Stewart Hagestad celebrates his U.S. Mid-Amateur winning putt
(USGA Photo)
(December 26, 2016) -- Down four with five
holes to
play are
words no golfer wants to hear, unless maybe
your
Stewart Hagestad. Unlike most golfers when
Hagestad
hears those words a memory of a lifetime comes
to
mind.
For Hagestad, hearing the words down four with
five
to play means that
somebody is about to remind him of his
unprecedented
comeback
victory in the championship match of the
2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Stonewall Links
against
top-
ranked mid-amateur and good friend Scott
Harvey.
The
victory made the 25-year-old Hagestad the
second
youngest U.S. Mid-Amateur champion in the
history
of
the event and it also ensured his spot in the
2017
Masters field.
"If you go back to some of the earlier holes, I
actually
felt better then you would have expected for
someone
that was down," Hagestad explained.
"Throughout
the
course of the day I kept telling myself that if I
could
just
chip away throughout the course of the day
maybe
the
momentum would start to swing."
And swing it did, as Hagestad won four of the
final
five
holes and then won the match with a birdie on
the
first
extra hole, the 37th hole of the match. Before
striking
his 14-foot birdie putt on the 169-yard par-3
ninth
hole
Hagestad lost his focus momentarily, as thoughts
of
Augusta National crept into his subconscious but
he
quickly returned to the task at hand.
"My first thought after my adrenaline came down
was is this
real? Did this really happen? This is crazy," a still
slightly shocked sounding Hagestad said, "Then
the
phone call after with my parents (John and
Merry)
was
probably the most special that I have ever had
with
them for sure."
Hagestad, originally from Newport Beach, CA,
now
lives
in New York City where he works in finance at
Oak
Tree
Residential. The move came following his senior
year
at
USC and for the lifelong Southern California
resident
it
was his chance to experience something new.
"I wanted an opportunity to go live in another
big
city
but when I moved to New York I kind of had a
second
awakening and realized how much I love
competitive
golf," said Hagestad who has found a creative
way to
keep his game sharp while living in the city that
doesn't
sleep.
Nearly two years ago Hagestad joined Golf &
Body,
located on 6th Avenue in the heart of Manhattan
and
since joining his game has thrived. Members of
Golf
&
Body receive a full golf
evaluation and then are put on a training
program
that
fits their needs from a golf, fitness and wellness
standpoint.
"(Stewart) will often come in at the end of a long
day
after most other members have gone home,
setup
his
exercises throughout the gym and crank up his
music
before grinding through another tough workout,"
trainer
Kirk Adams
said of is client. "His work ethic in the gym has
allowed
him to have the season he just had and is a
model
for
amateur golfers everywhere."
The state-of-the-art facility also afforded
Hagestad
an
opportunity to hone his wedge game and putting
stroke.
Hagestad spends hours at the facility with his
head
phones in working to perfect the putting stroke
that
carried him to his U.S. Mid-Amateur triumph and
will
be
much needed on the lightening quick greens of
Augusta
National come April.
Speaking of April, Hagestad still finds it hard to
describe his upcoming trip to Magnolia Lane.
"Saying that my dream was to play in the
Masters
would be an example of something that you say
and
you dream of it happening but now that it has
happened
it is unfathomable that it came true. I remember
there
were a couple
nights where I was talking to some people that I
am
still
very close with from high school and I told them
my
goal was to play in the Masters but I'm still
pinching
myself thinking about it and that first tee ball on
Thursday (in the first round). It is something
that
you
dream about as a kid and I just want to put forth
all
the
effort and all the energy and effort I have into
playing
well."
As a 2013 graduate of USC, Hagestad is friends
with
some of the younger players on the PGA Tour
and
shortly after his U.S. Mid-Amateur triumph he
said
he
would love to play a practice round with
Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. "I won’t be
intimidated to call them up and say hey guys
when
can
we go," said Hagestad who would also like to
play a
practice round with the likes of Phil Mickelson
and
Adam
Scott.
However, for Hagestad the objective isn't to just
go
down to Augusta for a couple of practice rounds
and
a
pair of competitive rounds, "I want to
legitimately
contend at Augusta. You are given a pretty
unique
opportunity and I want to go down there and
play
great."
The victory at the U.S. Mid-Amateur wasn't the
first
taste of success that Hagestad has had in his
amateur
career. While at USC he competed in the NCAA
Championships as a senior and the Pac-12
Championships three-times.
For Hagestad, going to USC was more then
getting a
chance to play for the schools golf team. He also
got
a
chance to follow in his father's footsteps and
attend
USC and now he watches as his younger brother
Richard competes as a walk-on for the resurgent
Trojan
football program.
With that said the college golfing experience was
a
little
different for Hagestad, a member of the USC
business
school, "I loved golf, I loved competitive golf but
it
became pretty clear after my sophomore year
that I
was going to do something else with my career
professionally. What I found out in college was
just
how
good these kids are."
Throughout Hagestad's career there have been
seven attempts and seven tickets punched into
the
U.S.
Amateur field via the qualifying process.
Moreover,
since
moving to the east coast Hagestad has made a
huge
splash in Metropolitan Golf Association (MET)
events,
winning the section's 2016 amateur
championship
and
earning this years player of the year honors.
"The timing with winning the MET and on
national
scene
is kind of ironic," Hagestad said. "Coming from
Southern
California where there are so many good players
and
having that high expectation of myself and not to
say
there aren’t good players on the east coast
because
there are, but when you grow up playing against
kids
like Patrick Cantlay, Beau Hossler and I guess as
a
transplant and being naïve about the golfing
scene
my
expectation was to just go in and expect to be
great."
Hagestad will have to continue to be great if he
wants
to accomplish his goal of competing in the 2017
Walker
Cup to be played on his home course, the Los
Angeles
Country
Club next September. Just before Christmas
Hagestad and 15 others,
including fellow
mid-amateur Scott
Harvey participated in a weekend practice
session at
LACC with designs on impressing captain Spider
Miller.
"It would be pretty special and not just for me
but
for
friends and family who have supported me my
entire
life. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I want
to
earn my way onto that team the right way and I
want
my play to dictate getting on there," Hagestad,
one
of
four American selected by the USGA to compete
in
January's South American Amateur said. "It
would be a dream come true to have an
opportunity
to
be on the team and represent the United States
but
at
the same time I understand the big picture and
for
better or worse I want that cup to be back in the
United
States and if they feel I can help them do that it
would
be dream."
At this point it would appear that golfing dreams
are
very much within arms reach for Stewart
Hagestad
and in fact we may have only witnessed the tip
of his
golfing potential.