CHASKA, Minn. – Cinderella has returned to the ball.
And thus far, Paul Chang is among the belles.
Chang was an unranked membership golfer when he practically superior to the quarterfinals of final summer season’s U.S. Novice at Cherry Hills, pushing eventual semifinalist J.M. Butler to further holes earlier than the clock struck midnight. Now, the 23-year-old College of Virginia senior has a season of varsity golf underneath his belt, sits 97th within the World Novice Golf Rating, and on Monday at Chaska City Course, he fired a 6-under 64 to seize a share lead in his second U.S. Novice.
“Final 12 months, I didn’t really feel like I belonged right here in any respect,” Chang stated. “I used to be testing the waters, didn’t know who’s who. … This 12 months undoubtedly feels totally different.”
Chang’s main first-round scorecard featured 4 2’s – three on par-3s and an eagle on the 318-yard, par-4 sixteenth gap, the place Chang drove the inexperienced after which rolled in a 40-footer. For Chang, it was a little bit of déjà vu. In opposition to Butler final 12 months, Chang holed out for an eagle on Cherry Hills’ sixteenth gap.
“It’s been an interesting story,” Virginia head coach Bowen Sargent stated throughout Chang’s breakout.
It’s solely gotten higher.
To catch you up: Chang was born in China, attended boarding college in England and didn’t get critical about golf till taking a niche 12 months after highschool. He utilized to some U.S. faculties earlier than enrolling in a computer-science program at Virginia. Previous to beginning courses, he emailed Sargent to ask about becoming a member of the Cavaliers’ crew, solely to learn {that a} spot wouldn’t be that straightforward. For 2 years, Chang practiced at Virginia’s residence course, usually driving a rental scooter from his residence, and after he’d play a match, he’d e-mail the consequence to Sargent. The persistence, nonetheless, didn’t repay till Chang certified for his first U.S. Novice final summer season; Sargent occurred to be recruiting a high-schooler in Chang’s group, and as soon as Chang certified, Sargent known as him into his workplace the following morning to supply him a walk-on spot.
Chang adopted his magical week at Cherry Hills by handing over arguably probably the most constant fall season of any Virginia participant, together with Walker Cupper Ben James. Chang notched two top-10s and didn’t end worse than T-16 in 4 begins. However that’s when Chang began, as he describes it, “experimenting with a whole lot of the mistaken issues.”
He switched out of the JumboMax grips he had performed for 2 years.
He tried to treatment his hook tendency by ditching his draw and hitting a steep reduce, solely to then develop a two-way miss.
He went by way of a number of putters.
The bottom level for Chang was capturing 81 within the second spherical and ultimately beating simply 4 gamers at Virginia’s residence match final April. He wouldn’t journey for the remainder of the spring, not even because the sixth man for the postseason.
“That actually affected his confidence,” Sargent stated. “With Birdwood being his residence course and that being the primary alternative he needed to play at residence, he was anticipating probability to contend. I believe taking part in so poorly actually set him again. It’s good to see him bounce again and have summer season.”
Chang has had a busy previous couple months, taking part in 4 Elite Novice Collection occasions previous to the U.S. Novice. He tied for ninth on the Northeast and completed simply exterior the highest 25 on the Sunnehanna. Chang missed cuts in his most up-to-date begins, on the Southern and Western amateurs, however he has since ditched his newest experiment: arm-lock placing.
Again to a conventional blade with a pistol grip, Chang rolled in six whole birdies to associate with his eagle bomb on Monday. Now, he’s tasked with taking up the harder of the 2 stroke-play hosts, Hazeltine Nationwide, on Tuesday.
Of the 22 scores of three underneath or higher in Spherical 1, simply three – 69s by Calum Scott, James Ashfield and Sohan Patel – had been recorded on Hazeltine. Chang’s 64 was equaled by Ole Miss junior Tom Fischer, who eagled his closing gap, Chaska’s par-5 ninth. Among the many opponents at 4 underneath are mid-amateur Evan Beck, Arizona State’s Michael Mjaaseth, Louisville’s Cooper Claycomb and UNLV’s Caden Fioroni.
Fioroni is aware of lots about Chang; he misplaced to him within the Spherical of 64 final 12 months.
He’s actually not alone.
