Quarterfinalists are set at Missouri Amateur Championship
 |
Updated: Fri 6/26/2009 7:59 pm
|
June 26 - St. Joseph, MO - Anyone who tees it up in a Missouri Amateur Championship understands what it means to still be playing on Saturday morning. The week starts with a full field of contestants, quickly trimmed to 64 as of Thursday morning. But with 64 players and their families in attendance, there is still enough going on and enough people around to keep the activity around the course high.
Then on Friday it gets a little bit easier to get around. The practice facility isn't as crowded. The putting green all of sudden got bigger because there is so much more space. While there are 32 players still competing on Friday morning, come Friday afternoon only 16 remain.
And then it hits you. When you come to the course on Saturday morning for your quarterfinal match, you realize how close you are to golf immortality. You are one of eight players out of hundreds that started this journey just weeks ago with a shot at winning the Missouri Amateur Championship. The same championship won by Tom Watson, Jim Jackson, Jim Holtgrieve and Don Bliss. The same title bestowed on Bob Cochran, Elliot Whitbread, Jack Geiss and Jim Tom Blair. Jim Colbert won this championship. So has Jim Patton. Buddy Godwin, Bruce Hollowell and Bill Ludwig have their name on the trophy. So does Payne Stewart. It's hard to not think too far ahead, but then again, it's hard not to.
But come Saturday morning when golf balls are put into the air in one of four twosomes, a few will be able to focus. A few will be able to quiet the noise and handle the task at hand. Actually, a select two of the final eight have already done it.
Skip Berkmeyer has dominated amateur golf in the St. Louis area for the past decade. His game has now been tested on the national level and his game has passed the test. But for all of the national opportunities Berkmeyer has enjoyed the past several years, his heart is still close to home. His name is already being tossed around with the likes of Bliss and Holtgrieve. Bliss has won 4 Missouri Amateur Championships, Holtgrieve has two. Berkmeyer has a chance this weekend to match Holtgrieve's total and further distinguish himself as one of the state's elite amateur golfers of all time.
Berkmeyer would already have matched the two titles of Holtgrieve if not for Justin Bardgett. Bardgett defeated Berkmeyer last year at WingHaven Country Club in the final match to capture his first Missouri Golf Association major championship. Bardgett was already regarded as a very good player before last year's run in St. Louis, but after finishing off a great week, Bardgett eclipsed the "good" description and now carries the "great" player distinction. He's proving that again this week at St. Joseph Country Club as he looks to become the first player since Mark McBride to repeat as the Missouri Amateur Champion.
One could argue the six players yet to have accomplished this feat may be just as well off as the two with experience of winning it all. Because once you taste it, you want it that much more. Berkmeyer and Bardgett have tasted it. They know how hard it is and what it means. The others, they don't know how special it will feel on Sunday afternoon should they be the last man standing. Not knowing may be the edge they need to get in position to carve their piece of Missouri Golf history.
