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.
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.
“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.”
