Mike Papson, the head golf pro at Valley Brook Country Club in McMurray, remembers Jake Sollon when he started out \u2014 and he recalls Sollon loving nothing more than cracking a tape-measure drive.<\/p>\n
\u201cA little, skinny left-handed kid who loved to swing hard and hit it far,\u201d Papson recalled Saturday morning. \u201cThen he just kept getting better and better, and here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHere\u201d for the 28-year-old Sollon is the U.S. Open, beginning Thursday at iconic Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. The Peters Township product punched his ticket with a dramatic shot at a qualifier Monday in Rockville, Md.<\/p>\n
And he did it wearing a Pirates cap. I confirmed that Saturday morning in a radio interview as Sollon and his family were leaving for the airport.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did have a Buccos hat on Monday in Maryland,\u201d Sollon said. \u201cThat was a good-luck charm.\u201d<\/p>\n
I probably should have asked if he could help the Pirates bullpen, but I instead wondered if we might see anything Bucco-related for the Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs of now, I do not have anything planned for the Open,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cBut the hat will be with me, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
What a story. Sollon and Mt. Lebanon\u2019s Neal Shipley (a Central Catholic grad) will both represent Western Pennsylvania at the U.S. Open, competing against the likes of Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau. It\u2019ll be Shipley\u2019s second Open appearance.<\/p>\n
Sollon said he\u2019ll likely dial up Shipley \u2014 \u201cGood dude,\u201d he said \u2014 to play a practice round. The two have known each other and competed against each other for years. Sollon said they also play together at the Ten Memorial each year at St. Clair Country Club, a tournament that honors the late Tim Nettles.<\/p>\n
Sollon isn\u2019t sure what to expect when he arrives in Long Island. He was planning to play a few holes Saturday then full practice rounds Sunday and Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably going to be overwhelming at first,\u201d he said. \u201cJust get comfortable, figure out a game plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
He practiced Friday at Valley Brook, where his family has held a membership for years. Papson said the club has been buzzing since Sollon qualified Monday. This is always a big week at Valley Brook because of its member-guest invitational.<\/p>\n
It\u2019ll be that much bigger now.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have one of our own, from our fairways, go to the biggest and most grueling stage in golf is just incredible,\u201d Papson said. \u201cEverybody here has always supported Jake. Really likable kid. Everybody wants to be around him, watch him practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of my favorite stories was before he turned pro, when he was playing in our club championships. He was 8-under for the day from the black tees, just a buzz all day with members watching him, and he missed a green on the last hole. They all gasped. I said, \u2018That\u2019s Jake down there, don\u2019t worry about it.\u2019 And he almost chipped in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sollon started his college career at Rider University then transferred to Oregon, where a large dose of reality smacked him like a solid 7-iron.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s kind of when I realized if I wanted to do this for a living, I had to get a lot better,\u201d he said. \u201cThose kids were significantly better than the competition I was playing against in the northeast. It hit me that I gotta practice a little harder if I want to compete against these boys.\u201d<\/p>\n
To hear Papson tell it, nobody practices harder than Sollon. And nobody played harder Monday when he took part in what is called \u201cthe longest day in golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 10 sites across North America \u2014 nine in the United States and one in Canada \u2014 no fewer than 679 golfers competed for 43 U.S. Open spots and a tee time at Shinnecock Hills.<\/p>\n
The day was even longer for Sollon at Woodmont Country Club \u2014 he went to a playoff for the last spot and won it with an epic 9-iron on a 166-yard hole, one that landed 7 inches from the pin.<\/p>\n
That became both the easiest and hardest putt of his life. And now it\u2019s off to the Open.<\/p>\n
I asked Papson to put the accomplishment in perspective. He said it\u2019s basically like an NBA or NHL player making it to an All-Star Game.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have thousands of players grinding through qualifiers with razor-thin margins, under immense pressure,\u201d Papson said. \u201cThe fact he did that showed what I already knew: He has that championship mindset. This goes well beyond technique and talent.\u201d<\/p>\n
This goes all the way to Shinnecock Hills, actually, where Sollon was headed Saturday \u2014 his Bucco hat tucked safely in his bag.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Papson, the head golf pro at Valley Brook Country Club in McMurray, remembers Jake Sollon when he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-702345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}