S. Junior played at the course, but follows the 2010 U.S. Girls’ Junior at CCNC.
“Both are A courses, there’s not an A and a B course here,” noted championship chairman Mark Reineman.
The field will be determined mainly through the 59 qualifiers around the country to be played throughout June. Earlier this week, 38 players were exempted into the field. Among those 20 are international players representing 16 different countries.
#USJunior qualifying is now underway and 38 exempt players have been announced by the USGA. See you all next month! pic.twitter.com/LklYNqSoRg
— The Country Club of North Carolina (@CCNorthCarolina) June 3, 2021
Greg Sanfilippo, the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship Director, said club officials have spent the past few years studying golf course and player yardages at this level, as well as course setup. The key in setting up both of CCNC’s courses was to reward a player who can see the big picture of the golf course.
“We want the players to perform with every club in the bag,” he said.
