It’s one of the great juxtapositions this week at Oakmont Country Club: Two locals, one competing in his 52nd USGA championship, the other teeing it up for the first time when the 121st U.S. Amateur begins Monday at the venerable western Pennsylvania club.
Yet, despite the stark contrast of circumstances, the experience of playing a national championship at home will be equally special for both Sean Knapp and Kevin O’Brien.
Knapp, who at age 59 missed being the oldest competitor in the field by a few months, lives just two blocks from Oakmont, where back in the day, fresh off a college-basketball career at Indiana University (Pa.), he caddied for nearly five years. The 2017 U.S. Senior Amateur champion is set for a fourth straight – and 17th overall – U.S. Amateur, and second at Oakmont. He estimates he still logs three to four rounds per year on the major-championship gem, and he’s played a number of local and state tournaments there, too, winning a couple of them.
To Knapp, there are few places like it.
“There’s a beauty to Oakmont, if you could even call it that,” Knapp said. “It’s more like a difficulty, a genius. Unlike a lot of courses, Oakmont doesn’t need wind, it doesn’t need high rough; it plays like this [firm, fast, extraordinarily tough] every day of the week.
“It’s a beast of a golf course.”
Knapp’s first U.S. Amateur experience at Oakmont, in 2003, remains a career highlight. No, he didn’t lift the Havemeyer, or even make a spirited run for the hometown fans; in fact, he got his teeth kicked in, like many of his peers, and failed to qualify for match play. But, as Knapp put it, while he was in the prime of his career, strangely, “I was just satisfied to be there.”
At the time, Knapp couldn’t have imagined he’d get a second crack at this national championship on Oakmont’s hallowed turf. In his mind, he had a single chance to qualify for what would likely be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“So, I had this inordinate amount of pressure to make it,” Knapp explained. “The singular thought of having a career and then the one time that the Amateur would be in your backyard and not to make it, that would’ve left a void. … And then when I made it, it was almost a letdown to go play. It doesn’t make sense, but that’s just the way it was. I put so much effort into making it, and I just felt like it would be such a tragedy [to not qualify], that when I made it, it was tough to get back up for it.”
O’Brien, albeit decades younger than Knapp, can already relate to the effect of Oakmont’s magnitude. The 26-year-old, who moved to Pittsburgh in the sixth grade, played collegiately at Seton Hall. “Disappointing college career,” O’Brien admits, but Oakmont has always managed to bring out his best.
In high school, he shot his first bogey-free round ever to qualify for the 2014 Pennsylvania State Amateur there, and in the tournament, he lipped out a potential hole-in-one on the sixth hole and drained a seemingly 100-foot eagle putt on the ninth. Seven years later, after several years away from competitive golf while working in the investment and energy industries, he birdied the final hole of his qualifier at Morraine Country Club in Dayton, Ohio – his first national tournament since college – to earn the last spot into this year’s championship, the sixth U.S. Amateur that Oakmont will have hosted.
“It’s always been my favorite course,” O’Brien exclaimed. “Something about this course and me, I’ve always kind of showed up when I see Oakmont circled on the calendar.”
In many ways, like Knapp felt in 2003, just having a spot in the field is a crowning achievement for O’Brien. The path to a USGA-championship tee time included nearly a dozen unsuccessful tries since high school, between qualifiers for the U.S. Amateur, U.S. Open and U.S. Junior. Now living in Findlay, Ohio, and a member at both Findlay Country Club and another vaunted USGA stop in Inverness Club, O’Brien has rededicated himself to competitive golf – he even linked up again with his old coach, Kevin Shields – though finding balance has been slightly tougher. He had to withdraw when his U.S. Open local qualifier bled into a second day earlier this summer because of work obligations.
The hard work, however, has final paid off with, as O’Brien calls it, the cherry on top: He’ll hit the first tee ball Monday morning at Longue Vue Club, the stroke-play co-host, before moving over to Oakmont on Tuesday, and he’ll do so in front of dozens of family and friends, including his mother, Cathy, who lives in nearby Cranberry Township.
“My family has always loved Oakmont,” O’Brien said. “We’ve had some cool moments here. Just to be in this tournament, and to do it this year, is really just unbelievable and a little surreal.
“We’ve been beaming all week [leading up to this], between smiles and tears.”
Both are likely to continue because O’Brien’s USGA debut is equally as emotional as it is special. O’Brien will be staying in his caddie and former high-school teammate Colton Fedell’s guesthouse this week, the same accommodations he had last winter while his father, Patrick, was in hospice care.
After a four-year battle with cancer, Patrick O’Brien died this past February.
“A super guy, touched a lot of people,” O’Brien said, “and missed every day.”
O’Brien especially feels his dad’s absence on the golf course. Patrick, a former college soccer player, could barely break 100 himself, but as his son’s biggest fan and supporter, he was a plus-handicap. One time when Kevin was in high school, Patrick was invited through his work to play Oakmont with PGA Tour player Cameron Percy, but he passed on the opportunity, instead gifting his spot to his son.
“That was the first time I played it,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien now marks his golf ball with his dad’s first initial. When he lines up putts or tees the ball up, he makes sure the ‘P’ is right where the center of the club face is supposed to make contact with the ball. For O’Brien, it’s a constant reminder to not just strike the ball correctly but also to have fun.
“One of things my dad always harped on was how tough I would be on myself, and he always wanted me to just do my best and enjoy it,” O’Brien said. “I always felt like I had some unfinished business or lack of achievement in my college career, and a lot of that was me being pretty hard on myself … and stepping away and not playing as much right after school, I realized just how much I love the game and how much I love competing. … I realized I wanted to give it a shot again.”
Knapp competes these days with a heavy dose of perspective, as well. His oldest daughter, 27-year-old Kensey, followed in her dad’s footsteps by looping multiple seasons at Oakmont while still in school, and she’s been on the bag for her pops for some of his biggest tournaments. When Sean won the U.S. Senior Amateur and received exemptions into the U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor and U.S Amateur at Pebble Beach the next year, Kensey drew caddie duties both times.
However, in December 2018, before her final semester at Penn State, Kensey was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“It’s like any parent, you say, ‘Why not me?’ … Here’s this kid who is 24 years old and has her whole future ahead of her,” Sean said back at the 2019 U.S. Senior Open, where Kensey returned to the bag with her cancer in remission.
Kensey will once again put on the caddie bib at this week’s U.S. Amateur. In Sean’s mind, he’ll have one of the best caddies out there.
“It’s not ceremonial,” Sean said. “She knows what she’s doing.”
One could say the same for Sean. The veteran Knapp has been around the block more than a few times, but he’s remained relevant in elite amateur golf by putting a permanent senior career on hold. Yes, he plays in the big senior events, but he’s still constantly sharpening his skills against the professional stars of tomorrow.
He belongs to Hannastown Golf Club in Greensburg, about a half-hour from Oakmont. The cozy, golf-focused club boasts many skilled amateurs as members, including three others in this week’s field – Palmer Jackson, Jim Meyers and Mark Goetz.
“At my age, yes, you’ve got to stay in shape, practice and have that support at work and at home,” Knapp said, “but you’ve also got to get in an environment where you’re competing against these young guys so you have a level of belief that you can compete. Even if it’s maybe a 1-in-100 thing; it’s a dream that one time you do it. … There’s going to come a time where I’m going to have to back off, but to this point that’s been the formula that’s dragged me along.”
Knapp qualified for a second U.S. Amateur at Oakmont out of Sunnehanna Country Club, which annually hosts one of the premier summer amateur tournaments. He’s a realist; he knows, on many days, he may not have the game anymore to make what he calls “the toughest cut in golf.”
But he’s going to give it his best shot and use the home-cooking to his advantage. (The first U.S. Amateur winner at Oakmont, in 1919, was Davidson Herron, who used to sell lemonade as a kid from his parents home, which was located just across the street from the club, and went on to beat Bobby Jones in the final.)
“I’m trying to have a little bit different mentality this time [compared to 2003], for whatever that’s worth,” Knapp said. “I’m trying to focus on that it just isn’t enough to make it. … I know it’s a long shot to make match play, but I’m going to enjoy it.”
As long as O’Brien remembers his Sharpie, he won’t forget to savor the moment, either. He’s faced – and admittedly wilted under – the pressure throughout his golf career. But when it came time to punch his U.S. Amateur ticket last month, he was unusually patient. Having not looked at the leaderboard for 35 holes, O’Brien finally glanced at his position as he walked up to mark a 15-foot birdie putt at Morraine’s ninth hole, his last. Needing to hole the downhiller to avoid a playoff, O’Brien told his caddie, ‘I’m going to make this thing,’ and he then lined up his ball, struck the ‘P’ perfectly and drained it.
O’Brien let out a yell and pumped his fist before minutes later retreating away to a quiet range.
“One of the first times that I cried since my dad passed,” O’Brien said. “All day I knew I was nervous and was in a big spot to qualify for a tournament that I would give anything to play in, and I told myself to play in a way that would make him proud and the result doesn’t really matter.
“I’d never really pulled through in a moment like that, and without that mental boost, without him on my shoulder there, I don’t think any of that is insignificant.”
There will be 312 competitors tee it up in this 121st U.S. Amateur, 11 with ties to the Pittsburgh area.
For all of them, it’s an important week.
For most of them, it’s a career highlight.
For at least two of them, it’s everything.
