This summer’s champion of the U.S. Amateur at The Olympic Club, which marks the 12thUSGA Championship to unfold at the famed San Francisco layout, will be part of golf lore.
By Ron Kroichick
Eighteen years later, as he travels the country in his role as an on-course reporter for CBS, Colt Knost still hears about his U.S. Amateur triumph in 2007.
People remember Knost won the oldest golf championship in the United States. They ask him about surviving the grueling format and hoisting the Havemeyer Trophy.
And, oh yes, most of them know he won at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. Absolutely.
“Every time that course is brought up, my name goes along with it,” Knost said. “Every time someone brings it up, people say, ‘That place is so hard.’
“All my buddies say, ‘How the hell did you win there?’ It’s awesome.”
Another accomplished amateur will join Knost in Northern California golf lore this summer. The 125th U.S. Amateur will be held at Olympic Club’s Lake Course (Aug. 11-17), the storied and wickedly confounding patch of real estate in the southwest corner of San Francisco.
Three hundred and twelve golfers will play 18 holes on the Lake layout and 18 more on the adjoining Ocean Course, no pushover either. Then the top 64 in stroke play will advance to match play on the Lake, a track bubbling with history.
Remember, this is where Jack Fleck stunned Ben Hogan in 1955 and Billy Casper chased down Arnold Palmer in ’66. And where Scott Simpson outlasted Tom Watson in ’87, Lee Janzen edged Payne Stewart in ’98 and Webb Simpson slipped past Jim Furyk and Graeme McDowell in 2012.
Those are only the U.S. Opens at Olympic, the litany of big names falling short.
This year’s Amateur marks the 12th USGA championship to unfold at Olympic. It will be the fourth Amateur, in the wake of 1958 (won by Charles Coe), 1981 (Nathaniel Crosby) and 2007 (Knost).
Other USGA events to take place there were the 2004 U.S. Junior Amateur (Sihwan Kim), 2015 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball (Nathan Smith and Todd White) and 2021 U.S. Women’s Open (Yuka Saso).
Four years after Saso surged past Lexi Thompson, it’s time for the Olympic Club – the oldest athletic club in the country, dating to May 1860 – to return to center stage. The U.S. Amateur kicks off a parade of marquee amateur events this year in NorCal, with the Walker Cup coming to Cypress Point in September and the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Monterey Peninsula Country Club in October.
Olympic Club president Malia Lyle understands the prestige and intrigue of the Amateur.
“It’s a chance to walk alongside someone who may be the next Tiger Woods,” Lyle said. “And it’s a great showcase for San Francisco.”
Olympic, which also has an expansive facility downtown, sponsors 19 different sports. They range from rough-water swimming to a bustling basketball program, from women’s field hockey to men’s soccer.
But golf is the lens through which many sports fans know about the club. That will continue with this year’s Amateur, followed by the PGA Championship in 2028, U.S. Women’s Amateur in 2030 and Ryder Cup in ’33.
Olympic appeals to USGA and PGA of America officials for many reasons. San Francisco is a premier destination with international flavor. West Coast venues tend to boost television ratings.
And at the root of the equation: the Lake Course is one of the game’s most demanding layouts, offering a severe test for even the most skilled golfers.
“I think a golf course like this give today’s guys a lot of trouble, because the game now is tee it high, smash it and go find it,” Knost said. “But that course is so much about precision. You have to hit a lot of different shots, and you have to work the ball both ways. These kids aren’t used to that. …
“Olympic Club is a gem, man. You can’t fake it around and you can’t bring your C game. That place is brutal.”
The Lake Course is unique, as Knost noted. In an era predicated on power, this layout requires uncommon shots given its tilted, twisting fairways and small, slick greens. Plus, the ball doesn’t travel nearly as far in the heavy air along the Pacific Ocean.
So even though the course officially measures 7,214 yards for this Amateur, don’t be fooled. It might feel like 9,000 yards, especially for players from warmer climates.
Kay Cockerill, a Golf Channel reporter, former LPGA pro and two-time U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, is also a longtime San Francisco resident and Olympic Club member. She knows what makes the Lake Course so tough: sidehill lies, thick rough, those tiny greens.
Players are perpetually fighting gravity, as Cockerill put it. Winning there means making smart decisions and bringing an ample dose of mental toughness.
“I think people relish that challenge,” Cockerill said. “Even as you’re struggling and grinding to make pars, you’re kind of smiling because you’re on this beautiful property.”
The Amateur will be the first championship at Olympic since renowned architect Gil Hanse renovated the Lake Course over the past few years. Hanse removed hundreds of trees (more came down during storms in 2023); widened several fairways; and added many fairway bunkers, including sizable ones on Nos. 16, 17 and 18 (the course used to have only one fairway bunker, on No. 6).
Hanse also expanded some greens (adding undulation), made green entrances more open and significantly changed the putting surface at No. 7, which previously included three tiers. He made several greenside bunkers more shallow – they had been cavernous, challenging top golfers but extreme for everyday play.
“I would say you have to be a really flexible type of player,” Cockerill said of what will be required to succeed in the Amateur. “You need to get used to inconsistent lies, sidehill lies, the ball above your feet, the ball below your feet.”
Knost knew of all these challenges in advance of the 2007 Amateur, but he found faith in an unexpected place. He didn’t turn pro that summer because he wanted to make the Walker Cup team (which he did). Then he won the Public Links, building some momentum.
Two or three months before the Amateur, he recalled, his good friend Trip Kuehne’s dad, Ernie, told Knost he was going to win at Olympic. Ernie Kuehne reasoned that Knost was the best iron player in amateur golf at the time, and that’s an especially important skill on the Lake Course.
Kuehne’s words resonated with Knost, who said he didn’t know if he “ever had that much confidence at a golf tournament.”
Knost won despite shooting 75 on the Ocean Course in stroke play (atop 69 on the Lake). He was the No. 45 seed in match play, then stormed to six consecutive wins and the title.
That’s something this year’s field will need to conquer, what Cockerill described as the “two-part experience” of the Amateur. Golfers can play a bit more conservatively on the first two days, to reach match play, but then they embark on a “series of little sprints” trying to win six straight times.
Whoever prevails will savor the spoils of victory, as Knost still does.
“You look at the names on that trophy,” he said, “and to think you will always be on there is so special.”
Ron Kroichick covers golf for the San Francisco Chronicle.