Justin Hastings made history at the U.S. Open this week by becoming the first person from the Cayman Islands to make the cut at the major tournament – but he walked away empty-handed
Justin Hastings missed out at the U.S. Open despite making the cut(Image: Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
Justin Hastings made history as the first golfer from the Cayman Islands to make the cut at the U.S. Open.
However, his amateur status in the sport meant that he will walk away from Oakmont Country Club with no financial gain. Hastings was one of 15 amateur golfers who teed off at the major tournament this past weekend, and he was the only one to sneak past the 7-over cut line and compete in the final two rounds of the U.S Open.
The young golfer opened with three consecutive rounds of 73 in his first U.S. Open start, and joined many other famous faces to struggle through the weather conditions at Oakmont over the weekend.
The tournament paused for a lengthy period on Sunday due to heavy rain, with golfers ordered off the fairways for a whopping one hour and 40 minutes. Following this, Hastings returned to the greens and ended up tied-55th overall after the final round.
The 21-year-old finished the weekend at 15-over, above the likes of former Open Championship winner Brian Harman, ex-Rookie of the Year Im Sung-Jae and Australian PGA star Cam Davis.
Justin Hastings did receive low amateur honors, but no cash prize(Image: Warren Little/Getty Images)
Hastings’ performance earned him low amateur honors but he failed to cash in on his achievement. U.S Open winner J.J. Spaun – who sank a 64-foot putt to claim his first major tournament win – collects 750 FedExCup points and a grand prize of $4.3million to add to his bank account.
But despite missing out on any potential financial gain, Hastings isn’t letting it dampen his spirits.
Speaking after the tournament concluded, the young golfer said: “It was such a treat just to be able to play in the U.S. Open and then let alone have the success to be able to call yourself low amateur, it’s something I’ll hold onto for the rest of my life.
Justin Hastings had an impressive performance at the U.S. Open this weekend(Image: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
“I think I’ve said it coming off the course every day, there’s been a lot of good. There’s been a lot of good. Today I played a very similar round to the ones I did the first three days and just had no luck on the putting green.”
Speaking about his biggest lesson learned at Oakmont, Hastings added: “I think it’s just a lot of reassuring things that I’ve known/thought about myself for a while, and that is that I can compete out here with my good golf game — when my golf game’s good is what I mean.
“Yeah, I think I was just reaffirmed that, when I have my golf game, I can kind of compete out here. That’s something I’m going to take with me in the future, and hopefully I’ll be out here sooner rather than later.”
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