All the near-misses are firmly in the past. Enumclaw’s Tyler Salsbury is headed to his first United States Golf Association national championship.
A University of Washington signee, Salsbury got into the field for next month’s U.S. Amateur (Aug. 13-19) at Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver as the co-medalist for the qualifying tournament Tuesday in Oregon.
Salsbury shot a pair of under-par rounds – 70 and 69 – at the Oregon Golf Association Golf Course in Woodburn to finish at 5-under 139, tying Huskies teammate Gerrit Chambers for first-place honors.
Chambers also shot 70-69.
In past attempts to get into USGA national tournaments, Salsbury came up a spot short.
He was an alternate three times.
But Tuesday was his first attempt trying to get into the U.S. Amateur.
“I am 1-for-1,” he said.
A good start on the first nine holes of his afternoon round – the tougher Nos. 10 through 18 – propelled him up the leaderboard.
The highlight for Salsbury was a chip-in birdie at the 12th hole.
He also had a chip-in for eagle in his opening round.
“I looked at the (course) online, and thought it suited my game – and sure enough, it did,” Salsbury said.
“All I heard from a lot of the guys, they were saying the greens were tough to chip on. The putts did not break, but (the chips) broke a ton.”
todd.milles@ thenewstribune.com 253-597-8442 blogs.thenewstribune.com/golf @ManyHatsMilles
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