Wednesday, June 4, 2003 | 10:01 a.m.
His birdie putt dropped on the first hole Monday at El Caballero Golf Course in Tarzana, Calif., and the U.S. Open seemed a lot closer than Chicago for Brad Thompson.
"I birdied the first hole and I was thinking, maybe I have a chance to do pretty good," Thompson said.
What a cruel tease for Thompson, a 16-year-old sophomore at Las Vegas High. Qualifying for the U.S. Open is never quite that easy.
Five consecutive bogeys followed that opening birdie, and Thompson's chance at emerging from a 78-player field to grab one of four sectional qualifier spots in next week's Open at Olympia Fields (Ill.) disappeared. He shot a 36-hole total of 14-over-par 156 and finished 21 strokes behind medalist Bill Lunde of Las Vegas.
Despite it all, a tense afternoon of teeing it up with both PGA Tour pros and fellow dream-driven amateurs striving for the same chance to play in a major golf tournament proved both exciting and humbling.
"It was cool," Thompson said. "It showed me I can play. But I still have a lot of work to do. Those guys are good down there. I still need to improve."
Thompson, the Sunrise Region tournament champion, opened with an 80, effectively ending his hope of making a run in the closing round. He recovered to shoot 76 in his second round, but did not finish near the cut.
"I just didn't play good," Thompson said. "It was a good learning experience though."
The trademark speedy, sloping greens of Open play surprised Thompson, who feels that this tournament taught him that his putting still needs to improve.
"The greens were really tough," Thompson said. "They were giving all the players fits."
Playing alongside such big-name players as Duffy Waldorf and Warren Schutte, Thompson said he kept his cool.
"I didn't really pay attention to those other guys," Thompson said.
Maybe his local qualifying experience two weeks earlier at The Legacy taught Thompson to steel his nerves. After shooting a strong 71, Thompson endured an eight-man playoff that included Lunde, Schutte and UNLV freshman Ryan Keeney. Four players from that group moved on, and Thompson needed a birdie on the third playoff hole to knock out Keeney and earn his trip to California.
Of the 156 spots in the U.S. Open, 82 will go to sectional qualifiers from 13 tournaments held around the country Monday and Tuesday. Vying for those 82 slots were 724 competitors.
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