Golf

Qualifying too tough? Try a pairing with Wie

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published May 27, 2006

Rick Hartmann will go from anonymous club pro to sweating in the national spotlight when he tees it up against Michelle Wie.

Hartmann, 47, will be in a threesome with the teenager aiming to make history in the U.S. Open qualifier at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, N.J.

The 16-year-old Wie will attempt to become the first woman to qualify for the U.S. Open. The qualifying starts June 5.

"What did I do?" Hartmann said. "Why does Rick Hartmann want to play with Michelle Wie? There are 150 (players). There was no way I thought I was going to be put in her group."

Hartmann, club pro at the Atlantic Golf Club in the ritzy Hamptons section of Eastern Long Island, won the Met Open and the New York State Open. Although never nationally prominent, his biggest day on stage was playing in the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

USGA executive director David Fay chose Hartmann and David Gossett for the Wie pairing, according to Marty Parkes, the USGA's senior director of communications. They were selected because of their experience playing in big events in front of large crowds.

"We didn't want someone who would not be able to deal with the situation," Parkes said.

Gossett won the U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach in 1999, shot 59 at Q-school a year later and won the John Deere Classic in 2001, the first player since Tiger Woods to win a PGA Tour event on a sponsor's exemption. "Certainly, there will be a lot of media attention," Gossett said Friday after missing the cut at the St. Jude Classic. "My focus is to go out there, do what I need to do to qualify for the U.S. Open. That's why we're qualifying. Obviously, she's going to try to do the same thing and create quite a stir."

The good-natured Hartmann has no idea how many people will come to Canoe Brook to watch Wie try to make history, but he expects a lot.

"The good news is that the shots I miss won't go far," Hartmann said. "It's going to be some kind of circus. It might be wild."

The last 24 hours at his club have given him a taste of what's to come. Club manager Jim Matthers gave Hartmann a dress to wear in case Wie outdrove him.

"I'm not going to wear it," Hartmann said, adding that he is "fairly longish" off the tee.

[Last modified May 27, 2006, 01:46:14]