CHASKA, Minn. – The primary time Noah Kent performed Seminole Golf Membership was with legendary golf professional Bob Ford. Kent was 16 years outdated, simply sufficiently old to earn a tee time on the venerable Donald Ross format, and he made an instantaneous impression.
“He drives the primary inexperienced,” stated Kent’s stepfather, course designer Dana Fry, who was a part of the foursome that day.
Ford later put his arm round Fry whereas strolling down the sixteenth fairway and provided a easy piece of recommendation, “Don’t let anyone mess with this child.”
Influenced and mentored by titans from all corners of the sport, Kent reworked from a pure expertise into one of many final two males standing at this 124th U.S. Beginner.
“You’re employed so exhausting for issues like this,” stated Kent, who will face Spain’s Josele Ballester in Sunday’s ultimate at Hazeltine Nationwide, “and for it to truly occur is loopy.”
Simply seconds after Saturday afternoon’s semifinal victory, Kent was overcome by emotion. Tears flowing, he was then mobbed by a wave of backers simply off the 18th inexperienced – Fry; his mom, Trisha; his dad, David, and his spouse, Ashley; and over a dozen extra family members and buddies, lots of them carrying Hawkeye-yellow Caitlin Clark shirts that had been flown in from Iowa Metropolis that morning.
“The in a single day success and the breakthrough, it takes a number of hours to make it,” David Kent stated. “He has an unmatched circle of help to drive him to the place he’s proper now. This can be a exceptional achievement, however it’s not a shock. He’s had it inside the entire time. It’s his time, and it’s been a blessing and a privilege to look at your entire household rally round him.”
Fry began relationship Trisha when Noah was 9 years outdated. As an introduction, Fry invited Noah for a spherical at Calusa Pines, a course Fry helped design in Kent’s hometown of Naples, Florida. Subsequent factor younger Noah knew, he was having a chipping contest with six-time PGA Tour winner Rocco Mediate.
At age 13, Noah met Rory McIlroy through the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills. A number of months later, they reconnected at a TaylorMade shoot at Shelter Harbor in Charleston, Rhode Island, and upon returning residence, an impressed Kent knowledgeable his mother and father he was quitting hockey.
“He tells his mother and I, ‘I’ve determined all I’m going to do is play golf, I’m going to play on the PGA Tour, and I’m going to win,’” Fry recalled. “And after that, each evening for 2 or three years, you’d stroll by his room, and he’d have his iPad out and all you’ll hear is the sound of a man hitting a golf ball.”
It was McIlroy who taught Kent find out how to generate energy along with his small body, merely pointing to his legs when requested how McIlroy turned one of many Tour’s longest drivers. When Kent grew almost a foot over three years of highschool – he’s now 6-foot-5 – he hit it thus far that he needed to rein in his pace with assist from famend teacher Claude Harmon III, who was first on Fry’s checklist of swing coaches who wouldn’t mess up the promising teenager.
Kent switched to digital faculty through the pandemic so he might spend extra time at Naples Nationwide working towards and taking part in, typically with the “Wolfpack,” a bunch the place the typical age sits within the mid-60s. He additionally counts a trio of U.S. Beginner champions as mentors: John Cook dinner, who’s on the Golf Channel broadcast this week; Jay Sigel, a nine-time Walker Cupper; and John Harris, nonetheless the final mid-amateur to win this championship when he did so in 1993 at age 41.
“He all the time jokes that his finest buddies are all of their 60s and 70s,” Fry stated.
That village took Noah to the College of Iowa, the place he’s coming into his sophomore season. Hawkeyes coach Tyler Stith remembers when Kent arrived on campus as a freshman, simply getting over a damaged proper wrist that shelved him for 11 weeks. The staff’s massive intrasquad match, which pits the upperclassmen versus the youthful guys, was approaching, and Kent needed Iowa’s finest participant, fifth-year senior and two-time Massive Ten particular person champion Mac McClear.
Kent beat McClear – twice.
On Tuesday evening, Stith texted Kent, who had simply certified for match play at Hazeltine, and challenged him:
Once you’re mendacity in mattress tonight, create a picture of somebody you wouldn’t need to face. … I’m imagining somebody who doesn’t beat themselves, performs their very own recreation, and will get up and down all day lengthy. How about you?
Tomorrow that particular person is you.
Kent responded: I’m that particular person is true. I think about that one that performed McClear … and waxed him.
This was the textual content that @IowaHawkeyeGolf coach Tyler Stith despatched to Noah Kent earlier than match play.
When Noah was a freshman, he requested to play a fifth-year senior who was twice a Massive Ten champ, Mac McClear, in a fall intrasquad occasion. He beat him in each matches. pic.twitter.com/UorJiSZwAo
— Brentley Romine (@BrentleyGC) August 17, 2024
That fearless freshman confirmed up once more Saturday as Kent bought the perfect of Buchanan, a rising Illinois senior and the reigning Massive Ten Participant of the 12 months. A day after carding six birdies and an eagle in his first 12 holes, Kent needed to grind this one out. Clinging to a 1-up lead, Kent yanked his second shot right into a nasty lie on the par-5 fifteenth. After Buchanan drained a 25-footer for birdie, Kent canned a 15-footer on high of him to tie the opening.
“I don’t know what it’s with me, I like every time the stress will get actually excessive,” Kent stated. “I’ve been feeling it the entire week. … It was similar to one other out-of-body expertise to see it go within the gap, and the momentum stayed with me.”
On the subsequent, the troublesome par-4 sixteenth, Buchanan, who hit simply two fairways all match, hooked his drive towards the creek, watching his ball strike a spectator and ricochet into the water.
“What else goes to occur to me at the moment?” Buchanan bemoaned as he approached his submerged ball.
Minutes later, he was 2 down.
Buchanan bought in hassle once more on No. 18, discovering a left fairway bunker off the tee after which catching the lip along with his strategy. Kent then stuffed one from the golf green and was conceded the match earlier than Buchanan even made it to the inexperienced.
“It’s simple to surrender on this recreation, and I didn’t,” Buchanan stated. “I’ll take that with me once I depart.”
Kent scooped up his ball, took off his hat and shook Buchanan’s hand – after which all of it hit him directly. Kent has performed all around the world and on among the recreation’s most cherished cathedrals. However now, he had clinched the proper to compete in subsequent summer time’s U.S. Open at Oakmont, the place Ford additionally was a longtime professional, and will quickly count on an invitation to Augusta Nationwide for subsequent spring’s Masters Event as nicely.
He used to battle with confidence, however not anymore.
“It’s all up right here in my coronary heart,” stated Kent, who simply shrugs off that No. 560 rating on the planet newbie rankings, which is able to certainly surge. “I’ve far more competitiveness. I really feel like I’ve much more perception in myself, and I’ve much more drive to need to get the place I need to go.”
Earlier than Kent met Sigel, Fry requested his stepson, not but in highschool, what his objectives in newbie golf have been. Kent responded: “Win the U.S. Beginner and make the U.S. Walker Cup staff.”
Although a win Sunday wouldn’t earn an automated berth, Kent already has the eye of captain Nathan Smith, who will lead the Individuals into Cypress Level subsequent summer time.
Harris has the 2025 Walker Cup circled on his calendar, too. Harris, a Minnesota native, couldn’t make it to Hazeltine as he’s presently present process remedy for leukemia. He stated that whereas not in remission, he did obtain some excellent news from his docs a pair weeks in the past and that “restoration is coming.”
However for now, Harris must watch from afar.
“I’m sitting on the sting of my chair,” Harris stated Saturday by way of telephone. “Noah is aware of who he’s, he understands what he’s doing, and if I’m a little bit motivation – I’ve stated to him, ‘I’m so comfortable watching this golf. I’m so dissatisfied I’m not at Hazeltine cheering for you, however I’m there.’ And he feels it.”
And sees it.
Kent has stored Harris on his thoughts this week by writing Harris’ initials on his golf glove. J.H., it’s the very last thing Kent sees earlier than he hits a shot.
And it’s a reminder that he’s not alone.