“This is your time to hit a winning shot. Go get it.”
These are the words that Tyler Strafaci’s said to himself on the 36th hole in the final of the U.S. Amateur Championship.
Strafaci was right, it was his time.
He grabbed 4-iron from 246 yards and hit it to 25 feet to set up a two-putt birdie. Minutes later, Strafaci raised the Havemeyer Trophy at the 120th U.S. Amateur Championship at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, rallying from an early 5-down deficit to defeat Ollie Osborne, 1 up, in the 36-hole championship match.
“That was the first time in my life where I told myself you’re going to hit a winning shot, but I actually hit a winning golf shot when it mattered the most under the most pressure in amateur golf,” Strafaci said. “I’ve done it a bunch of times back home, and I knew I could execute it, and I trusted myself, and I did it.”
The Davie native became the first Florida Junior Tour alumni and the fourth Georgia Tech golfer to
to win the U.S. Amateur Championship. He is the second member of his family to win a USGA championship, joining his grandfather, Frank, who won the 1935 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship.
Entering match play as the No. 41 seed, Strafaci picked up five wins on his way to the championship match, with three of those matches finishing on the 18th hole. In the championship match, the fifth-year Georgia Tech senior found himself 5 down to Osborne in the morning 18. Strafaci bounced back, winning four of the final six holes, to finish the morning round 1 down.
“You know everyone in a match is going to have those nine holes where they just kick your [butt]”, Strafaci said. “It’s just going to happen, you just don’t know when it’s going to come. I’ve come back from that before, so I knew I was playing good enough.”
Strafaci continued his strong play in the afternoon round, making a 30-foot birdie on the 20th hole to tie the match. He took his first lead of the match on the 25th hole, converting an 18-footer for birdie. Osborne tied the match back up with a birdie on the 31st, but Strafaci eagled the next hole from eight feet to pull back in front, before extending his lead to two with a par on the next hole.
With Strafaci finding the fairway bunker off the tee on the 34th and the penalty area on 35th hole, Osborne battled back with two birdies to tie the match up yet again.
The two headed to the 18th hole for the second time that day. With both players in the fairway, Strafaci executed the shot of his life to secure the clutch finish.
With this win at the U.S. Amateur, Strafaci recevies an exemption into the 2021 U.S. Open, a berth in the 2021 Open Championship and a likely invitation to the 2021 Masters Tournament. He will also get a spot on the United States team for the 2021 Walker Cup next May at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla., not far from his home. Something that had eluded his decorated grandfather.
“That’s why I always wanted to be the first Strafaci to make a Walker Cup,” Stracfi said. “It’s been a rough couple of years because I’ve been pretty close to it, and now that I’m on that team, I feel like I’ve made [my grandfather] proud, and I feel like it’s just unbelievable. I mean, it’s something I’ve dreamt about and something that my father has told me about, stories about my grandfather. So it’s awesome.”
His U.S. Amateur win comes just months after the Covid-19 pandemic cancelled the spring golf season and forced a change in his plans to turn professional. Strafaci made the decision to remain an amateur and return to Georgia Tech for a fifth year in 2020-21.
With this change of plans, he was left with one summer of amateur golf and he made the most of it. The 22 year old captured amateur golf’s most important victory on the heels of winning at the North & South Amateur and the Palmetto Amateur in July.
“These are very trying times, tough for every -- there’s not one person in this world that it hasn’t affected negatively, and it’s really tough,” Strafaci said. “I wanted to be one of the people that got through this and approached it with a positive outlook.”
The Strafaci family has deep ties to the Florida State Golf Association. Tyler began playing in FSGA events at the age of six and went on to win the Florida Boys’ Junior Championship, Florida Junior Match Play Championship and five Florida Junior Tour events. His father, Frank, is a past FSGA president and four-time FSGA champion, while his grandfather was the 1957 Florida Amateur champion.
“To do it here with him (dad), when I didn’t think I’d have another amateur tournament was something I’ll never forget. It’s just awesome,” Strafaci said on 18th green after the win.
