Copyright USGA/Chris Keane
By DAVID DROSCHAK
Few would argue that Jordan Spieth has had a dream year on the PGA Tour. Locally, that distinction has to go to Scott Harvey.
The 37-year-old from Kernersville played in the Masters in early April as the USGA Mid-Amateur Champion, and now is headed across the pond after being named to the prestigious Walker Cup team.
Heck, Harvey even has a Wikipedia page now.
Harvey, who was born in Greensboro and attended High Point University, was enjoying the final round of the Wyndham Championship when his phone vibrated. It was a call from USGA president Thomas O’Toole informing Harvey he would be heading to Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club in England as part of the United States Walker Cup team.
The Walker Cup, to be staged Sept. 12-13, is a golf trophy contested biennially in odd numbered years between teams comprising the leading amateur golfers of the United States and Great Britain and Ireland. The U.S. is the defending champion and leads the all-time series 35-8.
“I like the team aspect of the whole thing,” Harvey told Triad Golf Today. “In golf, it’s an individual sport so you don’t get to do a lot of team stuff, and the few times I do it is so much fun to share everything with everybody else. I hear it’s one of the great experiences in golf you can have. The team captain called me and said whatever you are expecting I promise you it will exceed your expectations. Those are pretty strong words because I’m expecting a lot.”
Prior to the match, Harvey joined his Walker Cup teammates for some bonding in Latrobe, Pa., with none other than Arnold Palmer.
Harvey was expected to make the U.S. team since he has been on a tear over the last two years, “but it’s never official until it’s official.”
“In the winter of 2013 I started making a swing change and slowly coming into the spring of 2014 I felt confidence in what I was doing and I started playing some really good golf,” he said.
Harvey won the 2014 Cardinal Amateur and U.S. Mid-Amateur, then captured the 2015 South American Amateur in Peru and Gasparilla Invitational. He missed the cut at the Masters.
“It has just been a wild ride,” said Harvey, who has played in 17 USGA championships. “I had never even played golf outside of the United States until now. Now, I’m going all over the world seemingly all of the time.”
