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

August 5, 2003

King Oehmig’s Baylor School golf program will be well represented when the U.S. Amateur begins play on Aug. 18.

Three former Baylor golfers, two of whom used Chattanooga as a qualifying point, will tee it up at famed Oakmont. Carlton Forrester, who won the qualifying medal last week at The Honors, will join Ricky Honeycutt, who also qualified at The Honors, and Luke List. List has already had a summer most players can only dream about—playing in the U.S. Open at 18 years old, reaching the semifinals of the U.S. Public Links—and would love to notch one more impressive outing before he leaves for Vanderbilt. Forrester and Honeycutt would like to carry on a recent string of solid play.

Forrester, in fact, has been better than solid. After regaining his amateur status last October, Forrester, who spent a year on the Canadian Tour, has played his best golf now that the game is just for fun again.

Evidence of that came last week at The Honors, where a pair of 68s from the course’s new back tees impressed everyone. Things got even better last Sunday, when Forrester asked former Georgia Tech teammate and roommate Matt Kuchar to show him a few match play points. Kuchar won the 1997 U.S. Amateur.

By the end of the round at Atlanta’s East Lake, it was Forrester who might have showed Kuchar a thing or two. He shot 63, setting the course record. It isn’t lost on Forrester that 63 is a famous number in golf—Johnny Miller shot that score en route to the U.S. Open championship at none other than Oakmont.

"That was the best I’ve ever putted," Forrester said of his memorable round at East Lake. "I was hitting my irons pretty close, but I made a lot of long putts. Matt and I were out there trash talking the whole day. It was a lot of fun."

So too is the game of golf. Forrester, like good friend and former Baylor teammate Michael Morrison, both learned through experience that golf as a vocation doesn’t hold the same appeal.

"I played a year on the Canadian Tour and realized pro golf just wasn’t for me," said Forrester, who now works for Credit Suisse First Boston, an investment bank in Atlanta. "I don’t know if I was good enough or not. I went to the [PGA Tour’s] qualifying school one year and missed the second stage by two shots. It’s a little different when you’ve got a make a putt to put food on the table."

Given the caliber of golf he’s played since regaining his amateur status, Forrester has had to endure some good natured ribbing about how much time he spends in the office versus the time he spends on the course.

"People are like, ‘You must not be working much,’ " Forrester said. "The truth is I’m working a lot. I’m just kind of going out there with what I have. I don’t have to worry if my club’s not in the right position. I’m just going out there and playing the game. You can practice too much and worry about too many things as opposed to getting the ball in the hole."

Though Forrester doesn’t miss pro golf, he credits his time on the Canadian Tour with improving his game and his course management. Considering that last week he was 17 under par after three trips around The Honors and East Lake, he seems ready for the Amateur. This will be his fourth. He played at Pumpkin Ridge in 1996, Pebble Beach in 1999 and Baltusrol in 2000, each time missing out on match play by the slimmest of margins.

This time around, he likes his chances.

"There’s a lot of good college players out there," said Forrester, who was married in April and plans to take his new wife to Oakmont. "College golf now is a stepping stone for pro golf. But this is the best I’ve ever played, and I’m excited about it. That doesn’t mean I’ll come home with the trophy. But I think I’ve got a good chance to make match play. You get into match play, and you just never know. Anything can happen."

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