Paths cross at Oakmont for Titleist Brand Ambassadors Ogilvy and Tracy

By Former Member On 20 June 2016

Standing on the first tee at Oakmont Country Club, minutes away from his 8:31 a.m. tee time, Ethan Tracy awaits the arrival of his playing partners with boyhood buddy-turned-caddie for the week, David Haley. The duo has no idea who or how many will show, if anybody. This is just the slot Tracy was assigned by USGA officials when he requested a Tuesday morning practice round.

Just as the threesome ahead nears the green at the 482-yard par 4, a former U.S. Open champion arrives on the tee box, extending his right hand to introduce himself. Geoff Ogilvy is playing this week via the final year of his 10-year exemption for winning the 2006 edition at Winged Foot.

Team Titleist joined the group for nine holes.

* * *

As the pair gets direction from the starter, who motions to play away, Tracy selects driver. His golf ball lands and rolls into one of the five fairway bunkers lining the left side of the narrow fairway. Seconds later, Ogilvy chooses a new Titleist T-MB 2-iron that he put in the bag for the first time a day earlier. His slight fade hits the fairway, bounces twice and disappears into a bunker on the right. He decides to lay up with his original ball, then hits another to determine if he would have any chance to challenge the green should the same thing happen during competition. As Ogilvy moves onto the fairway and closer to the green, he sees one golf ball that has settled inside 10 feet from the pin.

“Is that your ball?,” Ogilvy asks, staring at Tracy across the fairway. “Great shot.”

Tracy had 192 yards to the pin and clipped a perfect 7-iron out of the fairway bunker. He converted the birdie putt on what is considered to be perhaps the most challenging opening hole in golf. The major champion was impressed. The kid has game.

Ethan Tracy is 26 years old. A decorated high school golfer from Hilliard, Ohio, who had success as an amateur and in the college ranks at the University of Arkansas, Tracy won his debut as a Razorback freshman by setting a course record at the Maryland Intercollegiate. He was named to the all-SEC freshman team. At the 2009 NCAA Championship, Arkansas finished runner-up to Texas A&M, 3-2, in a dramatic final the first year of the match-play format. His team included current PGA TOUR players David Lingmerth and Andrew Landry, both of whom are participating in the U.S. Open this week. Tracy played a practice round on Monday with Lingmerth, a PGA TOUR winner and former roommate.

In retrospect, Tracy’s biggest triumph may have come at the 2011 Western Amateur at North Shore Country Club in Glenview, Ill., one of the most grueling events in amateur golf, where he turned heads by knocking off two of the top three-ranked amateurs in the world at the time, and three of the top 10. Qualifying for match play following four rounds of medal play, Tracy took down, in order, Derek Ernst, Jordan Spieth, Cheng-Tsung Pan, and finally Patrick Cantlay, for the win. Cantlay was coming off a freshman season at UCLA where he was named collegiate player of the year and was the top-ranked amateur in the world. Spieth was ranked third, Pan 10th. Ernst has gone on to become a PGA TOUR winner.

“Knowing that I have competed against, and in many cases, beaten players that have reached the PGA or Web.com Tours gives me confidence that I will also get there. It is a matter of taking advantage of the opportunities when they are presented to you. You have to play well at the right times,” says Tracy.

Geoff Ogilvy celebrated his 39th birthday June 11. A native of Melbourne, Australia, he now makes his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., with his wife, Juli, and three children, each of them born after he won the 2006 U.S. Open. Ogilvy has accumulated nearly $40 million in earnings since turning professional in 1998 and joining the PGA TOUR in 2001. He has earned eight PGA TOUR victories and 13 professional wins worldwide, including the U.S. Open, three World Golf Championships, and consecutive Tournament of Champions wins in Kapalua, as well as Australian PGA and Australian Open titles. His last win came at the PGA Tour’s Barracuda Championship, an opposite field event in 2014. A couple weeks later, he finished T-2 at the Deutsche Bank Championship. And while he’s managed only one top-10 finish since, Ogilvy promises he still has a lot of good golf left.

“I feel like I am getting there,” said Ogilvy. “Of course it is frustrating when you aren’t shooting great scores. It’s not fun. But it’s not a question of motivation. I know I can still win out here.”

* * *

The group is joined midway down the 2nd fairway by Troy Wright, the only swing coach Ethan Tracy has ever known. A former golfer at Purdue from 1986-89, Wright played professionally for several years before opening his own teaching facility in Plain City, Ohio, outside of Columbus. He has been working with Tracy for over 13 years.

“I have known Ethan since he was 12 or 13, and I can honestly say in all that time that I have been working with him, he has never complained or whined or been critical of anything,” says Wright. “He is a pretty quiet kid, but he is coachable, confident and driven to be the best golfer he can be.”

The pair, along with caddie Haley, discuss strategy on how to play each hole and study the nuances of the legendary Oakmont greens. They also take some time to watch the more experienced Ogilvy, who is recognized for his short game wizardry, and listen to his advice as to where some of the pins may be positioned during the week.

Ethan Tracy and David Haley have known each other since they were kids growing up on the same street in Hilliard. Their summer routine included being dropped off at Heritage Golf Club at dawn and getting picked up at dusk. They would play 18 holes in the morning and another 18 in the afternoon. In between they would work on their chipping and putting and scrambling, and play the typical contests kids play when hanging out at the golf course all day, every day, all summer long. The wagers were paid in golf balls.

“We would play for hours,” said Haley, “and when one of us got down, it would be double or nothing.”

All those hours paid off when the pair attended Darby High School, where Haley won the Ohio Division I individual championship and Tracy tied for second as seniors in 2007. While Tracy went south to hone his game at Arkansas, Haley chose the University of Minnesota. In 2010, both were medalists at their respective qualifiers for the U.S. Amateur and played at Chambers Bay.

Caddying is not a regular gig at this point for Haley, who has not given up on his own dream of making a living playing professional golf. He also continues to play some mini-tour events in hopes of breaking through. He will make his third attempt at Web.com Q-School later this year.

If his practice round is any indication, seeing Geoff Ogilvy’s name on another U.S. Open leaderboard would not be a surprise. He said he will probably hit six to seven drivers per round at Oakmont – probably just two on the back nine (12 and 18). He is raving about the T-MB 2-iron that he secured from the Titleist Tour Van. He figures he can fly it about 250 yards and run it out to 275 or so depending upon the fairway layout.

Ogilvy uses the 2-iron on the controversial 8th hole, a 288-yard par 3 from the tips. There is a cross bunker at approximately 240 yards and the fairway slopes down toward the green. The key for Ogilvy is to carry the bunker and let the ball run up to the putting surface. Ogilvy executes the shot perfectly, but his first tee shot runs through the green into the back bunker. He hits another that ends up pin high.

“Hitting fairways will be of utmost importance this week,” says Ogilvy. “It is not a real long course, but it becomes one if you are in the rough. I will replace my hybrid with my 2-iron since I won’t be able to use my hybrid out of the rough anyway because it is so thick. The only escape from the rough is to dig the ball out with a wedge and move on. I will probably use the 2-iron off the tee as much as my driver, and I think you may see a lot of other guys doing the same thing.”

Ogilvy asks Tracy if this is his first U.S. Open. Tracy nods. “At least you’re getting the hardest one out of the way,” Ogilvy says with a smile.

Tracy, though, has never backed down from a challenge. He has won four times playing the mini-tours as a professional, reminding himself every time he marks his golf ball by drawing a ‘4’ next to the play number. He adds to it each time he wins. He hopes to make it a ‘5’ soon.

Most recently, in May, Tracy won the Savannah Lakes Village Classic Swing Thought Tour event in McCormick, S.C (The Swing Thought Tour consolidated the NGA Hooters and eGolf Tours in 2015 to establish a Tour system and schedule of events as a path for professional golfers to develop, compete and advance to the Web.com Tour and beyond.)

Tracy followed up a second round 10-under-par 62 – one shot shy of the course record – to close with a 4-under-par 68 and 17-under 54-hole victory total. He played bogey-free over his final 36 holes. More important, he earned $16,500 for the win and an exemption into Air Capital Classic on the Web.com Tour next week. Another opportunity. Another chance to advance his dream.

The win was just the beginning of a whirlwind month for Tracy. The following day, he Monday qualified for the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte. Tracy finished birdie-eagle to shoot 64, securing a spot in his first PGA TOUR event on the number. Although he missed the cut by three shots, he was encouraged.

Next came a sponsor’s exemption into the Memorial Tournament, an event he attended annually as a youth, the place his passion to become a professional golfer grew.

Playing in front of friends and family, and with Haley on the bag, Tracy opened in 71 putting him in position to make a run at the weekend. On the 18th tee Friday, Tracy knew he was one shy of the potential cut line. A birdie was required, but unfortunately it was not to be. Still, Tracy left Muirfield Village feeling like he belonged. At one point during the week, he and Jordan Spieth crossed paths with their caddies on the practice range. Spieth, in a joking fashion, recalled Tracy “kicking his butt” a few years ago.

Three days after the Memorial, Tracy punched his ticket to his first U.S. Open, firing a 36-hole 133 total to tie for second in what was arguably the most talented sectional qualifying field in the country, chock full of tour professionals who were in town for the PGA TOUR event. Now, he is at Oakmont.

“I played the right course in my first round,” said Tracy about his 65. “That was key, but I knew I was playing well enough to get through. Making it here means a lot. It’s the U.S. Open. I’m really excited and can’t wait to get started.”

* * *

Ogilvy’s experience this year is significantly different than the last time the U.S. Open was held at Oakmont in 2007, when he arrived as the defending champion. Much of his time and attention was spent fulfilling media and other obligations that are a byproduct of major success.

“What I remember most was that I played in the traditional U.S. Open pairing for the first two rounds which includes the U.S. Open, British Open and U.S. Amateur champions,” said Ogilvy. “We had one of the largest galleries following our group that I had ever seen. The atmosphere was pretty electric.”

Ogilvy opened in 71-75, six shots behind the leader. However, he closed in 78-75 and finished T-42. The winning score was 5-over.

“I remember how I played much better than my second round 75 indicated,” said Ogilvy. “We started on the back nine and I was 5-over before shooting even par on our final nine. I did the same thing on the final day.”

Tracy was 16 years old when Ogilvy won the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, but he remembers watching it because he was passionate about the game.

Crossing the bridge from the 8th green to the 9th tee that looks toward the iconic Oakmont clubhouse, Tracy is asked if he ever played with a major champion before.

After pondering the question for several seconds, Tracy says, “No, but you know I never really thought about it like that. Today, he was just a great guy, it was an enjoyable round and I appreciated the opportunity.”

After the round, Ogilvy walks off the 9th green and toward a line of spectators, their hands full of U.S. Open memorabilia, and begins signing autographs. Just a few feet to his left is Tracy.

He’s signing his name, too.

•••

Let's take a closer look at the Titleist equipment that Geoff and Ethan will be trusting this week at Oakmont: