| Golfers will join Des Moines' Jack Newman at
Pinehurst No. 2
RICK
BROWN - DES MOINES REGISTER
Rhodes, Ia. — Playing in the U.S.
Amateur golf championship is old hat to Mike McCoy.
He qualified for his 11th appearance in Monday's 36-hole
qualifier at Harvester Golf Club.
"It never gets old," said McCoy, 45, from West Des Moines.
It's a different story for 21-year-old Ben Herrera of Clive, who
qualified for the first time Monday.
"My goal this summer was to make the U.S. Amateur," said
Herrera, who will be a junior at Iowa State this fall. "I just
didn't tell anyone."
McCoy, who won his second
Trans-Mississippi Amateur title earlier this summer, shot a competitive
Harvester course-record 6-under-par 66 in the first round and closed
with a 69. That was four shots clear of Herrera, who shot 70-69.
"That was an endurance test out there," said McCoy, who had 11 birdies
and just two bogeys in 90-degree temperatures.
And since it was a United States Golf Association-sponsored event,
golfers were required to walk.
"I've been working hard on my game, just
trying to have a good summer," McCoy said.
This year's U.S. Amateur will be played August 18-24 at Pinehurst, N.C.
The highlight of Herrera's day came on his 35th hole. He rolled in a
putt that was all of 80 feet, over a ridge, for birdie on the par-3 17th
green.
"Wow," Herrera said, to himself, as he walked to retrieve his ball. A
fist-pump followed.
Herrera admitted later he was just trying to get the putt within 10 feet
of the hole.
"For that to go in, that made my day,"
said Herrera, whose only other appearance in a USGA-sponsored event was
the 2004 U.S. Junior Amateur.
McCoy and Herrera will join Jack Newman of Des Moines in the U.S.
Amateur field. Newman got his spot by winning the U.S. Amateur Public
Links last month.
Newman, who will be a junior at Michigan State, and Herrera have played
a lot of golf together the last two years.
"We're pretty good pals," Herrera said. "I was texting him after every
match (at the Public Links). I was so happy for him. He beats me
sometimes, and sometimes I beat him. I thought, 'If he can do it, why
can't I'.
Results
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