Bigger And Better In Texas?

Lone Star State Boasts USGA Champions

By David Shefter, USGA

You could easily say it’s been a banner year for Texas with regard to USGA championships.

Anna Schultz, lining up a putt Wednesday at the Women's State Team Championship, started playing golf at age 23 and gradually got better by going against stiff Texas competition. (John Mummert/USGA)

It started with Colt Knost of Dallas, who became just the second player to win the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Amateur Public Links titles in the same year (sixth overall individual to win two USGA events in the same year). The2007 Southern Methodist University graduate produced a 2-0-2 record to help the USA post a one-point win at the Walker Cup Match held Sept. 8-9 at Royal County Down in Northern Ireland.

Never had Texas had two finalists in a USGA event until the 2007 U.S. Junior Amateur at Boone Valley Golf Club in Augusta, Mo., where 15-year-old lefty Cory Whitsett of Houston beat Anthony Paolucci, 14, of Dallas.

And Anna Schultz of Rockwall broke her runner-up spell by beating Robyn Puckett in 20 holes for the USGA Senior Women’s Amateur crown.

But these are just snapshots of the USGA achievements compiled by the Lone Star State golfers.

Going back to the glory days of Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, to the modern legends of Lee Trevino, Ben Crenshaw, Miller Barber and Tom Kite, to the young guns like Kelli Kuehne, Justin Leonard, Hunter Mahan, and now Knost, Texas has produced its share of golfing giants, many of whom cut their teeth at USGA championships.

Over the last 25 years, Texas can boast of 25 USGA champions (second only to California’s 58), the names resonating like a Who’s Who in the game. That list includes the Kuehne clan from McKinney – Kelli won three and Hank one (Trip was a runner-up at the 1994 U.S. Amateur) – the aforementioned Kite, Barber, Trevino, Mahan, Leonard and Knost, along with Bruce Lietzke, Leonard, Scott Verplank and Orville Moody.

At the college level, Crenshaw won three NCAA titles for the University of Texas, a feat only matched by Phil Mickelson. And the University of Houston, under legendary coach Dave Williams, has won more NCAA men’s titles (16) than any other Division I school in the post-World War II era (Yale won 21 from 1897-1943).

“Anybody who’s a native Texan is extremely proud of that fact,” said Houston native Loren Singletary, a member of the USGA’s Executive Committee. “Being able to see people who come from Texas excel in our national championships is fabulous. Everybody is really proud and follows our Texans in the national competitions. We want to know how they’re doing.”

This week, Texas has been again in the USGA spotlight, as The Club at Carlton Woods (Nicklaus and Fazio courses) in the posh Houston suburb of The Woodlands is hosting the seventh USGA State Team Championships for men and women. It’s the 23rd time in USGA history that Texas has hosted a prestigious national championship conducted by the USGA. Only two of the 13 USGA championships have yet to make an appearance in the state: the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links and U.S. Senior Open. The Walker and Curtis Cup competitions have also yet to be staged here.

"I don’t think there’s anything in particular,” said Trip Kuehne on why Texas is one of the leaders for golf talent and courses. “It’s a big state, and a fairly affluent state.

“But going back to when Justin Leonard and I were junior golfers, it seemed like you always had someone there setting the bar. Justin Leonard, myself, my brother, then Hunter Mahan, now Colt. It seems like you always have somebody on the national stage that is doing pretty well that sets the bar fairly high for people to try to achieve.”

“Two reasons,” said Schultz. “One, our weather is good all year round. Two, we have so many good players that we push each other. We’re constantly playing against each other. We have players [in the state] that don’t even want to qualify [for USGA events] here because of the competition.”

Certainly, Texas rivals fellow Sun Belt states California, Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Arizona for golf supremacy. Besides the facilities, some of the leading teachers of the game call Texas home.

“We are inundated with good teachers,” said 2004 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur champion Carolyn Creekmore of Dallas. “[And] when we play the state amateur, it’s like going to a USGA event with all the competition. There is so much competition that if you do whine, you’ve lost ground.”

Even recent USGA championships held in the state have brought about seminal moments. In 2003 at Barton Creek Resort & Spa in Austin, World Golf Hall of Fame member Marlene Streit of Canada, at 69 years, 6 months and 2 days, became the oldest champion in USGA history when she won the Senior Women’s Amateur title for a third time.

Ten years earlier at Champions Golf Club, John Harris won the U.S. Amateur at the age of 41. To this day, he remains the last mid-amateur (25 and older) to claim the Havemeyer Trophy.

In 1969 at Brookhaven G.C. in Dallas, Hollis Stacy won the first of her three consecutive U.S. Girls’ Junior titles. The only foreign-born champion in U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur history is Canada’s Mary Ann Lapointe, who won her title at Shadow Hawk G.C. in the Houston suburb of Richmond.

Champions Golf Club was founded by Masters winner Jackie Burke Jr., and the Houston venue has hosted the most USGA events (three) in the state. In 1969 at Champions, Moody claimed his one and only professional title on the PGA Tour when he won the U.S. Open. Three-time USA Curtis Cupper Virginia Derby Grimes also claimed the 1998 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur.

Legendary courses, world-class players and a climate that’s conducive to year-round golf allow Texas to stay in the forefront of golf states.

David Shefter is a USGA staff writer. USGA staffers Ken Klavon and Beth Murrison contributed from onsite at the USGA State Team Championship.