South Korean Bids to Become Youngest to Win U.S. Amateur

The last time the U.S. Amateur was played at Pebble Beach, here among the cypress trees, the sea lions and the fog, it was 1961 and the winner was Jack Nicklaus.

So who’s going to follow that act? Take your pick in today’s 36-hole final--a 20-year-old former Little League catcher from Tennessee with a burr haircut or a 17-year-old South Korean who speaks almost no English but has a golf game that’s eloquent in any language.

David Gossett, college golf’s freshman of the year at the University of Texas, is probably the favorite in the match-play showdown against Sung Yoon Kim, already the most famous male golfer in South Korea, who would become the youngest player to win the amateur.

Chances are it’s going to be gray and chilly once again at 7:30 when the first 18 holes begin, and that’s clearly sweater weather. But Gossett isn’t going to wrap himself in the flag for his match against the teenager from Seoul.

“I’m just representing myself,” Gossett said. “I’m carrying the flag a little bit, but I don’t think it’s the Ryder Cup here.”

No, but it’s a formidable matchup nonetheless, even if it is sort of an unexpected one.

The U.S. Amateur is a weeklong endurance test that began Monday when 312 players launched their attempt to join a historic list of champions that include Bobby Jones, Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, Mark O’Meara, Justin Leonard, Phil Mickelson and Gene Littler.

Almost immediately, the ranks of some of the more familiar players started to thin. Matt Kuchar, Tom McKnight, Steve Scott, Jerry Courville and Buddy Marucci were gone almost before the fog burned off.

As it turned out, Gossett and Kim are the last two standing.

Gossett got to the final with a 2 and 1 victory over Ben Curtis of Kent State. Surprisingly, Kim had an easier time in his Saturday semifinal match when he defeated U.S. Publinx champion Hunter Haas of the University of Oklahoma, 4 and 3.

Haas was even with Kim through 11 holes, but lost the last four. Haas said his biggest problem was putting the ball on Pebble’s tricky fast greens, which he really never got used to.

“It’s not like you’re on regular flat ground like in Norman, [Okla.],” said Haas, who figured he would be helped by his big-time amateur experience and that Kim would be hurt by his youth.

“I thought he would crack,” Haas said.

Kim’s English-speaking caddie served as an interpreter.

“He was mistaken,” caddie John Trittipo said of Haas.

Kim’s world-class golf experience is sort of limited nonetheless. He was one of four amateurs from Asia invited to play in the Tiger Woods Invitational in Japan, where he was paired with O’Meara. He also played in this year’s U.S. Junior Amateur and lost in the third round.

That’s it, except for pulling himself out of bed at 3 a.m. every day of the Masters to watch it on television.

Actually, getting out of bed may be the most trouble Kim has had so far this week, according to Trittipo. Kim is your typical teenager, who would rather sleep in than anything, with the possible exception of eating.

School starts again in a week for Kim, who doesn’t begin what would be his senior year until February. But school doesn’t seem nearly as important to Kim as turning pro, a plan about which he said, “the sooner the better.”

Of course, that would have to be after next year’s Masters, for which both he and Gossett have qualified as U.S. Amateur finalists.

Besides having a chance to become the youngest champion, Kim also could become the first non-North American to win the U.S. Amateur since Harold Hilton of England won in 1911.

Gossett was 2-up after two holes and 3-up after 13, but didn’t close it out until the 17th hole, which both players birdied. Curtis, of course, didn’t have any holes left, not that he felt kindly toward the greens anyway. Echoing Haas, who said they were “as firm as my dining room table,” Curtis said: “The greens were so hard, they might as well put some bricks down there.”

Gossett switched from catcher to golfer when he was 7 and tagged along with his dad, hoping he would be allowed to drive the golf cart. It was probably a good career decision. Gossett’s golf pedigree is spotless--the 1997 junior golfer of the year, 1999 Division I first-team All-American, NCAA freshman of the year, Big 12 Conference player of the year and freshman of the year.

As if he needed any more help, his caddie this week is Andy Martinez, who is Tom Lehman’s regular caddie.

Maybe that has helped Gossett formulate his game plan for today’s final--18 holes in the morning and another 18 after lunch.

“Hit a golf shot and go chase it and then hit it again,” Gossett said. “And enjoy the experience.”