Golf Broadcaster Shane Bacon Qualifies For US Amateur Championship
Broadcaster Shane Bacon birdied his final hole to secure a dream qualification into the US Amateur Championship
Golf broadcaster Shane Bacon showed us that not only can he talk about golf but he can play a bit too as he qualified for the US Amateur Championship in Colorado in August.
Bacon, who has previously advanced pretty far in local US Open qualifying, shot rounds of 70-70 at Bonnie Briar Country Club to book his place at the 123rd US Amateur Championship.
The 39-year-old qualified alongside 16-year-old Luke Colton just to show the wide appeal of the game and the US Amateur Championship.
“It's still pretty surreal,” said Bacon. “I mean to get a chance to play in the oldest championship that our country has and to kind of think about my life doing this, where I was trying to play competitive golf, and then got into the amateur space, then got into the broadcasting world, my first event I ever did that was like a real TV event was the US Amateur, so to kind of have the full circle moment is pretty cool.”
Now, after calling after calling plenty of big golf tournaments on TV, the broadcaster will be on the other side of things as he tees it up at Cherry Hills from August 14-20 in the US Amateur.
Bacon had nine bogeys and 11 birdies over 36-holes, including one on his very last hole that gave him a two-under final total to secure his dream spot in the iconic championship.
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Looking stranded in the rough on a hill alongside the final green, Bacon managed to get up-and-down to bag his place by just one shot.
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“Golf doesn’t allow us a lot of wins,” he wrote on Instagram. “Today was one of those. Thrilled to be playing in my first US Amateur at the ripe age of 39.
“The Am was actually the first time I ever hosted golf on national television back in 2016. That was a pinch-me moment. So is this.”
Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website. Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.
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