CHASKA, Minn. – The primary time Noah Kent performed Seminole Golf Membership was with legendary golf professional Bob Ford. Kent was 16 years previous, simply sufficiently old to earn a tee time on the venerable Donald Ross format, and he made a right away impression.
“He drives the primary inexperienced,” mentioned Kent’s stepfather, course designer Dana Fry, who was a part of the foursome that day.
Ford later put his arm round Fry whereas strolling down the sixteenth fairway and supplied a easy piece of recommendation, “Don’t let anyone mess with this child.”
Influenced and mentored by titans from all corners of the sport, Kent remodeled from a pure expertise into one of many final two males standing at this 124th U.S. Newbie.
“You’re employed so exhausting for issues like this,” mentioned Kent, who will face Spain’s Josele Ballester in Sunday’s remaining at Hazeltine Nationwide, “and for it to truly occur is loopy.”
Simply seconds after Saturday afternoon’s semifinal victory, Kent was overcome by emotion. Tears flowing, he was then mobbed by a wave of backers simply off the 18th inexperienced – Fry; his mom, Trisha; his dad, David, and his spouse, Ashley; and over a dozen extra kin and pals, lots of them sporting Hawkeye-yellow Caitlin Clark shirts that had been flown in from Iowa Metropolis that morning.
“The in a single day success and the breakthrough, it takes loads of hours to make it,” David Kent mentioned. “He has an unmatched circle of assist to drive him to the place he’s proper now. This can be a exceptional achievement, nevertheless it’s not a shock. He’s had it inside the entire time. It’s his time, and it’s been a blessing and a privilege to look at the complete household rally round him.”
Fry began courting Trisha when Noah was 9 years previous. As an introduction, Fry invited Noah for a spherical at Calusa Pines, a course Fry helped design in Kent’s hometown of Naples, Florida. Subsequent factor younger Noah knew, he was having a chipping contest with six-time PGA Tour winner Rocco Mediate.
At age 13, Noah met Rory McIlroy through the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills. Just a few months later, they reconnected at a TaylorMade shoot at Shelter Harbor in Charleston, Rhode Island, and upon returning dwelling, an impressed Kent knowledgeable his mother and father he was quitting hockey.
“He tells his mother and I, ‘I’ve determined all I’m going to do is play golf, I’m going to play on the PGA Tour, and I’m going to win,’” Fry recalled. “And after that, each night time for 2 or three years, you’d stroll by his room, and he’d have his iPad out and all you’ll hear is the sound of a man hitting a golf ball.”
It was McIlroy who taught Kent the right way to generate energy together with his small body, merely pointing to his legs when requested how McIlroy turned one of many Tour’s longest drivers. When Kent grew almost a foot over three years of highschool – he’s now 6-foot-5 – he hit it up to now that he needed to rein in his pace with assist from famend teacher Claude Harmon III, who was first on Fry’s listing of swing coaches who wouldn’t mess up the promising teenager.
Kent switched to digital college through the pandemic so he might spend extra time at Naples Nationwide practising and enjoying, usually with the “Wolfpack,” a bunch the place the common age sits within the mid-60s. He additionally counts a trio of U.S. Newbie champions as mentors: John Prepare dinner, who’s on the Golf Channel broadcast this week; Jay Sigel, a nine-time Walker Cupper; and John Harris, nonetheless the final mid-amateur to win this championship when he did so in 1993 at age 41.
“He at all times jokes that his greatest pals are all of their 60s and 70s,” Fry mentioned.
That village took Noah to the College of Iowa, the place he’s coming into his sophomore season. Hawkeyes coach Tyler Stith remembers when Kent arrived on campus as a freshman, simply getting over a damaged proper wrist that shelved him for 11 weeks. The group’s large intrasquad match, which pits the upperclassmen versus the youthful guys, was approaching, and Kent needed Iowa’s greatest participant, fifth-year senior and two-time Large Ten particular person champion Mac McClear.
Kent beat McClear – twice.
On Tuesday night time, Stith texted Kent, who had simply certified for match play at Hazeltine, and challenged him:
If you’re mendacity in mattress tonight, create a picture of somebody you wouldn’t wish to face. … I’m imagining somebody who doesn’t beat themselves, performs their very own sport, and will get up and down all day lengthy. How about you?
Tomorrow that individual is you.
Kent responded: I’m that individual is true. I think about that one that performed McClear … and waxed him.
This was the textual content that @IowaHawkeyeGolf coach Tyler Stith despatched to Noah Kent earlier than match play.
When Noah was a freshman, he requested to play a fifth-year senior who was twice a Large Ten champ, Mac McClear, in a fall intrasquad occasion. He beat him in each matches. pic.twitter.com/UorJiSZwAo
— Brentley Romine (@BrentleyGC) August 17, 2024
That fearless freshman confirmed up once more Saturday as Kent bought the perfect of Buchanan, a rising Illinois senior and the reigning Large Ten Participant of the Yr. A day after carding six birdies and an eagle in his first 12 holes, Kent needed to grind this one out. Clinging to a 1-up lead, Kent yanked his second shot right into a nasty lie on the par-5 fifteenth. After Buchanan drained a 25-footer for birdie, Kent canned a 15-footer on high of him to tie the outlet.
“I don’t know what it’s with me, I really like at any time when the strain will get actually excessive,” Kent mentioned. “I’ve been feeling it the entire week. … It was identical to one other out-of-body expertise to see it go within the gap, and the momentum stayed with me.”
On the subsequent, the tough par-4 sixteenth, Buchanan, who hit simply two fairways all match, hooked his drive towards the creek, watching his ball strike a spectator and ricochet into the water.
“What else goes to occur to me right now?” Buchanan bemoaned as he approached his submerged ball.
Minutes later, he was 2 down.
Buchanan bought in hassle once more on No. 18, discovering a left fairway bunker off the tee after which catching the lip together with his strategy. Kent then stuffed one from the green and was conceded the match earlier than Buchanan even made it to the inexperienced.
“It’s straightforward to surrender on this sport, and I didn’t,” Buchanan mentioned. “I’ll take that with me once I go away.”
Kent scooped up his ball, took off his hat and shook Buchanan’s hand – after which all of it hit him without delay. Kent has performed everywhere in the world and on a few of the sport’s most cherished cathedrals. However now, he had clinched the fitting to compete in subsequent summer time’s U.S. Open at Oakmont, the place Ford additionally was a longtime professional, and will quickly anticipate an invitation to Augusta Nationwide for subsequent spring’s Masters Event as effectively.
He used to wrestle with confidence, however not anymore.
“It’s all up right here in my coronary heart,” mentioned Kent, who simply shrugs off that No. 560 rating on the earth beginner rankings, which can certainly surge. “I’ve far more competitiveness. I really feel like I’ve much more perception in myself, and I’ve much more drive to wish to get the place I wish to go.”
Earlier than Kent met Sigel, Fry requested his stepson, not but in highschool, what his targets in beginner golf had been. Kent responded: “Win the U.S. Newbie and make the U.S. Walker Cup group.”
Although a win Sunday wouldn’t earn an automated berth, Kent already has the eye of captain Nathan Smith, who will lead the Individuals into Cypress Level subsequent summer time.
Harris has the 2025 Walker Cup circled on his calendar, too. Harris, a Minnesota native, couldn’t make it to Hazeltine as he’s at the moment present process therapy for leukemia. He mentioned that whereas not in remission, he did obtain some excellent news from his medical doctors a pair weeks in the past and that “restoration is coming.”
However for now, Harris must watch from afar.
“I’m sitting on the sting of my chair,” Harris mentioned Saturday through cellphone. “Noah is aware of who he’s, he understands what he’s doing, and if I’m somewhat motivation – I’ve mentioned to him, ‘I’m so comfortable watching this golf. I’m so dissatisfied I’m not at Hazeltine cheering for you, however I’m there.’ And he feels it.”
And sees it.
Kent has saved Harris on his thoughts this week by writing Harris’ initials on his golf glove. J.H., it’s the very last thing Kent sees earlier than he hits a shot.
And it’s a reminder that he’s not alone.
