Noah Kent did not win the U.S. Beginner however may need walked away from Hazeltine Nationwide gaining greater than any participant within the area.
USGA/Chris Keane
CHASKA, Minn. — Noah Kent widened his stance and ready for an important chip shot of his life. He was short-sided and had 25 yards to the pin, with about 20 yards of tough to clear.
He wanted to hit a flop shot, just like the one he hit on the thirteenth gap on Thursday morning. One Phil Mickelson may hit. Kent’s at all times been a giant Mickelson fan; rising up he beloved watching Lefty try these dangerous photographs. He practiced them on a regular basis too, hitting loopy, physics-defying flops most likely a thousand instances. He says he has delicate palms and looks like he can pull off any shot.
However this flop shot was totally different. It was his thirty sixth gap of the day. His lie wasn’t nice. And he wanted to make it to have an opportunity at successful the U.S. Beginner.
The Iowa sophomore seemed on the gap one final time, took a giant swing and plunged his membership into the turf. For just a few lengthy seconds, the couple thousand folks huddled across the inexperienced have been silent. Dozens of followers carrying yellow Caitlin Clark shirts held their breath.
You may know by now that Kent’s last-gasp pitch from simply off the 18th inexperienced at Hazeltine Nationwide Golf Membership Sunday night time did not go in. It got here out too sizzling, missed to the left and rolled out, leaving Jose Luis Ballester a straightforward two-putt par and 2-up, U.S. Beginner-clinching victory.
However it’s best to most likely additionally know that for just a few beats, something appeared attainable when Kent had a membership in his hand. Let’s face it — he had himself every week.
So are you able to win a U.S. Beginner with out really successful a U.S. Beginner? Just one individual will get the trophy, certain, however there is no such thing as a scarcity of different victories up for grabs. There are literal wins, these got here in bunches for Kent through the match play portion of the event previous Sunday’s closing match. There are additionally metaphorical ones, like exemptions into the U.S. Open and Masters that each the winner and runner-up historically obtain.
However don’t rely out ethical victories, both. It’s straightforward to level out that the title of “U.S. Beginner runner-up” is definitionally a historic footnote, however for the 560th-ranked beginner on this planet, it’s rather more than that.
It’s proof that Noah Kent belongs, and that’s a unique sort of trophy.
USGA/Chris Keane
Dana Fry, the golf course architect and Noah’s stepfather, got here into Noah’s life in June 2014. Noah was 9 years outdated.
Noah’s mother, Trisha, and pa, David, divorced just a few years earlier. David was a superb participant, certified for the U.S. Junior Beginner and later grew to become a golf professional. He’s now the GM at The Golf Membership at Crown Colony in Estero, Fla.
David tried to get Noah and his sister, Cameryn, into golf, however Noah’s old flame was hockey. He performed on a staff coached by former NHL participant Brian Rafalski, and a few of Fry’s first reminiscences with Noah and Trisha are tagging alongside for touring hockey journeys.
However every part modified in 2017, the 12 months Erin Hills hosted the U.S. Open. Fry was on the design staff on the Wisconsin bucket-list course, and he helped coordinate a gathering between Noah and Rory McIlroy. Just a few months later they met once more, when TaylorMade hosted a photoshoot at Shelter Harbor Golf Membership in Rhode Island, which Fry designed. Noah and McIlroy hit it off a second time, and when the younger hockey participant returned residence, he wasn’t a hockey participant anymore.
“I made a decision I’m quitting all my different sports activities,” Noah instructed Fry and Trisha, matter of factly. “I’m going to dedicate my life to golf, and I’m going to win on the PGA Tour.”
Younger Noah began taking part in obsessively at Calusa Pines Golf Membership, and later at Naples Nationwide. Earlier than lengthy, extra golfers arrived in his orbit.
On the 2019 Terra Cotta Invitational in Naples, Fla., Noah watched a towering younger stud, Tommy Morrison, energy his manner across the course. Morrison, now the 18th-ranked beginner on this planet, was one of many high gamers in his age group. (At 6-foot-8, he was additionally one of the crucial imposing.)
Morrison took fifth that 12 months in Naples, and when his spherical was over, Noah invited him to play 9 extra holes. Morrison agreed, they usually’ve been buddies since. Kent has caught as much as Morrison within the years since — and never solely on the course. Once they met in 2019, Noah was 5-5. He’s now 6-5.
“I feel it was one of many nicest issues anybody ever did for Noah,” Fry says now. “Everybody was bodily trying as much as Tommy and that began a friendship. That was the man Noah was at all times chasing.”
The duo performed a U.S. Beginner follow spherical at Chaska City Course final week, and on the par-4 seventh gap Noah blasted a monster drive down the center. (He sometimes flies it about 330 yards.) Morrison checked out Fry and Trisha and grinned.
“What do you feed this child?”
USGA/Chris Keane
Like the remainder of the world, Noah Kent felt the golf bug chew laborious through the Covid growth.
He took benefit of distant studying alternatives to journey to totally different nations with Fry. Maybe simply as importantly, he started to develop into his body. He began to get higher. Heaps higher. When he was 16, he performed Seminole with Fry and legendary golf professional Bob Ford. When Noah drove the primary inexperienced, Ford flashed a take a look at Fry.
“What the hell?”
On the course and later at lunch, Fry and Ford mentioned Noah’s path. Ford noticed an awesome expertise, however he additionally noticed an awesome child. Noah was simply a youngster, however he was already well-spoken and well-adjusted. Ford provided one key piece of recommendation.
“Don’t let anyone mess with this child.”
Ford urged they discover somebody with a confirmed observe file to assist Noah, who hoped to land with Claude Harmon III. Harmon was already with purchasers like Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka, however Kent had an in. After an introduction from former U.S. Am winner John Prepare dinner, Harmon agreed to take Noah on.
“He believes in him, and he instills that perception in Noah,” Fry says. “He’s at all times struggled with the assumption. He was at all times a superb participant, and he’s buddies with all these elite gamers — Ben James and Tommy Morrison and Nick Dunlap — and he’s performed with all these guys. However in his thoughts they have been higher. Within the larger occasions he simply wasn’t coming by means of. Claude would inform him he was getting in his personal manner. He’d say, ‘You need to settle for the truth that you might be this good.’”
Fry paused.
“The distinction is now Noah believes it.”
Noah, 19, has a rising record of mentors and folks in his nook, and amongst them is John Harris, one other former U.S. Beginner champion and College of Minnesota star athlete. They met years in the past at Calusa Pines and have been in contact since.
Harris is present process remedy for leukemia, so he wasn’t on the U.S. Beginner, however he was watching from Florida. Noah stored Harris shut, even writing Harris’s initials on his golf glove.
“He’s bodily and mentally mature,” Harris instructed GOLF.com through electronic mail. “His bodily recreation developed earlier than he gained sufficient expertise to be aggressive in each occasion. However he stored a superb perspective, realized from his experiences and matured into an aggressive and assured participant.”
Essentially the most useful expertise has arrived for Noah on the College of Iowa, the place he’ll quickly begin his sophomore 12 months. Kent says he selected Iowa as a result of coach Tyler Stith was the primary to imagine in him, however it didn’t take him lengthy to return the favor. Earlier than a fall upperclassmen vs. lowerclassmen match final fall, and never far faraway from a wrist harm that stored him out a few months, Noah requested to face fifth-year senior and two-time Huge Ten particular person champion Mac McClear.
He gained 3 and a pair of.
Earlier than U.S. Beginner match play started on Tuesday, Stith reminded his younger star of that reminiscence.
“Once you’re mendacity in mattress tonight, create a picture of somebody you wouldn’t need to face,” he mentioned in a textual content shared with Golf Channel. … “Tomorrow that individual is you.”
Kent responded rapidly.
“I’m that individual is true.”
The following morning, Kent went on a tear. He gained matches 4 and a pair of, 2 and 1, 4 and a pair of, 3 and a pair of, and a pair of as much as get to the ultimate. Because the 560th-ranked beginner on this planet, he was the underdog in nearly all these matches — not that he cared.
“They discuss it, and it’s like, ‘You’re 560 on this planet,’ however I do know I can beat anyone right here,” he mentioned Friday. “It doesn’t matter in the event that they’re ranked 1, 1,000, 10, 20, it doesn’t actually matter to me.”
On Sunday, he confronted his stiffest competitors but in Jose Luis Ballester, the son of two Olympians who hits the ball a mile and flexes a recreation with out discernible weaknesses.
The birdies got here quick for Ballester, and a 4-up lead after the morning 18 proved to be simply sufficient cushion for Kent’s livid comeback within the 36-hole match. The Tenth-ranked beginner on this planet gained, however No. 560 pushed him to the brink.
As Jose Luis Ballester hoisted a trophy on the 18th inexperienced and posed with USGA brass for a dozen flashing cameras, Kent was off the inexperienced, not removed from his closing chip shot, smiling for an image along with his household.
“You possibly can dangle your head coming in second, however to battle like that,” he instructed the media, referencing his second-18 comeback. “I talked to Mr. Harris [during the break between rounds], and he mentioned, ‘Should you battle, in your coronary heart you’re not going to be upset. Should you don’t battle, it’s going to go away you haunted.’”
Kent won’t go away Minnesota haunted. Loads modified in every week. He’s now within the 2025 U.S. Open and Masters. He’s on the Walker Cup radar. His rating is skyrocketing.
“It was full circle for him this week,” says his dad, David Kent. “He’s been on the cusp of actually realizing that it was his time, and all I stored telling him this week was, ‘It’s your time.’ It’s large. And there’s a bit of little bit of disappointment for him, however that is large for him. He’s simply getting began.”
After Noah completed speaking with the media, and earlier than he went to go signal autographs, he returned to his household and watched Ballester on the 18th inexperienced. His dad put his arm round him and patted his again. He leaned in and spoke to his son, and he instructed him he was happy with him.
Noah Kent leaves Hazeltine with a present practically as useful because the trophy. After every week on the U.S. Beginner, he now not has to surprise if he belongs. He is aware of.
