BANDON, Ore. – The spiritual run of Segundo Oliva Pinto in his first US Amateur came to a deadly end in a greenside bunker late Thursday afternoon on Bandon Dunes.
Bound with Georgia Tech’s Tyler Strafaci in their Round of 16 game, Pinto was preparing for his fourth shot from the front greenside bunker at the par-5 finish hole when TV cameras showed Pinto’s caddy , a local runner named Brant Brewer, bent and brushed the sand.
Strafaci’s caddy, Frank Jr.’s father, saw Brewer and called for a police officer. After a lengthy discussion, Brewer was determined to have touched the sand, a violation of Rule 12.2b, which states that a player or caddy should not “deliberately touch sand in the bunker with a hand, club, rake or other object to test the condition of the sand to learn information for the next stroke. ”
The penalty was a loss of hole – and for Pinto, the match, too.
“I did not touch the sand,” Brewer could be said when discussing what happened to the officer. He confirmed his remarks as he walked to the clubhouse.
Pinto, who moved to Arkansas this summer, could not hide his destruction. He said he focused on playing his shot and did not see Brewer touching the sand.
‘As soon as I’m back there, the referee comes up and asks my caddy what happened, and I’m completely shocked. I’m just trying to get this shot close [the hole] and try to make an up-and-down and win the match. He hit the sand like that, and that’s a fine. ”
Strafaci comes from a family of successful amateur players (his grandfather, Frank, won a few titles at the North and South Amateur, a tournament that Strafaci won earlier this summer). He and his father said they had never seen anything like it.
‘I read my putt and looked him down. I did not see him touch the sand, so I did not think I had the right to make a decision, but my father saw it and he will fight to the death for me, “said Tyler Strafaci, who continues against Stewart Hagestad in Friday’s quarterfinals.
“It seems like it came about because it was a phenomenal match.”
Pinto admitted that his caddy offered no explanation.
“He said nothing,” Pinto said. “It simply came to our notice then. What happened, happened. He can say anything, but it does not change what happened. ”
