Amateurs Miss Masters Cut; Kuehne Says So Long


April 11, 2008

By Alex Davidson

After finishing his round Friday at the Masters, Trip Kuehne, right, gave his father, Ernie, a hug, just as he did after winning the U.S. Mid-Amateur last year. (Steve Gibbons/USGA)

Augusta, Ga. – Two men couldn’t help but cry. A third couldn’t lie. All three amateurs who competed in the 72nd Masters didn’t make the cut, but they all could leave with their heads held high.

Trip Kuehne, Michael Thompson and Drew Weaver all had their little moments of glory, but in the end they couldn’t find enough strokes to stay around for two more days at Augusta National Golf Club. On a sunny but increasingly breezy day, Kuehne shot 72, Thompson 78 and Weaver 80 as the trio made up the smallest amateur contingent at the Masters since 1942.

Kuehne, the U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, took his disappointment the hardest. Playing in his last competitive tournament, the investment fund manager from Dallas cried openly in the arms of his father, Ernie Kuehne, outside the scorer’s hut after a gutsy even-par 72 left him three strokes shy of qualifying for the weekend.

“I’m sad it's over,” said Kuehne, 35, who also played in the 1995 Masters and missed the cut. “All I wanted was an opportunity on the back nine here to make the cut, and I had it and just didn't quite get it done. It was a hell of a ride, but I guess this is the way it ends. I think this is the way you're supposed to ride away.”

Kuehne gave himself a chance after he eagled the par-5 13^th hole, hitting a 6-iron to within inches of the hole for a tap in.

“It was, you know, 13's my lucky number,” said Kuehne, “and to eagle 13 to get a piece of crystal and to have what I always dreamed about – to play the last few holes under the same circumstances that the guys competing to win the Tournament – that was great.

“I thought the stars were aligning, but unfortunately the rug got pulled out right from underneath me at a time that I didn't think it would.”

Kuehne converted pars at 14 and 15, but his demise came at 16 when his three-quarter 9-iron was pushed right of the green. With the hole tucked on the left, he couldn’t get it close and three-putted for a double bogey. “It was just a bad shot at the wrong time,” he said.

Weaver, 20, the Virginia Tech University senior who was the surprise winner of the British Amateur, also had tears in his eyes after bogeying the first two holes and struggling for much of the afternoon. Despite several practice rounds leading into the week, he couldn’t find a groove, recorded just one birdie in two days, and made nothing on Friday in shooting the day’s second highest score.

“I just got off to a rough start,” said the accounting major from High Point, N.C., who now has to prepare for the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, where the Hokies are co-defending champions. “It's a difficult golf course and if you start hitting it off line you're going to have some trouble. And this really wasn't my day. It's not like I didn't try or anything; it kind of didn't happen today.”

“Obviously a major championship is physically and mentally draining and, I mean, I'm exhausted,” Weaver said. “I spent quite a long time getting ready for this and just it's kind of tough to see it come to an end, but what can you do?”

Thompson, the U.S. Amateur runner-up, was asking that question as well after suffering a bit of bad fortune. Grinding to make the cut, he was addressing a birdie putt on the par-5 15th hole when his ball moved. Because he had grounded his club, he was deemed to have caused the ball to move and had to call a one-shot penalty on himself. He ended up with a bogey. Then he bogeyed the next two holes.

"It definitely affected me," said Thompson, 23, a senior at the University of Alabama. "It really turned my round, turned the momentum against me. It was very unfortunate, but I'm sure it's happened many a time before here. These greens are super fast."

Thompson never hesitated to call the penalty. He once had to do the same thing in a high school match.

“He handled himself beautifully,” said two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw, who played two days with Thompson and Nick O’Hern of Australia. “I turned away. I was trying to get out of his line when he was putting. But he claimed that he grounded the club. And it was at a very critical juncture too. Because he had hit a beautiful approach shot in there. He's looking at birdie, and he knows he's right on the cut line too.

“But that is unfortunate. When the greens get this fast, a little gust of wind can move the ball. But I didn't see him ground the club. But he said he did. I tell you what, that boy is going to go a long way.  He is a really good player. He's a great kid too. That's so unfortunate to happen at that moment.”

Said Thompson with a shrug: "That's just the part that brings out the best in people and also brings out the worst when people don't obey the rules. It's just a part of any game. You've got to follow the rules, especially out here in front of all these people. I don't want to create a bad image about myself, and that's just something that you just have to do."

Kuehne felt strongly about what he thinks he has to do, and he said he has no intention of changing his mind about leaving competitive golf. He leaves on his own terms and on good terms.

“I had a great time – a 35-year-old working man, I was inside the ropes and had a chance to make the cut at the Masters, and I was two under par and you know, at the end of the day, now my last round of golf is 72 at Augusta National, even par at a major.

“To have an opportunity to play the weekend in the Masters tournament, that was all I ever wanted in life was to have that opportunity again. And to share it with my family and close friends that have encouraged me to push on with golf and to win that USGA event, and they're all here to share it with me, and I gave myself quite a thrill. I think I gave them a thrill too. That's what I'll take away.”

Not a bad way to go.

Alex Davidson is a freelance writer whose work has appeared previously on www.usga.org. More Stories.