Former Bulldog Competes in US Amateur

Holcomb Looks to make the cut to Match-Play

By Will Johnson

Messenger Reporter

PINEHURST, NC – Former Crockett Bulldog and current Sam Houston State Bearkat William Holcomb V is in the hunt at the US Amateur Golf Championship held at the Pinehurst No. 2 Course in Pinehurst, NC.

Holcomb, the 2016 Class 3A Golf State Champion, carded a 2-over, 72 on the first day of competition to stay within striking distance of first round leader Brandon Wu at -5.

The former Bulldog came out of the gates on fire as he birdied two of the first three holes. He took a step back with back-to-back bogies on holes four and five, but righted the ship to finish the front nine with four consecutive pars to make the turn with an even par 35.

The back nine saw Holcomb holding his own against the challenging course with a 2-over back nine for an opening round 72. 

Pinehurst No. 2 is the only course to have hosted all five of the USGA’s most important events. The course has played host to the US Open in 1999, 2005 and 2014. It is also scheduled to host the 2024 US Open.

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The course has also hosted the US Women’s Open in 2014, the US Amateur in 1962 and 2008, the US Women’s Amateur in 1989 and the US Senior Open in 1994.

Holcomb sat in 53rd place and teed off on the 9th hole at 2:25 pm on Tuesday at the newly renovated Pinehurst No. 4 course.  Holcomb had a rocky start with a bogey on the par 5 No. 9 hole and another bogey on the par 3 No. 11.

 Settling into his game, Holcomb parred the next three holes and made a five-foot putt for birdie on 15.  The 17th hole brought on another par 5 that had been giving Holcomb some problems. He came out of the hole with a bogey which had him at +2 for the day and +4 for the tournament.  Starting back on No.1 Holcomb went birdie, bogey, birdie to gain a stroke on the field and parred the next three holes to get to +3 for the tournament before play was suspended due to darkness. 

Over 300 golfers started out the US Amateur in the first 2 days of the stroke play portion. The field will be cut after the completion of the second day of stroke play to a projected +5 and 67 places.  Currently, Holcomb is sitting at +3 tied for 28th place with 2 holes to play.  If he is successful and makes the cut, Holcomb will start the match play portion of the tournament on Wednesday.

Match play will cut the field down to the ultimate winner showdown on Sunday.  Coverage will start Wednesday on FS1 and will be covering the remainder of the tournament.

Check back online for updates and Sunday, Aug. 18 for the final results.

Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].