CHASKA, Minn. – When Jimmy Ellis began taking swings on the range Saturday morning at Hazeltine National ahead of his second U.S. Amateur, he noticed something peculiar about the gap wedge he’d just had re-shafted. The new shaft was a half-inch longer than his pitching wedge.
His replacement turned a few heads.
“You don’t see a lot of U-wedges at the U.S. Am,” Ellis said of the 50-degree club he just happened to have with him; he usually swaps it in should he need less spin, only now he had no choice.
Ellis caught more strange looks when he stopped in the pro shop to buy some Hazeltine-logoed gloves and golf balls for his rounds. Even in the age of name, image and likeness, the 39-year-old landman from Atlantic Beach, Florida, doesn’t have a direct line to the OEMs – or as Ellis says, bluntly, “I don’t get free s---.”
Not many knew the name Jimmy Ellis to start the week.
Two days into this 124th U.S. Amateur, everyone is staring up at him on the leaderboard.
Ellis fired a blistering 9-under 61 Tuesday at co-host Chaska Town Course, a missed 30-foot eagle putt away from matching Billy Horschel’s USGA record (also at Chaska, at the 2006 U.S. Amateur), to capture medalist honors at 10 under. The first mid-amateur to medal at this championship in 11 years, Ellis earned the top seed for match play, which begins Wednesday at Hazeltine. He will play the 64th seed, to be determined Wednesday morning in a 14-for-11 playoff.
More than an hour after signing his scorecard, Ellis was still in a blur.
“Blind squirrel, honestly,” Ellis said. “I really made everything today. I bet if we play this tournament 100 times, there’s zero-percent chance I’d be the medalist.”
Well, not zero.
But if Ellis was a little baffled, it was hard to fault him. Nothing about his background indicated he could better the likes of Luke Clanton and Gordon Sargent over 36 holes on USGA setups. Heck, Ellis beats 15-year-old Miles Russell, the country’s top-ranked junior, so infrequently back home at Atlantic Beach Country Club that Ellis has Russell sign the scorecard afterward.
“I’ve probably played with him 15 times … and I’ve got one Miles autograph,” Ellis said.
Ellis, who grew up in Pittsburgh, played college golf at Florida Gulf Coast for a year before transferring to Ohio University to finish school. He started working in the oil-and-gas industry upon graduation, barely keeping his sticks warm for years. That is, until the pandemic, when Ellis’ game took off.
He won the 2020 Pennsylvania Open, then the Pittsburgh Open, then the Tri-State Amateur.
“It just kept going and going,” said Ellis, who climbed as high as No. 389 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking; he entered his sixth USGA championship this week at No. 783.
Last August, Ellis and his family (wife, Erin, and kids, 7-year-old Palmer and 4-year-old Lila) moved from Pennsylvania. With no desired destination in mind, the Ellises drove down the east coast, dropping into city after city until they found a place they loved.
They ended up in Atlantic Beach, a “cool, little, hippy, surfer town,” Ellis calls it.
As a newly minted Florida Man, Ellis then wasted little time making his mark on the state’s golf scene. He captured the Florida State Amateur back in June, closing in 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 and sneak into match play and try to upset some big name; that would be the cool thing,” Ellis said. “This is 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 that 31-year spell?
It’s not zero.