Favorite Son Eliminated
Hoosier Overton fends off four-time
Winged Foot champ and St. John’s
grad Svoboda in Amateur

By Mark Herrmann – Staff Correspondent

Mamamaroneck, N.Y. – The golf phrase “local knowledge” took on new meaning this week at the U.S. Amateur. Normally, it refers to how much a golfer knows the course, but with Andrew Svoboda at Winged Foot Golf Club this week, it seemed
that every blade of grass, every gust of wind and every person on the grounds knew him.

At least that is the way it seemed to anyone who was playing against Svoboda, a four-time club champion at Winged Foot. It was the way it seemed Friday to Jeff Overton, an Indiana University senior from Evansville who was “the other guy” to almost everyone in a gallery of 500.

“Never have I seen people, just like, rooting against you,” he said. “Here I was, hitting [within] 15 feet and I’d hear two claps. Then I’d see him hit it to 15 feet and it would just erupt,” Overton said with a laugh that he could afford because he won each of the last two holes and scored a 2-up win over Svoboda in a quarterfinal Friday. It turns out that Overton was prepared, with a plan and a solid game, to go 1-against-501.

“You’ve just got to be tough and tell yourself, ‘He’s going to make every putt.’ You’ve got to count on it,” he said. “As soon as the crowd erupts, you’ve got to feed off of it. You’ve got to force yourself to think they are actually rooting for you.”

But Svoboda didn’t make every putt. He lipped a 5-footer for par 4 on No. 17 - a putt he has taken and made dozens of times - to cap a day of missed chances.

“To just not get it done on these greens, on your home course, is not good. It’s not a good feeling,” said Svoboda, a New Rochelle native who graduated from St. John’s in 2003.

So Overton and not the local favorite advanced to a semifinal Saturday against
current NCAA and U.S. Public Links champion Ryan Moore, a 3-and-2 winner against Jason Hartwick. Either Overton or Moore will reach the final Sunday against Hackettstown, N.J., resident Chris Nallen (a 6-and-5 winner over Dayton Rose) or Luke List, who beat 47-year-old Danny Green, 3 and 2.

It means that the U.S. Amateur will go on without a lot of the noise and spice it has had because of Svoboda. Whenever he hit a shot, there were shouts of “Be the right stick today!” or “Turn over!” or “Yeah, baby!” His galleries were big all week, and they swelled Friday.

“Once it gets past 50 or 100, I don’t think it matters,” Svoboda said. “It’s just fun to play in front of that many people. You hit good shots and the crowd goes crazy; it’s fun.”

Svoboda-mania hit a peak on the 16th green, after he made a neat par save from the green-side rough and Overton pulled his par putt. The match was even, but Svoboda had momentum.
Overton deliberately walked slowly to the 17th tee, to stem that momentum. Who knows if it helped, but it didn’t hurt. Svoboda hit his tee shot to the right rough. Still, he had a chance to halve the hole. All he needed was to make that 5-footer. Instead, it spun almost all the way around the cup and stayed out.

“Yeah, I’ve had that putt a lot,” he said. “It kind of jumped left a little bit. You know, that’s a pretty easy putt. It’s right-center, right-edge. I just didn’t hit a good putt.”

He cost himself almost any chance of a Winged Foot storybook ending when he pulled his second shot on No. 18 into the high grass next to the green. Overton made par, and within a few minutes, Svoboda officially announced he will turn pro for the Met Open next week.

Overton, having overcome all that Winged Foot could throw at him, has no hard feelings toward Westchester. A true Hoosier, he knows that people can get excited about local heroes.

“I met Bobby Knight when I was about 5,” he said. “All I wanted to do was go to IU and play basketball, but instead, I got to go to IU and play golf.”