This course-design-savvy professional is having a profession U.S. Open at Pinehurst

PINEHURST, N.C. — Zac Blair is a full-time touring professional and a part-time course architect and developer, and when he performs right here at Pinehurst No. 2 on Sunday all of his many golf components will likely be on excessive alert. He’s in a tie for twenty fifth by way of three rounds in his third U.S. Open, and he’s in search of his finest Open end ever. (He missed the minimize in 2019 at Pebble Seaside and tied for fortieth on the 2014 Open right here.) Alongside the best way, as he has all week, he’ll be making a psychological checklist in fact qualities you may name this: Stuff I Like.

“I like every part about this course,” Blair mentioned after his Sunday spherical. He’s 33, about 10 inches shorter than one other golfer from Utah, Tony Finau, and he has a type of mountain-man face: bushy crimson beard, electrical blue eyes, crow’s toes spreading from them, east and west. He’s from Utah and has spent his life within the solar. Final yr, he received the Utah Open. Tony Romo (T39) by no means had an opportunity.

I questioned: Are his good scores, right here at Pinehurst, corrupting his evaluation of the course?

“I as soon as shot 77 at Nationwide Golf Hyperlinks,” I mentioned. “So of course that’s certainly one of my favourite programs anyplace.” Seventy-seven is as little as I am going.

“No, no,” he mentioned. “I do a fairly good job of taking part in good golf on programs I don’t like. However this to me is likely one of the finest programs on this planet.”

Blair’s father, Jim Blair, was a superb participant at BYU within the early Nineteen Seventies and has received the Utah Senior Open a bunch of occasions. The household owned a course in Utah. Zac’s been taking part in play-to-dark golf all his life. He was by no means the longest hitter, or near it. You possibly can drop a Walmart parking zone between a few of Blair’s drives and Finau’s.

On Saturday, Blair was paired with Billy Horschel. Horschel, in demeanor and play, is as tight as Blair is unfastened and demonstrative. Blair tosses and catches his personal membership a dozen or so occasions per spherical. Horschel, 20 yards or 30 yards longer than Blair on some holes, signed for 74 on Saturday. Blair shot 75.

“I like a course the place you’ll be able to run the ball as much as the inexperienced, like you’ll be able to right here on all however a few holes,” Blair mentioned. “I like tough the place you will get fortunate and have a shot, or not. These greens are crispy, quick. They run. I like that.” He likes a tough golf course. 

Blair is likely one of the builders of a course close to Aiken, S.C., referred to as The Tree Farm. The Tree Farm — its emblem is on his golf bag — could be proper at residence in better Pinehurst. It was constructed on agency, sandy turf that brings to thoughts, regardless of the summer time warmth and humidity, Scotland. Blair has in contrast design concepts with Tom Doak, who shares Blair’s appreciation for agency, for quick, for programs which are nearer to military brown than emerald inexperienced. There’s a Doak course close to right here, Pinehurst No. 10, that’s off Pit Hyperlink Lane within the city of Aberdeen. The deal with alone is telling. Blair would find it irresistible.

His profession is astounding, actually. Final yr, in 4 straight occasions, he went minimize, minimize, T47, minimize — after which tied for second at Hartford. To maintain your card on the PGA Tour, you must shut on the weeks your putter will get scorching. That’s what Blair did final yr, and it let him hold his card. It’s wildly unusual for a golfer who’s consumed with job safety to have golf-course design as a passion.

It’s fairly esoteric. However that’s Zac.

I needed to ask Blair about Finau’s probabilities, right here at this 124th U.S. Open. Finau made the flip at 5 below on Saturday and was completely in rivalry. However he got here residence in 39 and is in a tie for seventh, six pictures behind Bryson DeChambeau, the chief. “He’ll win certainly one of these occasions,” Blair mentioned. “He’s too good to not win a significant.”

We golf followers (and golf writers and golf broadcasters and golf posters) focus rather a lot on these gamers, those that have received majors or are adequate to win majors. However the PGA Tour continues to be, even with LIV Golf and these Elevated occasions and all the remainder, full of rank-and-file gamers like Zac Blair, guys making an attempt to make a (superb) dwelling, making an attempt to maintain their playing cards, making an attempt to set milestones which are significant to them, even when the remainder of {the golfing} world will neither little observe nor lengthy keep in mind what they do. Zac Blair is trying to have his finest end ever in a U.S. Open. That will not sound like a lot. However it’s every part, for those who’re Zac Blair.

On Saturday, the par-3 fifteenth, uphill and into the wind, was taking part in about 225 yards. I used to be shocked to see an iron in his arms. That’s a protracted strategy to hit an iron!

“I used to be simply making an attempt to get it to the entrance edge,” he mentioned.

“There are not any birdie holes right here,” he mentioned. This was not a grievance. In any respect. It was an commentary. It was reward. He was taking part in in a U.S. Open, and he was taking part in U.S. Open golf.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your feedback at [email protected]

Michael Bamberger

Golf.com Contributor

Michael Bamberger writes for GOLF Journal and GOLF.com. Earlier than that, he spent practically 23 years as senior author for Sports activities Illustrated. After faculty, he labored as a newspaper reporter, first for the (Martha’s) Winery Gazette, later for The Philadelphia Inquirer. He has written quite a lot of books about golf and different topics, the latest of which is The Second Life of Tiger Woods. His journal work has been featured in a number of editions of The Greatest American Sports activities Writing. He holds a U.S. patent on The E-Membership, a utility golf membership. In 2016, he was given the Donald Ross Award by the American Society of Golf Course Architects, the group’s highest honor.