I forgot how well Marucci putted down the stretch. I've played a lot of golf with him over the years and it was incredible to see how worn out he was. His swing was just unusually short and basically gone but he hung in there somehow. Marucci could be about the smartest game plan strategy manager I've ever seen.
Here's some trivia for you on that Centennial US Amateur and Marucci. He played more holes in that Amateur than any other golfer ever has in a US Amateur.
Also ten years after the tournament someone interviewed him as to his remembrances of that tournament. Marucci had never gone close to that far in a US Amateur and he said the salient thing for him at Newport because of that was that as the tournament wore on into the finals things got lonier and lonier. The interviewer asked how that could be and Marucci said because as it wore on to the finals all his fellow competitor friends were gone.
I guess those who've never made it to the finals of the US Amateur never would've thought of something like that.
As for the way Newport CC looked and played, well that sure was remarkable too. Some would probably call the course shabby looking, but that's the way it could be with the seasons in the old days. And if Newport CC looks like and represents anything, it represents the "old days"
