How Marcus Byrd’s golf dream became a promise to his father

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. – Mike Davis knows what people say. Davis, the CEO of the United States Golf Association, has heard the talk that the USGA obsesses about par and how to keep its U.S. Open champions at least within shouting distance of it. That’s fine, he says. But it’s not true. “Since I’ve been at the USGA, and it’s been almost 30 years, I’ve never heard anybody at the USGA say we’re shooting for even par,â€� Davis said in a press conference before the 118th U.S. Open on Wednesday. “Never heard it. … “But we talk about, incessantly, how do we get the course to be really a great test of golf?â€� Davis continued. “As we say, get all 14 clubs dirty to make sure that these players are tested to the nth degree.â€� What they’ve come up with is the latest and, in the opinion of many, greatest version of Shinnecock Hills, a course that opened as a 12-holer in 1891 and since then has been altered in ways big (William Flynn, 1931) and small (the newly restored Stanford White clubhouse). The most significant recent change: A three-year restoration by the design team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw that began in 2012 and yielded a course that is vastly different than the one that hosted U.S. Opens in 2004, 1995, 1986 and all the way back to the first one in 1896. “Honestly, I think they’ve got it right,â€� said Rory McIlroy. There is a perception that the USGA is due and maybe overdue for a rousingly successful U.S. Open host course. At the largely experimental 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, players ripped the bumpy greens. Last year brought controversy over the generously wide fairways at Erin Hills, a pastoral gem in Wisconsin where the anticipated wind didn’t blow. In the crudest terms, Coore-Crenshaw took out a lot of natural vegetation: trees, bushes, and fescue. They had brought Shinnecock’s fairways to as much as 60 yards wide, but in the aftermath of Erin Hills, last September, the USGA and the Shinnecock grounds crew replaced the fairways’ edges with transplanted fescue so that the average width is now closer to 40. That’s still a lot more generous off the tee than the 26.6-yard average that confronted players in ’04. In Shinnecock, the USGA is going back to its roots, a course that is by turns clever and beautiful, and with a clubhouse that could’ve been painted by Andrew Wyeth. The 7,440-yard, par-70 beauty is built on roughly 250 acres of rolling, sand-based terrain. It’s bouncy and fast, and, in part thanks to Coore-Crenshaw, mostly treeless and devoid of extraneous brush. Photographs of previous U.S. Opens here show a different looking, different playing course. In 1995, when the mustachioed Corey Pavin won, holes were separated from one another by trees and brush. Not anymore. Coore-Crenshaw also expanded both the greens and the green roll-offs. Phil Mickelson, who is second on the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting, has backed the changes. Ditto for 2013 U.S. Open champion Justin Rose, who once disliked Shinnecock. “I did play in 2004,â€� he said, “didn’t have the fondest of memories of the place, but that actually changed.â€� The Englishman said he returned to Shinnecock in 2012 or ’13, played with a few members, and saw a landscape transformed. “I saw the course more width-wise as we’re seeing this week,â€� Rose said, “and it completely changed my impression of the whole golf course. “It went from being not a very fun experience to actually, wow, now I see why it’s one of the top-rated golf courses in the world,â€� he added. “I thoroughly enjoyed it. I came here with a changed approach, I suppose, and an attitude towards the place, and I’ve really enjoyed my practice.â€� Players will debate what to hit off the tees, mixing in plenty of long-irons, fairway woods and hybrids and potentially limiting driver use, depending on the wind. (Thursday could bring gusts of 25-30 mph.) Then, Rose said, he’ll aim for the middle of the greens. “Easier said than done,â€� he added. The humps and hollows, steep grades and tight run-off areas, will funnel balls away from pins and, in some cases, up to 50-plus yards away. That’s why one of the most common sentiments so far this week is that this is a second-shot golf course. “They have to think about what happens when the ball lands,â€� Davis said, “where’s it going to bounce and roll to. It rewards players that can work the ball both left and right and right and left, knock down shots, hit high shots. So, it really, indeed, is what we’re looking for as a test.â€� At most golf courses, a shot is over when the ball lands on the green; at Shinnecock Hills, that’s when the fun is just beginning.

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A trip to Australia and the opportunity to represent one’s country aren’t the only perks for the participants in the Junior Presidents Cup. The 24 players on the U.S. and International teams get to interact with the elite players who will compete in this year’s Presidents Cup, set for December at Royal Melbourne. While many juniors will be meeting their heroes for the first time, Preston Summerhays is accustomed to being around the PGA TOUR’s best. That’s what happens when your father is a former TOUR player and successful swing coach. Preston, the reigning U.S. Junior Amateur champion, already knows several of the players who will compete for captains Ernie Els and Tiger Woods. Summerhays’ father, Boyd, was once the top-ranked junior in the country. He played college golf at Oklahoma State, where his teammates included Charles Howell III and Bo Van Pelt, and played 29 events on the PGA TOUR from 2004-06 before injuries ended his career. Now he is the instructor for Tony Finau, J.J. Spaun and Wyndham Clark. Golf success runs in the Summerhays’ genes. The family has featured multiple generations of successful players. Preston and his sister, Grace, who competed in this year’s U.S. Girls’ Junior, are continuing that tradition. Preston is waiting to see if the TOUR player with whom he has the closest relationship, Finau, also will be in Australia in December. Finau FaceTimed Preston shortly after that U.S. Junior. Am win. They’ve played hundreds of rounds together. Preston calls him “a great influenceâ€� on his career. “He cares about our family. He always wants to know how we’re doing, how we’re progressing,â€� Preston said. Finau wasn’t the only TOUR player to offer congratulations. Brooks Koepka sent a text to Boyd from The Open Championship. Rory McIlroy congratulated Preston before teeing off in the first round of a recent PGA TOUR event. Finau, who finished ninth in the final U.S. points standings, is a favorite to earn one of Woods’ four Presidents Cup captain’s picks next month (the top eight earned automatic spots on the roster). He bolstered his candidacy with a ninth-place finish at last week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, where he led the field in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. He now has four top-10s in his last five TOUR starts. Finau is a strong candidate to get a pick because of his consistent play and strong ball-striking. He has 25 top-10 finishes in the previous three PGA TOUR seasons and has played in the past three TOUR Championships. His average FedExCup finish in those three seasons is 10.7. He finished in the top 25 in both Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green last season. Finau’s strong debut in international team competition also helps his candidacy. He was one of just four Americans with a winning record at last year’s Ryder Cup. He went 2-1 at Le Golf National, including a 6-and-4 win in his singles match with Tommy Fleetwood. If Finau is picked, it will mean double duty for Boyd Summerhays. He has been coaching Finau since 2014, after his own professional career came to an end. Finau graduated from the Korn Ferry Tour that year. He’s been on the PGA TOUR ever since, never finishing outside the top 50 in the FedExCup. “Boyd’s been a great mentor to me, he’s been a great teacher and he’s been a great friend,â€� Finau said. “We’ve been through a lot together. He’s helped me fine-tune my game, fine-tune my golf swing and fine-tune the mental side of my game. He’s been a huge part of what I’ve been able to accomplish.â€� Finau said his instructor’s son possesses “the confidence to be a champion.â€� “I’ve played a lot of rounds of golf with him, and to see him play, and to see kind of his swag, and taking his game to another level this summer has been a lot of fun to watch,â€� Finau said. Preston also plays with many of the TOUR players who live in his hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona. That experience has undoubtedly paid dividends. “Preston’s always known he is good because he’s been winning junior tournaments, but when he plays with TOUR players he also gets to see how far he has to go,â€� Boyd said. “He’s very confident in himself, but he still has the humility because he knows what he has to do better. … It gives him a clear picture of what he has to do.â€� Finau hails from Utah, as does the Summerhays family (though Boyd and his family have since moved to Arizona). The Summerhayses are a golf family, through and through. Boyd’s grandfather, Pres, was the head coach at the University of Utah. Boyd’s father, Lynn, was the captain of Utah’s golf team. Boyd’s uncle Bruce won on PGA TOUR Champions, and Bruce’s daughter, Carrie, played on the LPGA. Boyd’s younger brother, Daniel, has two runners-up on the PGA TOUR and now plays on the Korn Ferry Tour. Boyd encouraged Preston to play other sports, and not simply fall into the family’s preferred pursuit, but the pull toward golf was too strong. Preston’s first memory of the game is accompanying his father to the course with a loaf of bread to feed the ducks while his father practiced. Boyd’s playing career came to an end after playing several events on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada in 2012. Preston was 9 years old when caddied for his father in a tournament in Canada. “The bib was down to his knees,â€� Boyd said. Preston videoed Boyd’s rounds, starting his commentary of each shot with, “Here we are in Canada.â€� Preston has won the past two Utah Amateurs, becoming the first player to go back-to-back since his uncle, Daniel, in 2000-01. Preston was the youngest winner in the tournament’s history when he won in 2018. Preston also turned heads last year when he shot 65-60 to qualify for the U.S. Amateur; it was the lowest qualifying score for that championship since 2011. The Junior Presidents Cup is the next step in his promising career.

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