Cole Hammer narrowly beats Spencer Ralston for Western Amateur semifinal spot
Before the Rangers traded him to the Cubs last week, Cole Hamels was big, even in Texas.
Ask Cole Hammer, a golfer, who gets confused in his home state with Cole Hamels, a four-time all-star pitcher.
"Way too often," Hammer said with a laugh on Friday at Sunset Ridge Country Club in Northfield. "Walk into restaurants, '(I'm) Cole Hammer.' '(They say), 'Oh, Cole Hamels!'"
Hammer is trying to make a name for himself in the golf world, and some might say he already has, considering he qualified for the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay as a 15-year-old in 2015. He once was a promising baseball player himself, but when the shortstop/pitcher hurt his arm as a 13-year-old, he chose to focus on golf.
"At the end of the day, golf was my passion," said Hammer, who graduated from Kincaid High School in Houston this year.
Ask anyone at the 116th Western Amateur and they'll tell you Hammer made the right decision.
An incoming freshman for the University of Texas, Hammer advanced to Saturday's semifinals of the five-day event by closing out University of Georgia junior Spencer Ralston on the 18th hole of their Friday match-play matchup. Co-medalist after shooting a course-record 10-under 61 on Thursday, Hammer started Friday by outlasting Davis Shore of Knoxville, Tennessee, in 20 holes in a Sweet 16 match.
Hammer will play Stanford senior Brandon Wu at 8 a.m. Saturday in the first semifinal. Wu advanced with Sweet-16 wins over 22-year-old Australian Kyle Michel (6 and 5) and Vanderbilt junior John Augenstein (19 holes). The 8:13 a.m. semifinal features Georgia Tech junior Tyler Strafaci against Alabama senior Davis Riley. Strafaci defeated Cal freshman Kaiwen Liu (2 up) and New Mexico State senior Isaac Merry (1 up). Riley might have played the best golf Friday, beating 19-year-old Australian Min Woo Lee (4 and 3) and TCU senior Hayden Springer (5 and 4).
Hammer, who missed the cut last year in his first Western Am, found himself trailing Ralston after missing a 4-foot putt for par on No. 12. Then on the par-5 13th, Ralston went up 2 with five holes left by sinking a 10-footer for birdie.
Momentum shifted when Ralston landed his tee shot on the par-4 14th in a fairway divot.
"I looked at my mom," said Hammer, whose mother, Allison, is his caddie this week. "I said, 'There's an opening.'"
From 145 yards out, Ralston missed the green to the right.
"It was an unfortunate break, but I still thought I could get a club on it," Ralston said. "The fairways were getting pretty firm. I just couldn't get through the ground as well, and it came off the hosel a little bit."
Hammer then hit his approach from 133 yards out, into the wind, to 8 feet. He sank the downhill putt for his first birdie of the day to pull within one.
"It's a funny game we play," Ralston said of his bad break.
Hammer rode the momentum, hitting the green on the 191-yard, par-3 15th, what he called "probably the hardest" hole on the course. He sank his par putt from just inside 5 feet. When Ralston missed his putt from nearly the same spot, after nearly chipping in - a "horseshoe lip-out," as Hammer described it - the match was square again.
Hammer then won his third hole in a row to go 1 up with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 16th, while Ralston chipped his third shot off the green.
Hammer missed a 6-footer on the slippery, par-3 17th to end the match, but the 18-year-old deftly chipped a 58-degree wedge from just off the 18th green within an inch for a par. When Ralston slid his birdie putt from 10 feet just wide of the cup, his tournament run was over.
"He got so unlucky a couple of times today," Hammer said.
At the U.S. Junior two weeks, Hammer twice overcame deficits to reach the semifinals. He said he drew on that experience on Friday.
"I felt like I didn't have a whole lot of energy out there," Hammer said. "On (No. 13), him making birdie sucked some more out of me. I told myself, 'You're still in this. Fight.' And I did."
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