Wilson Bows But Doesn't Break

By Ken Klavon, USGA

Bedminster, N.J. – Experience and youth is a funny mix. Call it an oxymoron.

Yet there was a canned coolness in the way Cameron Wilson went about his business Wednesday at Trump National Golf Club. The Rowayton, Conn., resident dispatched fellow 16-year-old Curtis Thompson of Coral Springs, Fla., 3 and 1, in the first round of match play at the U.S. Junior Amateur behind steely-nerves.

Cameron Wilson prepares to drive off the 11th teeing ground Wednesday. (Steven Gibbons/USGA)

The two are disparate opposites on the New Course. Thompson will admonish himself out loud while Wilson flips the emotional switch to robotic.

“I keep my emotions in check,” said Wilson. “But inside I do get angry.”

What they did have in common, besides being able to boom the ball off the tee, was the fact that both were looking to seize their first-ever match-play victory in the championship.  Wilson, in his third Junior Amateur, came close last year at Shoal Creek. He dropped a scintillating first-round match to eventual quarterfinalist Andrew Yun on the 18th hole. Make no mistake, Wilson has an abundance of match-play experience. It’s just that it isn’t at the Junior Amateur.

Thompson, still growing into his body, made match play for the first time this year.

It was an intriguing matchup for a variety of reasons. Thompson’s name has cache because he’s the brother of Alexis Thompson, 14, who has been taking female amateur – and to some degree, professional too – golf by storm. Wilson is making a name for himself, escalating his game as he ages. It’s been enough for him to make a verbal commitment to Stanford. The last four years he’s tried qualifying for the U.S. Open, finally making it to sectionals this year.  No stranger to New York Metropolitan tournaments, he was the low amateur at the 2008 Met Open.

Thompson’s game, which matches his threads, is colorful to watch.  He can be a reporter’s godsend just for his ancillary antics on the course. When he missed a 3-foot putt on the sixth hole to fall 3 down, he said to no one in particular, “Oh, Curtis!” Or when he shaved a hole off Wilson’s 4-up margin on the par-3 10th with a 30-foot birdie, he walked off the green saying facetiously, “I’m making a comeback.”

How the match tilted in Wilson’s favor was easy to identify. Thompson struggled with his short game to fall 4 down through eight holes; Wilson was as capitalistic as a house-flipper in a booming economy. Wilson took what the New Course offered. His first of two bogeys on the day, both of which resulted in lost holes, occurred at the par-4 12th when he got careless. After the fastidious Thompson barked at himself for leaving another putt short of the hole, Wilson got too careful with a 3-footer that he babied left. His lead fell to 2 up.

Wilson said a critical point in the match came two holes later, on the 150-yard, par-3 14th. Thompson three-putted from 60 feet uphill and Wilson regained a 3-up lead.

“My speed control was off all week,” said Thompson. “I missed too many 15- to 20-footers that could have gone for birdies.”

Thompson applied pressure on No. 16. He ultimately won the hole after Wilson sent his drive into the left deep fescue and was forced to pitch out to the fairway. It became moot when Thompson, better late than never, got the putter going, sinking an 8-footer for birdie.

Saying he felt confident, Thompson preceded to block his 3-wood off the tee. “No, that’s not a smart play there, Curtis. You just put a 3-wood into the bunker,” he said aloud. Wilson licked his chops, but the left-hander’s drive found the left rough. He still had a better play than Thompson, carrying a front greenside bunker and finding the middle of the green with his approach shot. Thompson, meanwhile, had about 150 yards to the hole, his shot falling short of the green. By that point, it was academic. Wilson had the match won.

“At the end I lost my focus a little bit,” said Wilson. That was Wilson’s lesson as he heads into the second round.

The aggrieved Thompson started hoofing it back to the clubhouse. He, like Wilson, has made strides the past three years. His most important lesson, as disappointing as it may be to lose, is the experience gained.

“I played my best,” said Thompson. “I did the best I could.”

It appears he’s a quick learner.

Ken Klavon is the USGA’s editor of new media. E-mail him with questions or comments at kklavon@usga.org.