By Fred Stabbert III
WEST NYACK — August 6, 2010 — In a great display of stamina and golf, Liberty sensation Josh Goldstein has qualified for two impressive tourneys, The Metropolitan Open and the U.S.G.A. Amateur Championship.
“Everybody is so excited,” an elated Goldstein said.
Goldstein’s first exciting news came earlier this week when he shot a two-under par 69 at the Tuxedo Club in Tuxedo Park, to qualify for the upcoming Met Open.
“I had one bogey and three birdies,” Goldstein said. “I played solid all day.”
The 18-hole “Tuxedo” course features 6,693 yards of golf from the longest tees for a par of 71. Designed by Robert Trent Jones, ASGCA, the Tuxedo golf course opened in 1886 and it has a slope rating of 136 on Bent Grass.
Not one to rest on his laurels, Goldstein then travelled to the Manhattan Woods Golf Club in West Nyack on Tuesday to qualify for the U.S.G.A. Amateur Championship.
After a 1-over par 73 in the morning, Goldstein came back with a blistering 67 in the afternoon to make the cut.
“Everything kind of clicked on the front nine,” Goldstein said. “I was 3-under on the front and then went par, birdie, birdie, birdie to start the back.”
He got to 6-under par through 13 holes and was 7 under through 16 before a double bogey on the final hole brought him back to 5-under for the day.
Now Goldstein will join 311 other amateurs at the Chambers Bay Golf Course in Washington for the week-long event from August 23-29. He will have to miss the Met Open because of the scheduling conflict.
“I will go out there on August 20 for some practice rounds,” he said. “We then will have two rounds of stroke play with the low 64 players qualifying for the match play competition.”
When the U.S. Amateur is played at Chambers Bay in August of 2010, Chambers Bay will be the first municipal course to host this prestigious championship, and it will be only the second time the U.S. Amateur has been played in the State of Washington.
A Liberty Central School alumnus, Goldstein is now a junior at Elon University in North Carolina and a two-time Sullivan County Democrat Golf Tourney Champion.