Teens to decide U.S. Amateur crown

OAKMONT, Pa. -- They are teenagers who grew up worlds apart, and their golf games reflect that.

Casey Wittenberg is the never-nervous protege who's spent years polishing himself for this moment, a U.S. Amateur championship match that could be the stepping stone to a great career.

Nick Flanagan, the son of a coal mine electrician from Australia who had never set foot on an American course until two months ago, didn't think this was possible until -- oh, maybe, a couple of days ago. He's never advanced past the second round of his national championship, and now he's playing for the biggest prize any amateur can win anywhere.

"I don't think my body's ever felt like that before," Flanagan said Saturday, his nerves finally calmed down after a roller-coaster of a 1 up semifinal victory against David Oh. "I didn't even think I was going to qualify."

Flannigan survived playoff

Just to get into the match play field Wednesday morning, he had to get through a 14-man playoff for the final 12 spots. Now, here he is, so unknown that even his fellow finalist has never met him, playing for a title not even he envisioned he could win.

Maybe it's fitting that such an unknown could emerge in a golfing summer that already has produced super surprises Ben Curtis and Shaun Micheel.

Still, something like this almost never happens in a sport where many of same golfers play a mini-circuit all summer, but the 18-year-old Wittenberg didn't even know what the 19-year-old Flanagan looked like until Saturday.

"I saw him hitting balls on the range this morning, and there weren't too many people to decipher," said the top-ranked Wittenberg, who beat Auburn junior Lee Williams 5 and 4 in their semifinal.

Opposites attract

Now, the ever-calm Wittenberg has 36 holes to learn all about the ever-nervous Flanagan. Now, for perhaps the first time in their short but contrasting careers, they'll be all square Sunday morning.

Wittenberg's family lives on a TPC course in Memphis, and the Oklahoma State freshman has long been an on-the-rise junior player. It's nothing for him to look outside his window, see David Toms playing a round and jump right in. He spent the last four years developing his game at a private high school in Bradenton, Fla., a training ground over the years for numerous young golf and tennis stars, including Andre Agassi.

Flanagan, by contrast, comes from a blue-collar family; his father was working underground during his son's semifinal. He has had a good but not exceptional career back home, with his biggest victory coming in the Tasmanian Open.

Wittenberg started playing when he was 3; Flanagan never picked up a club until watching Tiger Woods win the 1997 Masters. Flanagan remains in such awe of Woods, he went to Rochester to watch him in the PGA Championship last weekend.

It looked for a while like Flanagan might be watching again today, especially after his 3-hole lead against Oh turned into a 2-hole deficit during a remarkable five-hole swing that started at No. 8.

He responded with his shot of the tournament, a 6 iron to within two feet of the flag on No. 13, a 183-yard, par 3. The confidence boost he got by winning that hole carried over, and he never lost another.

It was over for Oh, a Southern Cal senior who upset favorites Trip Kuehne and Bill Haas, when he needed two shots to get out of the rough around the green at the par 4, 484-yard 18th. Even when he did, he hit it 40 feet past the flag.

Flanagan expects to be more relaxed Sunday, if only because getting into the final guarantees an invitation to the Masters and the U.S. Open next year.

"I could lose 9 and 8 tomorrow and be a lot calmer than I was today when I was 3 up," Flanagan said.

No matter who wins the all-teen final, the champion will be one of the youngest ever. Wittenberg would be the second youngest to Woods, who also was 18 in 1994 but was about a month younger than Wittenberg is.

"I think that the game is getting younger," Wittenberg said.

It will get younger still Sunday.