"IF YOU LIKE GOLF"
bi-weekly online golf column
by
Chris Dortch

August 16, 2005

Nearly a year after he won the U.S. Mid-Amateur championship, Austin Eaton III still has the occasional moment of revelation, where the enormity of what he’s accomplished suddenly strikes him. It happened earlier this week as he was driving to The Honors Course, where he’ll defend his title next month.

“Every now and then I’ll stop and think, “I’m a USGA champion,” said Eaton, who was in Chattanooga to meet the media, play The Honors and get a brief tour of Black Creek, which will co-host the tournament’s stroke-play qualifying. “It’s a tremendous honor.”

The Mid-Amateur winner is also awarded all manner of perks, as Eaton is still finding out. The most obvious was an invitation to the Masters. The night before he was to play Josh Dennis for the 2004 Mid-Amateur title at Sea Island Golf Club in Georgia, Eaton—well aware of what was at stake—couldn’t sleep a wink.

Weary as he must have been, Eaton rushed out to a 4-up lead in the 36-hole finale, only to fall behind later in the match and have to win with gutsy par on the final hole.

The 35-year-old Eaton was on his way to Augusta, and last April he made the most of his experience. That he missed the cut with rounds of 81-77 mattered little. Eaton had a blast.

“It was a great experience,” Eaton said. “I was determined to make the most of my time there. So I went up to a bunch of [PGA Tour] players and asked if I could play a practice round with them. The worst they could do was say no.”

Eaton’s chutzpah got him into a few good-natured money matches with John Daly, David Toms, Davis Love III, David Duval, Mark O’Meara and eventual champion Tiger Woods.

“I went up to Mark O’Meara on the practice range and asked him if he minded if I played a practice round with them [O’Meara and Woods],” Eaton said. “He said it was fine with him, but I had to go ask the big guy. So I went over to Tiger, and he couldn’t have been nicer. I had a great time and Tiger went out of his way to include me in the group.”

Eaton will never forget his time spent in the Crow’s Nest, the on-site housing where amateurs competing in the Masters are allowed to stay. It was there he met and became fast friends with Luke List, the former Baylor School and current Vanderbilt All-American who went on to make the cut.

“He’ll be a friend of mine for life,” Eaton said. “Luke is truly one of the great people I’ve ever known. And one of the most talented players. He’s going to be very, very good.”

Eaton isn’t a bad player himself, though few outside the New England area knew it before last year. Turns out Eaton was a natural at golf—how could anyone whose initials spell ACE, as his friends know him, not be? Eaton was handed a club by his father, Austin II, as soon as he could walk, and he lived up to his nickname early, making two aces in a two-month span at age 11.

Eaton developed into a fine player who signed a Division I scholarship with the University of New Hampshire, but he only went there because it was one of the few schools in the country that also had a varsity skiing program.

For a while, the two sports vied for Eaton’s affection. He was good enough to compete in a couple of NCAA championships in skiing, but not quite good enough to have Olympic aspirations. So golf would become the game in which he’d make his mark.

Eaton joined his father’s home construction business, which afforded him the time to compete in some national amateur events. The first USGA tournament he played was the 2002 Mid-Amateur. Barely making the field as an alternate, he advanced all the way to the quarterfinals.

“When I speak to the [contestants] before the tournament this year, I’m going to tell them that everybody who advances to this site has a chance to win,” Eaton said. “It’s important for them to know that even if you just squeak into the field, you can still win the tournament.”

Eaton won the New Hampshire Amateur in 2003, and last year broke through in just his second Mid-Amateur. He’ll be a fixture on the USGA circuit now—the victory got him an exemption into the next 10 Mid-Amateurs, plus the next two U.S. Amateurs. He’s eagerly awaiting the chance to compete against his buddy List in next week’s U.S. Amateur at storied Merion Golf Club near Philadelphia.

Likewise, Eaton can’t wait to defend his title. He finds the competition in the Mid-Amateur more to his liking because he’s competing against players that fit into his demographic.

“I enjoy playing against the kids,” Eaton said. “But they don’t work, or have anything to take them away from focusing full-time on golf. It’s tough. I love to compete with guys who work for a living. A guy who works for a printing company. Or another guy with three kids who hasn’t played in a national amateur event in 15 years. Those people are in the same situation as I am.”

Eaton does have an advantage of working for his father, who “holds down the fort,” as Eaton put it, when he plays golf. Eaton the elder was on his son’s bag at the Masters, an experience neither will forget.

As much as he enjoyed having his father alongside for his finest hour in golf, Eaton’s caddy for the Mid-Amateur will once again be wife Pamela, who knows little about golf but knows her husband very well. Her guidance helped steer Eaton to victory last year and he’s counting on her again.

“She knows how to keep me in line, to keep me focused,” Eaton said. “She’ll see me smiling out there if things are going well, and she’ll say ‘Don’t get happy.’ That’s what I need to hear sometimes.”

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