CHASKA, Minnesota — As Jimmy Ellis began hitting his shots on the range at Hazeltine National on Saturday morning before his second U.S. Amateur, he noticed something odd about the gap wedge that had just had its shaft replaced. The new shaft was a half-inch longer than his pitching wedge.
His successor caused a stir.
“You don’t see a lot of U-wedges at the US Am,” Ellis said of the 50-degree club he happened to have with him; he usually switches it out when he needs less spin, but now he had no choice.
Ellis got more strange looks when he stopped at the pro shop to buy gloves and Hazeltine-branded golf balls for his rounds. Even in the age of name, image and likeness, the 39-year-old country man from Atlantic Beach, Florida, has no direct line to the OEMs – or as Ellis bluntly puts it, “I don’t get free shit.”
At the beginning of the week, not many people knew the name Jimmy Ellis.
Two days into the 124th U.S. Amateur, everyone on the leaderboard is staring up at him.
Ellis shot a brilliant 61 for 9 under par on Tuesday at the co-host Chaska Town Course. He was one missed 30-foot eagle putt short of tying Billy Horschel’s USGA record (also at Chaska, at the 2006 U.S. Amateur). That put him at 10 under par and three shots ahead of the field midway through the afternoon wave. If he becomes the first mid-amateur to medal at the championship in 11 years, Ellis would be the top seed for match play, which begins Wednesday at Hazeltine.
More than an hour after signing his scoreboard, Ellis was still dazed.
“Blind squirrel, honestly,” Ellis said. “I really gave it my all today. I bet if we play this tournament 100 times, there’s no chance I’ll win a medal.”
So, not zero.
But if Ellis was a little taken aback, you couldn’t blame him. Nothing about his background suggested he could beat the likes of Luke Clanton and Gordon Sargent over 36 holes on USGA courses. Heck, Ellis beats 15-year-old Miles Russell, the top-ranked junior in the country, who plays so rarely at home at Atlantic Beach Country Club that Ellis makes Russell sign the scorecard afterward.
“I probably played with him 15 times … and I have Miles’ autograph,” Ellis said.
Ellis, who grew up in Pittsburgh, played a year of college golf on Florida’s Gulf Coast before transferring to Ohio University to finish his degree. After graduating, he began working in the oil and gas industry and could barely keep his clubs warm for years. That is, until the pandemic, when Ellis’ game took off.
He won the 2020 Pennsylvania Open, then the Pittsburgh Open and finally the Tri-State Amateur.
“It just kept going,” said Ellis, who climbed to No. 389 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings; this week he started his sixth USGA Championship at No. 783.
Last August, Ellis and his family (wife Erin and children Palmer, 7, and Lila, 4) moved from Pennsylvania. With no particular destination in mind, the Ellises drove up the East Coast, visiting one city after another until they found a place they loved.
They ended up in Atlantic Beach, a “cool little hippie surfer town,” as Ellis calls it.
As a newly minted Florida Man, Ellis was quick to make a name for himself on the state’s golf scene. In June, he won the Florida State Amateur, shooting 64 (his best tournament score until Tuesday) and earning an exemption into the 312-player field at Hazeltine, where he arrived last weekend with modest expectations.
“Just try to sneak in and try to beat a big name; that would be cool,” Ellis said. “It’s just weird. I mean, I might not win my club championship, honestly.”
The last mid-amateur to win the U.S. Amateur was John Harris in 1993.
What are the chances that Ellis can end this 31-year drought?
It is not zero.
