The AT&T National is only the third professional golf tournament for Beau Hossler, and the first to which he was invited.
But even at the tender age of 17, the California high school student will have something on most of the rest of the players in the field when he tees off Thursday. Only 42 others played last year in the U.S. Open at Congressional. Many fewer have ever led an Open in the second round as Hossler did earlier this month.
Despite making the Open at age 16, Hossler made it in and out of Congressional with relatively little fanfare last year as he missed the cut by seven strokes. This year at Olympic Club was a different story. Not only did Hossler become the first high school student since 1951 to qualify in consecutive years, he remained in contention until the back nine on Sunday.
Five days later, Tiger Woods invited Hossler to play in his tournament. On Tuesday afternoon, Hossler played 18 holes with future University of Texas teammate Jordan Spieth, 18.
“I feel pretty comfortable,” Hossler said. “It’s still me and my caddie and the golf course. No matter all the media, who’s in the field, where the venue is, I’ve still got to go out there and compete against the golf course and compete against myself.”
Hossler has had a whirlwind couple of weeks, saying that people have stopped him in airports and asked to take pictures with him. Buying socks at Macy’s recently, Hossler produced an I.D. to prove who he was.
“You wouldn’t really expect the guy at Jack in the Box to recognize me,” Hossler said. “But they kind of do now. So it’s definitely different.”
A year ago, after making a splash at the U.S. Open at Congressional, 19-year-old Patrick Cantlay shot a 60 at the Travelers Championship to take the lead. Cantlay, who is also at Congressional this week, missed the cut last week at the Travelers after turning pro.
Hossler has no such ambition to collect a paycheck.
“College is going to be the best time of my life,” he said. “I’m planning on spending four years there, graduating, and I can’t wait to do it.”
– Kevin Dunleavy
