JOHNS CREEK, Ga. – Bo Andrews signed an unblemished scorecard for Round 1 of U.S. Amateur stroke-play qualifying early Monday afternoon, fitting in one birdie to go along with 17 pars on Atlanta Athletic Club’s Riverside Course for a 71. An impressive round – which was bettered by only 11 players among the morning groupings – but Andrews walked away convinced that he could have gone a few strokes lower.
The greens are so good, if you just misread it a little bit, it’s going to roll true, so you just have to have a good read and put it on line and it will go in, said Andrews, who recently completed his final year as a member of the Georgia Tech golf team and became a member of AAC shortly afterward. I thought I did a good job of that [today], but a couple of putts just didn’t fall my way.
Playing in his second U.S. Amateur, Andrews can add Monday’s bogey-free effort to the 63 he shot during stroke-play qualifying at another companion course, Charles River Country Club, in 2013. That memorable round allowed him to advance to match play, where he fell in the Round of 64.
Despite playing collegiate golf nearby after growing up in Raleigh, N.C., Andrews had only played at Atlanta Athletic Club a few times prior to joining. Determined not to repeat his quick match-play exit of 2013, he has certainly taken advantage of the unique opportunity he had to prepare for this year’s Amateur.
A couple of weekends ago I decided to come out here and play as much as I possibly could; I was playing 27 or 36 holes a day, just to get a feel for the tee lines and spots on the green, said Andrews, who estimated that he had played Riverside three times and Highlands on 10 occasions. The idea was in prepping for this, I knew I would be playing Riverside once, and hopefully Highlands many more times.
Andrews is one of four members of the 2013-14 Yellow Jackets squad who are in the field this week, joining Seth Reeves, Jacob Joiner and world No. 1 Ollie Schniederjans, while a fifth teammate, Anders Albertson, is serving as Andrews’ caddie.
With his collegiate career now complete, Andrews is weighing options that include attending graduate school or pursuing professional golf. One thing that is certain is his affinity for his new home club.
I wanted somewhere great to play and this provided that, and that the U.S. Amateur is here was just icing on the cake, he said. Ollie and I were saying they should just have the U.S. Amateur here every year because it’s just that that good. To have a huge facility with a huge practice range, it’s perfect for the U.S. Amateur and what it needs. To be able to fit 312 players on the same piece of property, it really doesn’t get more convenient.
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