Strickland Caps Off Week at SentryWorld With Low-Am Honors

You could say Mark Strickland found a comfortable routine this week at SentryWorld, eating at the same restaurant (Hilltop Pub and Grill) and ice cream parlor (Belts) during his stay in central Wisconsin. He got pretty comfortable on the course as well as one of two amateurs, from a field that started with 24, to make the cut in the 43rd U.S. Senior Open. A final-round 73 gave the San Diego, Calif., resident a 72-hole total of 12-over 296, good enough to earn low-amateur honors by eight strokes over Christian Raynor. This was Strickland’s 19th USGA championship dating back to the 1984 U.S. Junior Amateur at Wayzata (Minn.) Country Club. He was a quarterfinalist in the 1991 U.S. Amateur Public Links and advanced to the Round of 16 in the 2006 U.S. Amateur. By being low amateur, the golf cart salesman earned a spot in next year’s U.S. Senior Open at Newport (R.I.) Country Club as well as spots in this year’s U.S. Amateur and U.S. Mid-Amateur. The 54-year-old is a year away from being eligible for the U.S. Senior Amateur. “It was so much fun,” said Strickland, who overcame a two-stroke penalty in Round 1 for playing a wrong ball out of a bunker on the par-3 seventh hole. “That's what drives me, playing in the USGA events. They're so much fun.” Strickland’s gallery this week included his wife and daughter, plus two couples from Atlanta, where he lived prior to moving to Southern California, and another close friend from San Diego. Ted McKeeth, a friend from Atlanta, served as his caddie.