The teenage dream team is dead before it even reached Shinnecock Hills. Charlie Woods, bearer of golf’s most famous surname, won’t be carrying the bag for junior phenom Miles Russell at the U.S. Open. It was a nice fantasy while it lasted. Instead, Russell announced during a Friday teleconference that his swing coach, Ramon Bescansa, will handle the heavy lifting at the 126th edition of the grueling major.
Russell, the top-ranked junior in the country, earned his spot the hard way. He survived a brutal 3-for-2 sudden-death playoff during the marathon known as “Golf’s Longest Day” at BallenIsles Country Club. Woods was there for those 36 holes, acting more like a teenage therapist than a traditional looper. They laughed. They joked. It worked. Russell admitted having a friend around kept the crushing pressure of the qualifier from suffocating him. On a day that stressful, a bad companion makes the walk feel like a death march.
But friendship has its limits. Reality always intrudes. Woods has his own tee times to worry about, and carrying a heavy bag in New York doesn’t fit the schedule. Currently, the younger Woods is struggling through the Florida Amateur Championship in Jupiter, sitting near the bottom of the pack after a dismal opening-round 8-over par.
He isn’t the only kid learning that junior golf is a selfish business. Giuseppe Puebla, another local teen who qualified for the U.S. Open, is also losing his buddy-caddie, Hampton Beebe. Beebe is too busy playing in that same Florida Amateur, though he is actually playing well, sitting tied for fourth.
When the spotlight shines on Shinnecock, the high school camaraderie gets shelved. It is time for the adults to take the bags. The kids have their own trophies to chase.
