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On the Green
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Home Course Hopes
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by Helen Ross
It’s not often a golfer gets to play in a national championship on his home course.
But that’s just the opportunity Jackson Van Paris has when the U.S. Junior Amateur is contested at the Country Club of North Carolina in Pinehurst July 19–24.
Van Paris, who is one of the game’s top juniors, lives on the sixth hole of the Cardinal Course, one of the two at CCNC. The other is the Dogwood, which will host the match play portion of the championship while the 36-hole qualifying will be held on both courses.
“I don’t think weird is the right word, but it’s going to be very different seeing all these kids that I know from junior golf, and that I see when I travel across the country for tournaments,” Van Paris said. “It’s going to be weird rolling out of my bed and looking out my window and seeing them playing my home golf course for basically our national championship.
“I can’t wait. It’s obviously something I’m really excited for and it’s going to be fun no matter how I play. But it’ll be more fun if I can do something good in the tournament.”
That’s not outside the realm of possibility, either.
Van Paris, who will play golf at Vanderbilt in the fall, is competing in his third USGA championship, including the 2018 and ‘20 U.S. Amateurs. In fact, he won a first-round match in 2018—the youngest (at the age of 14 years, 11 months and 21 days) to do so since the great Bobby Jones in 1916.
More recently, Van Paris won the 2020 Junior Invitational at Sage Valley and successfully defended his title in February at the AJGA’s Simplify Boys Championship at the Club at Carlton Woods at The Woodlands, Texas, just before a crippling snowstorm hit the area.
So, Van Paris will certainly be one of the favorites— on paper, as well as with the crowd.
But Van Paris, who won his first big event as a 6-year-old at the U.S. Kids World Championship, enjoys playing in front of fans. He’s played all over the world, too—on the victorious U.S. Teams at the
Pinehurst native Jackson Van Paris will compete the U.S. Junior Amateur at the Country Club of North Carolina (his home course) in July.
2019 Junior Presidents Cup in Australia and at the 2017 Evian Junior Cup in France where he won the individual medal.
So, don’t look for the seasoned 17-year-old to put any extra pressure on himself at CCNC during the Junior Am.
“I’m looking at it as an opportunity to do something really cool in front of a bunch of people that I know,” Van Paris said. “It’s just going to be really fun. That’s probably the main thing that I’m kind of taking going into it. It’s just going to be a really fun week.
“I’ll be out there playing my home course in a really big golf tournament with a bunch of friends and family out watching. ... So, I don’t view it as pressure or expectations. I’m kind of just viewing it as an opportunity.”
The U.S. Junior Am is the third USGA championship to be held at CCNC. Hal Sutton, who went on to capture 14 PGA Tour titles, including the PGA, won the 1980 U.S. Amateur there while Doris Chen won the 2010 U.S. Girls’ Junior.
As much as he’s played the Dogwood and Cardinal, Van Paris isn’t sure how much of a home course advantage he’ll have. The USGA will make the courses extremely challenging, and the conditions will be very different from what he sees day-in and day-out.
“I think there’s a lot of little nuances around the two courses that playing it pretty much every day will definitely help me,” he said. “Breaks on greens, where to miss it, stuff that you can’t really learn in two practice rounds. But it’s also going to be set up really different and pretty tough.
“So, I don’t think it’s going to help me too much having played it every day, just because it’s going to be a totally different golf course. They’re going to make it super firm, the rough’s going to be super thick. And that’s not usually how it is just on a normal basis.
“I think it’s going to help me a lot being a member here, playing it a lot, but I think it’s not going to be as big of an advantage as people might think, just because the USGA is going to come in and change it up and do what they do, which is make a golf course that’s full, bringing the best out of the golf course.”
The championship begins with two rounds of stroke play that determines the 64 players who will advance to match play on the Dogwood Course, beginning on Wednesday. The rounds of 32 and 16 will be held on Thursday, with the quarterfinals and semifinals on Friday.
The championship match will be contested over 36 holes on Saturday.
North Carolina native Webb Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open winner and a long-time CCNC member, is serving as the honorary chairman of the event. Among the Junior Am champs now playing the PGA Tour are Tiger Woods (1991–93), Hunter Mahan (1999), Brian Harman (2003), Kevin Twat (2005), Jordan Spieth (2009–11), Scottie Scheffler (2013) and Will Zalatoris (2014).
The immediate future for Van Paris means transitioning from junior to amateur golf in the summer, then heading to Vanderbilt in the fall. He would love to play on the PGA Tour someday but for now his goals are more teamoriented.
He’d love to make one of the next two Walker Cup teams—or both—which will be played at the legendary Old Course at St. Andrews (2023) and Cypress Point (2025). But Van Paris’ primary mission when he gets to Nashville is winning an NCAA title.
“My main goal between now and hopefully a professional career is to win a national championship with my team,” he said. “And I think for a lot of my college career, I’ll be putting the team first over my personal success.
“I just think winning a team national championship would just be the coolest thing.”
Of course, so would winning the U.S. Junior Am.PL
Helen Ross is a freelance golf writer who spent 20 years working for the PGA Tour and 18 more at the Greensboro News & Record. A UNC-Chapel Hill graduate, she has won multiple awards from the Golf Writers Association of America.
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