www.globalgolfpost.com
JULY 2, 2012
The Kid Is All Right
Hossler Shows Poise Beyond His Years
LEONARD SHAPIRO
E-MAIL LEONARD
BETHESDA, MARYLAND | It will be several
years before Beau Hossler, the teenage
wonder boy at the recent U.S. Open, ever will
be considered as a Ryder Cup candidate for
the United States team. But at the very least,
the 17-year-old already has caught the eye
of 2012 American captain Davis Love III.
“What’s amazing is so many of these
(young) guys – Patrick Cantlay, Jordan
Spieth – these guys just pop right up in big
tournaments and look like they’ve been
doing it their whole lives,” Love marveled
the other day. “It’s just amazing that they’re
that well-spoken and polished, focused.”
Poised also would be an apt descrip-
tion for a kid who will start his senior year
at Santa Margarita High School in Mission
Viejo, Calif., in the fall, a lad who wears
braces on his teeth, totes his clubs in his
high school bag and still looks as if he has
yet to take a razor to that peach-fuzz face.
On the inside though, Hossler seems to
be a supremely confident youngster who
actually saw his name leading the Open
at Olympic early in his second round and
trailed by only four shots with 18 holes to
play. That prompted him to tell reporters
after the third round, “I still have the goal
to be low amateur, but my goal now is to
win the tournament.”
Of course neither goal materialized.
With a double-bogey on his final hole,
he lost the amateur medal to his future
University of Texas teammate, Spieth. And
his final-round 76 left him in a tie for 29th
place, still a more-than-respectable fin-
ish, to say the least.
16. He missed the cut that week, but came
to Washington a year later and said, “If I
go out there and play my game, I think I
can get myself into contention.”
He started off that way, with a birdie
on his first hole of the week in Thursday’s
opening round, when he shot even-par
71, just missing the red numbers when
he lipped out a three-foot putt on his last
hole. On Friday, he posted a round of 74 in
suffocating 100-degree heat to make the
cut at 3-over 145.
“I feel like I belong,” he said after the
first round. “Obviously, my game needs to
get better before I’m out here all the time,
but I feel pretty comfortable. Feels like I
can make the adjustment from junior to
amateur to professional golf.”
No matter what happened at Congres-
sional last week, it seems that Hossler
is making excellent choices. He already
has committed to play at the University of
Texas, and he also said here this week that
he’s planning to stay all four years.
Did he ever consider turning pro right
out of high school?
“Not at all,” he said. “College is going
to be the best time of my life. I’m planning
on spending four years there, graduating
and I can’t wait to do it. I love all the guys
on the team. I love the coaches, everything
about the school, the area. It’s just going
to be a blast. Golf isn’t going anywhere.”
And Beau Hossler clearly seems to be
going in all the right directions. l
