A Bushel Of Quiet: That's Peck

By Ken Klavon, USGA

Shoal Creek, Ala. – There is nothing razzmatazz about Cameron Peck.

Attention-seeker he’s not. Want a classic sound byte? Forget it. Heck, silent screen star Charlie Chaplin comes across as more vociferous than the 17-year-old U.S. Junior Amateur champion from Olympia, Wash.

“Want to see something quirky about him,” said his mother, Misun Peck, during a steady downpour shortly before Peck won on the 28th hole. “No umbrella. He hates umbrellas.”

The nerve.

“In Washington, today would be a pretty nice day. It wasn’t cold,” said Peck.

And most players would have walked to the sidelines to wait it out the wetness.

Cameron Peck follows his ball toward the ninth green Saturday. (Steven Gibbons/USGA)

OK, there is more to the reserved Peck than meets the eye. He loves snowboarding and participates in the winter just to take a break from golf. He does a hysterical Tiger Woods impersonation, friends say. Other than that, he’s a normal teenager who hangs out with friends, attends movies and plays laser tag.

Maybe he picked up some pointers from the latter because opponent Evan Beck had a bulls-eye as big as a mountain on him Saturday. Peck’s marksmanship was spot on in setting a U.S. Junior Amateur record, namely the most lopsided victory in the championship’s history.

All he does is play championship-caliber golf. Rain or shine. There was plenty of rain, too. By the lunch break, more than a quarter-inch saturated the course. When the two competitors started the afternoon 18, the match turned into a shower jamboree.

Judging by the statistics, a completely soaked Peck just played on. Through his final 10 holes, when the rains were firm, he nailed six of eight fairways and missed just one green. In other words, he made it extremely difficult for Beck, the 17-year-old kid from Virginia Beach, Va., who nabbed the second-to-last spot in the championship as an alternate. It didn’t help matters that Beck struggled all day off the tee. He consistently hooked the ball, finding himself in fairway bunkers or rough, hitting only nine of 22 fairways.

“It still kind of stings but I made it to the finals and that’s pretty good,” said Beck. “I started slow and he never let up.”

Peck took a comfortable 6-up lead into the break. As he made his way to the first hole to begin the second 18, Shoal Creek member Taylor Hughes, who served as his caddie, told Peck that all he needed to do was win every other hole. He instead won four of the 10. Mission accomplished.

Hughes said he most admired Peck’s ability to concentrate. Any funny stories, quips during the week? Nope, Hughes said. Peck just focused.

Gaston De La Torre made it to the round of 16 and decided to hang around just in case Peck advanced to the final. De La Torre, 17, has known Peck since he’s been 11. He’s also opposed him many times in junior tournaments. He said what you see with Peck is what you get.

“That’s the thing about Cameron,” said De La Torre of Brush Prairie, Wash., during the second weather delay Saturday. “He’s not real emotional. He does get frustrated when he’s not playing well, but today he is playing well.”

In golf, any instructor worth his salt will say that harnessing emotion can’t be taught. It’s more instinctual or within the player.

Peck might have learned that when his grandfather, Richard Yi, placed a sawed-off club in his hands at 5. Peck would accompany the golf-smitten Yi to the driving range with it and hit balls. At 8, he played in his first competitive event, a Washington Junior Golf Association tournament and finished second. He progressed at a rapid rate, becoming one of the country’s top juniors.

Peck was so good that when last year’s champion, Cory Whitsett, lost in the first round, he predicted Peck would win. That assessment seemed to stump and flatter Peck when told.

Except for uttering later that “this will probably be the biggest victory of my life,” Peck was pretty much speechless.

That’s because, as he showed, he lets his game do the talking on the course.

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