Sritart Gives Peck A Scare

By Ken Klavon, USGA

Shoal Creek, Ala. – When Boom Sritart lost his second-round match to Cameron Peck Thursday, he emerged from the 18th green to find out he took the nation’s top-ranked junior to the brink.

“I didn’t know that,” said Sritart, 17, of Keller, Texas, rather emphatically. “I didn’t know how high he was. That makes me feel a lot better. I thought I was playing another random kid.”

Sritart immediately became Peck’s biggest supporter, telling the 17-year-old Olympia, Wash., native that he “better go all the way and win this thing or I’m going to get back on an airplane from Texas and put a hurtin’ on you.”

To which Peck laughed and mom, Misun Peck, said merrily, “Thank you for making Cameron work so hard today.”

It often ends this way. The intensity of match play steps aside for sportsmanship and charm. Besides the Stanley Cup playoffs, is there any other sport that conveys graciousness via a handshake after such a contest?

On paper, the match wasn’t supposed to be this close. Peck has been a stalwart on the American Junior Golf Association circuit, and depending on national rankings, he’s been listed as the top junior in the country. Sritart, essentially competing in his first major junior tournament, created a “dogfight” atmosphere. More amazing is that Sritart qualified for the Junior Amateur just three days after going through what he called “boot camp” at the Jim McLean Golf Center in Ft. Worth, Texas.

“They would tell me, ‘You’re an idiot that can play golf,’” said Sritart poking fun at himself.

It was at the center that instructors overhauled every aspect of his swing. Everything he had learned in his five years of playing the game had to be tweaked. He said the physical breakdown of change was difficult because he had been set in his ways.

Sritart may have been a late-bloomer, but it’s not how he achieved the name Boom. His parents, David and Sunny, emigrated from Thailand for a better life. There is a saying that they “boomed up” when things weren’t looking so bleak. Sritart became a byproduct of that with the name they chose for him. He also has a younger brother named Bomb.

“I also hit hard and play golf hard,” laughed Sritart during lunch.

Peck found out firsthand. By the time the two were done, Peck had crafted a masterful 69 and Sritart a 70, with all the match play concessions.

No lead got bigger than 1 up. They played 13 holes all square.

“It went back and forth,” said Peck. “It makes it tough because you’re like, ‘OK, I’ve got to hit a good shot here.’”

Sritart caused Peck anxiety on the par-3 16th when he went 1 up. Peck’s shot off the tee went well left of the green and was saved a worse fate only when a tree knocked his ball down just outside of a greenside bunker. However, his only play was a short-side flop shot that ran to the other side of the green. In the meantime, Sritart finessed a 60-foot putt to within inches and Peck conceded the next putt

“I was getting nervous,” said Peck as he recounted his thoughts going to No. 17. “A little because I knew he was playing solid.”

Peck had a reversal of fate on No. 17 to even the match. The two competitors chose to lay up on the lengthy par 5, but Sritart smacked his wedge shot fat and the ball hopped over the green. Peck needed just a short pitch. Sritart couldn’t get up and down.

On the final hole, Sritart again was victimized by misfortune. His drive cut too much. The ball landed hard in a fairway bunker, more than half buried. He fired out but was 62 yards short of the green. Peck, meanwhile, found the green in two from the left rough 140 yards out, setting up a 24-foot birdie attempt. When Sritart missed a tricky uphill 20-footer for par, the two shook hands.

“After I found my ball was buried,” said Sritart, “I was like, ‘Geez, what can I do?’ I really nuked that ball. I hit the shot I needed. I gave myself the putt.”

Said Peck: “At that point, I just figured I’ve got to get on the green and make him make that up and down.”

So it ended with the player with high expectations moving on and the other, blown away by being “treated like a pro” this week, leaving Shoal Creek with the confidence that he can compete with the big dogs.

Not bad for a kid whose biggest victory came against a microscopic field in the Dallas Championship of Ft. Worth.

Ken Klavon is the USGA’s Editor of New Media. E-mail him with questions or comments at kklavon@usga.org.