Golf: Cruz Valle Qualifies for U.S. Amateur Championship

Dan McDonald, Daily Advertiser, July 12, 2016

Photo provided by UL Sports Information.

Monday was a long day for Fernando Cruz Valle, but it was also a very rewarding one.

It took the rising senior on UL’s Ragin’ Cajun golf team 40 holes and nearly 12 hours, including a wrenching four-hole playoff, but the product of The Woodlands, Texas, earned one of the two qualifying spots available at Links on the Bayou in Alexandria Monday for the upcoming U.S. Amateur Championship.

For Cruz Valle, a two-time All-Sun Belt Conference performer and just named to this year’s All-Louisiana collegiate squad, carded a six-under-par 136 score in Monday’s two rounds played in hot and humid conditions at the Sectional Qualifier hosted by the Louisiana Golf Association at Links on the Bayou. That score was good enough for a three-way tie for second place, two strokes behind Sectional winner Brandon Pierce of Covington and the LSU squad, and Cruz Valle prevailed in the playoff to claim a berth in the country’s top amateur golf event.

The cliché states that the third time is the charm, but for the Cajun standout that number can be doubled. Monday’s Sectional was his sixth attempt to qualify for the U.S. Amateur, and that qualifying had evaded him the previous five years. This time, though, Cruz Valle has a ticket punched for the 116th national amateur championship, scheduled Aug 15-21 at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield, Mich.

It didn’t come easy, even though Cruz Valle posted a five-under-par 66 in the morning round to tie Blake Caldwell of Ponchatoula and the LSU squad for low round entering the afternoon. Those two then matched one-under 70 scores in the heat-baked afternoon round – temperatures were in the low 90’s and the heat index was well over 100 for several hours – and finished at six-under 136, a score also matched by Shreveport’s Eric Ricard, also an LSU player.

Sectional players were battling for two qualifying spots and two alternate spots, with Pierce’s eight-under 134 getting one of the automatic spots. Cruz Valle, Caldwell and Ricard all had at least alternate status when they began the playoff, but only the survivor of the three-man sudden-death would be assured a slot in the national field.

The playoff took place on the Links’ par-three 18th hole, one that was playing at 207 yards on Monday. The playoff format called for continuous play of that hole as long as necessary, and that posed a challenge since there had been only seven birdies all day through two rounds and with 62 of the region’s best amateur players in the field. Tee shots also had to carry a water hazard into a wind that had been light most of the day but began gusting in the late afternoon.

Cruz Valle almost ended the playoff on the first hole, hitting his tee shot to the back right tier within 10 feet but missing the birdie putt. No one else was close for birdie that time, and all three players recorded pars on their first two playoff holes. After a third trip back to the tee, Caldwell splashed his tee shot and finished with a double bogey, taking the second alternate spot.

Cruz Valle and Ricard each posted a third par and headed back for the fourth playoff hole, where the Cajun senior hit safely onto the green. Ricard, a former State Amateur champion, found the water and had to hit a third shot from the drop zone. Cruz Valle lagged his putt to within two feet and tapped in for a winning par.

Opelousas’ Jamison Thomassee finished three strokes out of the playoff, carding a solid 70-69—139 score to tie for seventh, while John Talley of St. Martinville and Skye Mejia of Lafayette tied for 20th at two-over 144, Talley shooting 73-71 and Mejia shooting 70-74. UL team members Ross Davis (152) and Triston Elston (153) tied for 37th and 40th respectively.

Play had begun at 7:30 a.m. and the playoff wasn’t concluded until 7:45 p.m., including a half-hour lightning delay just before the playoff began.

Cruz Valle will be part of a 312-player field for the U.S. Amateur, which is being held at Oakland Hills for the first time since Ricky Barnes took the title in 2002. Oakland Hills is best known as home course for Ben Hogan’s dramatic U.S. Open victory in 1951.

The field will play two 18-hole stroke play rounds on Oakland Hills’ two qualifying courses, and the field will be cut to the low 64 scores after the second day. Those players will move into match play, with five rounds of match play determining the final two for the Sunday, Aug. 21, 36-hole championship. Fox Sports 1 will provide daily coverage from 2-5 p.m. Wednesday-Friday and FOX Sports will air the final two days from 2-5 p.m. on Saturday-Sunday. Additional highlights, scores and other coverage will be available online on USGA.org.