Luke Clanton, the fashionable amateur. It’s no wonder. In the last two weeks, the Florida State University player has finished in the top ten of the two PGA Tour tournaments. Since 1958 no player had achieved such a feat. The last one was Billy Joe Patton who finished eighth in the US Open of 1957 as well as in the Masters of the following year.
This Sunday, at the John Deere Classic he closed his contest with four birdies in the last five holes to finish second in the tournament. He was just one stroke away from qualifying for the Open: “Doing what I’ve done in this last round has been incredible. It’s a blessing to be here and the end of the tournament we’ve achieved seems surreal to me.”
The Florida State University player is living a dream: “This is incredible. I don’t want to lie. I’m still a little boy who still watches these guys play golf on TV. I admire them, and playing with them and seeing them in person hitting golf shots is crazy. I still try to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming.”
It’s a reality that Clanton himself has earned through hard work and great golf. He is currently the third player in the world amateur ranking and among other feats this season he managed to harvest three consecutive victories in the university tournaments. He also played his first Major at Pinehurst Nº2, making the cut and finishing in 41st place. Only an excellent Neal Shipley took away the honour of being the best amateur in the tournament. This week the young twenty-year-old player was supposed to be playing in Ireland at the Arnold Palmer Cup, but his top 10 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic changed the plans.
As every time an amateur starts to peek under the door, rumours have already started about his possible jump to professionalism. If he had already been in these last two weeks, the American would have pocketed 870 thousand dollars. It’s not a small thing for a player who admits that the first thing he wants to do is ‘retire’ his father who currently has three jobs and both he and his mother have had to give up many things so that he could dedicate himself to what he loves.
However, Clanton has other plans. 20 years is nothing and the university student clearly sees what he wants to do before making his jump to professionalism. Cool head. It’s true that he hasn’t won on the PGA Tour, it’s not the case of Nick Dunlap, those are big words. However, for the moment he stops those who want to see him as a professional.
He is not in a hurry to burn stages and there is a dream as an amateur that he has yet to fulfil: “I repeat, I want to win a national championship with Florida State. That has been my number 1 goal in college and this year we have been quite close. I am still very motivated to achieve it.” The fact is that he had it in his hands as he finished second in both the individual and team categories. On the verge of a glory that he does not want to escape next season.
It’s not easy to know how to hold back at a time like this and not get carried away by the easiest impulse which would be to jump into the void and head first into professionalism. Anyway, even if he continues his stage as an amateur, the American intends to play in the PGA Tour tournaments that he can. Thanks to his top 10 in Illinois he has a place in the ISCO Championship which starts this very Thursday in Nicholasville and there he will be.
