Eight hours after he left the Stillwater Medical Center, where he was treated for a high fever and migraine headache, Alabama junior golfer Hunter Hamrick teed off Tuesday afternoon in the NCAA Championships at Stillwater, Okla.
Imagine what he would have shot if he had been healthy.
Hamrick shot a 1-under par 71 to help put Alabama in third place after the first round.
"I would go to war with that guy," Alabama coach Jay Seawell said of Hamrick. "Trey (Mullinax) got off to a horrible start, and we didn't know if Hunter could go or how many holes he could get in. I wasn't sure if he could go 18 holes. For Hunter to go out there and shoot 1-under par, for as bad as he felt, I am very proud of him."
Fellow junior Bud Cauley began his last hurrah as a college golfer with a 2-under-par 70, and that combined with Hamrick's toughness got third-ranked Alabama off to a good start.
But second-ranked UCLA was better, and fourth-ranked Georgia Tech was the best.
Alabama shot an even-par 288 in the first round on the par-72, 7,416-yard Karsten Creek course. That put the Crimson Tide five shots behind Georgia Tech and two shots behind UCLA.
Playing on its home course, top-ranked Oklahoma State is in eighth place at 4-over-par, nine shots out of the lead.
The six-day event features three rounds of stroke play, after which the 30-team field will be cut to the top eight for three days of match play.
Cauley had five birdies and three bogeys.
"I played well," said the Jacksonville, Fla., native, who will turn pro next week. "I made some birdies. I hit a couple bad shots and made some bogeys, but that is going to happen out here. I just tried to make sure I did not make any doubles and then see if I could hit the fairway and score."
But Cauley was upstaged by Hamrick's performance. The Montgomery native had four birdies and three bogeys.
He was at the hospital from 11 p.m. until 4:30 a.m., then teed off at 12:40 p.m.
"I don't feel good," Hamrick said after the round. "I went last night and got some treatment, and that took a while. I didn't get much sleep. I felt better on the back nine. The front nine was kind of a struggle. I drank a lot of fluids, and I think the medicine was finally kicking in."
Hamrick said he worked his illness to his advantage.
"It just allowed me to play one shot at a time, which is what you have to do on a golf course this hard," he said. "I was just taking a step at a time, and that helped me play well. I couldn't get ahead of myself. I couldn't think about anything but moving along and hitting the next shot."
Hamrick said he had a sore throat last week and started battling the migraine four days ago.
"The migraine escalated into body aches and a fever," he said. "When I checked into the hospital last night, I had a 102 fever. When I came out this morning, I had a fever and it was hot. I think it broke on the back nine, because I was able to cool down a little on the back nine."
Freshmen Cory Whitsett and Bobby Wyatt each had an eagle to highlight solid rounds.
Whitsett had two birdies and five bogeys, but his eagle 3 on the par-5, 623-yard ninth hole, the last hole of his round, capped a one-over-par 71. With a hybrid club, he stroked his second shot within 7 feet of the cup and sank the putt.
Wyatt, a Mobile native, eagled the par-5 18th hole, the ninth hole of his round. That, combined with a birdie and five bogeys, added up to a 2-over-par 72.
Mullinax, a freshman from Gardendale, started his round with a 9 on the par-4 10th hole and went on to finish with a 12-over 84. Only a team's top four scores count each day.
one day, not too far away, this kid is going to make me famous.
where there is {strength} in love,
there is art.
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