His homeland has 27 golf holes. Now he is the weak lover of the United States Open

Oakmont, Pennsylvania – A hundred miles south of Cuba – and 1,500 miles south of Oakmont – the North Sound Golf Club took off early Saturday evening.

As a journalist tried his telephone line at 6:45 p.m. on Saturday 15 minutes before closing, the extensions for the Pro Shop, Head Pro and the field crew were all dial tones. If they celebrated, it was for a good reason.

Their native son, Justin Hastings, was the low amateur of the US Open.

Hastings will play in his first major championship on Sunday in Oakmont, where he is currently nine on the par and T45, but he has already won the weekend. Hastings, which is the Cayman Islands (a British territory abroad of three coastal islands), will leave with a medal, whatever what it pulls on Sunday. He was the only amateur to cut, which makes him an early meeting as we open to a low amateur.

Hastings, a 21 -year -old man who has just finished his senior season in San Diego State, entered a longshot US Open the week. He was not the most decorated amateur on the field, who also included the 2024 American amateur champion, Noah Kent, and he was not the most decorated competitor in the championship either, after missing the cup during his only major before April’s Masters.

But Hastings is used in life as an outsider. He grew up in a territory of only 73,000 people in the middle of the ocean, and yet he is holding his weight at the US Open, against the best field of golf, on what many consider the most difficult course in the world.

“There are a few [pros] who have never heard of [the Cayman Islands]So it’s always funny, “said Hastings on Saturday.” There are some who have heard of it in the films and say, Oh, this is tax haven.“”

It would be understandable if Hastings did not like the spotlight. After all, it would be difficult to find a player in this open American or further from the cultural epicenter of golf. He grew up playing the North Sound Golf Club, which is a special place on the Cayman islands because it is only 18 -hole golf course on the island. People tired of the views of the Ocean of North Sound and the sandy dunes can only go to the views of the ocean and to the sandy dunes of the Ritz Carlton Golf Club located less than a thousand meters.

“The conversation is, How did you enter the golf course? And I never have a good answer for them, “said Hastings.” There is only one golf course. I am lucky to have a good support system there. My trainer, Tim, has been really incredible for me since the age of 5. He has run the national team for some time, and he has been here with me, so we have both spent a good time in recent years arriving where we are now. »»

Fortunately, golf has never counted wealth -based scores – and especially not the United States open, where Wee Francis Ouimet claimed a national Brookline championship as a high amateur adolescent on the other side of the street. The dashboard is the great equalizer, and in this department, Hastings has performed well. He qualified for the US Open through a victory in the Latin American lover, and he will use this victory to play in all the majors but the PGA championship. After that, it is time for the real world: Hastings will become Pro After Portrush and go directly to Ottawa, where he has a status on the Americas of the PGA Tour.

In the meantime, however, he will take the afternoon on Sunday to collect equipment at the US Open-and perhaps on a handful of television interviews at the national level.

“Oh yeahYeah,“He said about his NBC spot on Saturday.” This is a first. “”

Back home in Grand Cayman, business will grind as usual in the only golf center of the Cayman islands on Sunday morning. It will be a day like everyone else, save for a trophy ceremony expected in the early evening.

Until then, the North Sound Golf Club will be closed again … and will prepare a place in its trophy case.