Rubbing elbows with some of the top players throughout the country and beyond, South Deerfield’s Jonathan Elkins played in the biggest tournament of his young golf career on Monday.
The 16-year old, who just completed his freshman year at Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, gave it his best shot but did not qualify for the 117th U.S. Open Championship during a 36-hole sectional qualifier at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, New Jersey
“I didn’t play as well as I would’ve liked, but it was such a cool experience that I can’t really be mad about anything,” Elkins said Tuesday afternoon.
Elkins was one of 80 competitors at the qualifier. The event was one of 12 around the world with the top five finishers earning a spot at the U.S. Open at Erin Hills (Wisconsin) on June 15.
The field competed at both the North and South courses at Canoe Brook. Elkins arrived over the weekend and played practice rounds on Saturday and Sunday, preparing to play the courses for the first time in his career.
“I could tell it was a big tournament right away. It was definitely a different experience than I’m used to,” said Elkins, who was the youngest player in the field. “You get to the first tee and there are ropes set up, signs everywhere … everything you’d see at a PGA event. As my second round started to shape up, some of the GOLF Channel cameras came up and followed me for a few holes so that was pretty wild.”
Elkins started his day on the South Course, teeing off on No. 10 at 7:27 a.m. Despite what he called a poor warm-up and lackluster practice rounds, the start to his day provided plenty of optimism. His 4-iron on the par-3, 185-yard 10th hole landed to the right of the green in the rough. The roll was kind, however, and the ball moved to about 10 feet of the cup. From there, he curled in a birdie putt that got him to 1 under.
“I start my day off with that birdie and then I hit a good drive on 11 so I’m thinking maybe good things are going to happen,” Elkins said. “But I missed the fairway on 12 and kind of knew it would be a long day after that.
“I didn’t make par on a par 4 until my 10th hole of the day so that didn’t help either,” he added. “There was a stretch where I missed seven or eight greens in a row, so the first round was definitely a struggle. I didn’t make many short putts that I wanted to, but somehow I ended up with a 74.”
Elkins’ round of 74 put him 4 over for the tournament entering the mid-day break. While that number is usually quite good in most of the junior events he plays in, the sectional field, full of pros and top college players, went low to start the day. Several players opened with rounds of 65 on the South Course, while eventual champion Daniel Chopra, who has two PGA wins on his resume, fired a 66. Elkins took a breather to eat lunch and work on his game at the driving range before teeing off on the North Course at 12:57 p.m.
“I saw at the scorer’s tent that there was a 66 and I looked at my dad and said, ‘What’s going on here? A 74 at a lot of junior tourneys will get you top 10 at least, but this is obviously a much different beast that I’m not used to when guys are going this low,” said Elkins, who consulted with his father and caddie Steve as well as his coach, Frank Leja. “We figured out that I just wasn’t extended enough on my backswing, so we fixed that on the range and just tried to move forward.”
The start to his second round was reminiscent of his first. On the par-4 first hole, he dropped in a birdie to gain some early momentum.
“If we played the first holes all day, I would’ve been fine,” said Elkins with a laugh.
His second round went well until a three-putt, double-bogey on 18 left him with a 4-over 76. The two-round total of 150 put him in a tie for 69th at 8-over par. Chopra’s winning score was 11 under, while the cut to qualify for the U.S. Open was 7 under.
“It was a good stepping stone for me. There were a lot of college players out there,” Elkins said. “Richy Werenski (of South Hadley) shot a 141 and he’s 144th in the (PGA Tour) FedEx Cup. Jim Herman just finished (19th) at the Memorial (tour event), and he only beat me by seven strokes so there’s a lot to build on.”
The rest of the summer will be busy for Elkins. The sectional appearance qualified him for the Northern Junior Championship at New Haven Country Club in August, and he’ll next take part in the Long Island Junior Championship June 17-18.
“(Sectionals) definitely gives you a bright spot on the resume going forward,” Elkins said. “This tournament got me into a few more tournaments, so I’ll just go from here, put up good numbers and see wherever that takes us.”