Meet the 39-year-old landman who simply gained U.S. Newbie medalist honors

CHASKA, Minn. – When Jimmy Ellis started taking swings on the vary Saturday morning at Hazeltine Nationwide forward of his second U.S. Newbie, he seen one thing peculiar in regards to the hole wedge he’d simply had re-shafted. The brand new shaft was a half-inch longer than his pitching wedge.

His substitute turned just a few heads.

“You don’t see a number of U-wedges on the U.S. Am,” Ellis mentioned of the 50-degree membership he simply occurred to have with him; he normally swaps it in ought to he want much less spin, solely now he had no selection.

Ellis caught weirder seems to be when he stopped within the professional store to purchase some Hazeltine-logoed gloves and golf balls for his rounds. Even within the age of identify, picture and likeness, the 39-year-old landman from Atlantic Seaside, Florida, doesn’t have a direct line to the OEMs – or as Ellis says, bluntly, “I don’t get free s—.”

Not many knew the identify Jimmy Ellis to start out the week.

Two days into this 124th U.S. Newbie, everyone seems to be staring up at him on the leaderboard.

Ellis fired a blistering 9-under 61 Tuesday at co-host Chaska City Course, a missed 30-foot eagle putt away from matching Billy Horschel’s USGA file (additionally at Chaska, on the 2006 U.S. Newbie), to seize medalist honors at 10 below. The primary mid-amateur to medal at this championship in 11 years, Ellis earned the highest seed for match play, which begins Wednesday at Hazeltine. He’ll play the sixty fourth seed, to be decided Wednesday morning in a 14-for-11 playoff.

Greater than an hour after signing his scorecard, Ellis was nonetheless in a blur.

“Blind squirrel, actually,” Ellis mentioned. “I actually made all the pieces immediately. I wager if we play this match 100 instances, there’s zero-percent probability I’d be the medalist.”

Nicely, not zero.

But when Ellis was just a little baffled, it was laborious to fault him. Nothing about his background indicated he might higher the likes of Luke Clanton and Gordon Sargent over 36 holes on USGA setups. Heck, Ellis beats 15-year-old Miles Russell, the nation’s top-ranked junior, so occasionally again residence at Atlantic Seaside Nation Membership that Ellis has Russell signal the scorecard afterward.

“I’ve most likely performed with him 15 instances … and I’ve received one Miles autograph,” Ellis mentioned.

Ellis, who grew up in Pittsburgh, performed school golf at Florida Gulf Coast for a yr earlier than transferring to Ohio College to complete faculty. He began working within the oil-and-gas trade upon commencement, barely protecting his sticks heat for years. That’s, till the pandemic, when Ellis’ recreation took off.

He gained the 2020 Pennsylvania Open, then the Pittsburgh Open, then the Tri-State Newbie.

“It simply stored going and going,” mentioned Ellis, who climbed as excessive as No. 389 within the World Newbie Golf Rating; he entered his sixth USGA championship this week at No. 783.

Final August, Ellis and his household (spouse, Erin, and youngsters, 7-year-old Palmer and 4-year-old Lila) moved from Pennsylvania. With no desired vacation spot in thoughts, the Ellises drove down the east coast, dropping into metropolis after metropolis till they discovered a spot they cherished.

They ended up in Atlantic Seaside, a “cool, little, hippy, surfer city,” Ellis calls it.

As a newly minted Florida Man, Ellis then wasted little time making his mark on the state’s golf scene. He captured the Florida State Newbie again in June, closing in 64 (his finest match rating till Tuesday) and incomes an exemption into the 312-player subject at Hazeltine, the place he arrived final weekend with modest expectations.

“Simply attempt to sneak into match play and attempt to upset some large identify; that will be the cool factor,” Ellis mentioned. “That is simply bizarre. I imply, I may not win my membership championship, actually.”

The final mid-amateur to win the U.S. Newbie was John Harris in 1993.

What are the probabilities that Ellis can finish that 31-year spell?

It’s not zero.