Australia's Curtis Luck Continues to Make a Name for Himself
By: Golfshake Editor | Mon 13 Feb 2017
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Post by Sports Writer Derek Clements
YOU may not have heard of Curtis Luck yet, but you will be hearing plenty about him soon enough. The 20-year-old Australian was runner-up at the 2014 Australian Amateur Championship and last year he won the Western Australian Open on the Australasian PGA Tour, despite still being an amateur.
He had planned to join the paid ranks in October last year but he went to America and won the US Amateur, which gained him entry to The Masters, US Open and The Open in 2017. It was a sensational victory and it took him to third in the amateur world rankings and brought him to the attention of the wider golfing world. It also helped him on his way to being named the Emerging Athlete of the Year at the 2016 Australian Institute of Sport Performance awards. To put this award in perspective, he was up against the cream of Australia's young sporting talent in tennis, cricket, rugby union, Aussie rules football, cycling, swimming, boxing, athletics.
So it should come as a surprise to nobody that he has now signed a contract with IMG for "worldwide management and marketing representation.” IMG are no mugs and wouldn't have gone within a million miles of Luck unless they believed he was likely to become a global superstar.
Despite remaining an amateur until (at least) he plays at the Masters in April, Luck is able to sign an agreement with an agent or third party, and not be deemed as a professional. This is stated in the rules, specifically 2-2(b), brought in place in 2012, which notes that an amateur golfer 18 or older can sign a contract without losing his amateur status, provided the agreement “is solely in relation to the golfer’s future as a professional golfer and does not stipulate playing in certain amateur or professional events as an amateur golfer.” Furthering that point, the Rule also states that Luck cannot “obtain payment, compensation or any financial gain, directly or indirectly, while still an amateur.”
Having recently played in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship earlier this month, finishing T-49 and he also comfortably making the cut at the Dubai Desert Classic, Luck has shown his potential in tour events. The U.S. Amateur champion also receives an exemption into the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and the Australian is set to compete there.
After competing at Augusta, it would be a huge surprise if the young man doesn't turn professional. He would be able to play in a handful of PGA Tour events on sponsor’s exemptions and have the chance of earning enough money to get his tour card without having to join the Web.com Tour. This was the path that Jon Rahm, of Spain, followed and he already has one PGA Tour victory to his name.
It is worth briefly recounting the circumstances of Luck's victory at the US Amateur, where he played Brad Dalke in the 36-hole final. After 19 holes, he was one down. His father, Stuart, who was caddying for him, watched Luck hit the ball all over the first hole (his 19th) before conceding, and said to his son: "Don't you think it is about time we started playing some good golf now?"
Curtis proceeded to listen to his old man. On the 20th hole (the par-5 second), he reached the green in two and rolled in a 15-foot eagle putt to square the match. On the 21st hole, Luck won again, this time with a two-putt par, to go one up. He was on a roll now, and won the 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th holes. He had taken eight holes on the bounce and was now seven up.
“I thought, ‘Hang on, I’m seven up, and I was one down through the first hole of the second 18,’ ” Luck said. “I turned to dad, and I said, ‘I’ve just won eight holes in a row,’ and Dad said, ‘Yep, you’ve got to win a few more in a row, too.’ ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDLX83wG7hE
While Dalke, a 19-year-old rising sophomore at the University of Oklahoma, ended the streak by taking the 28th and 29th holes, he had left himself far too much to do and eventually won 6&4.
Afterwards, Dalke and Luck both pointed to the 25th hole as the pivotal point in the match. Four down after losing the previous five holes, Dalke hit his drive on the par four into the rough but dug his approach out to four feet.
Luck hit his approach from the fairway to 22 feet. It appeared Dalke would finally stop the bleeding, but instead Luck rolled in his birdie effort. The classic match-play reversal was complete when Dalke missed his short try.
As he watched his son win the biggest amateur prize of his career, becoming only the third Australian to win the title and the sixth international winner in the past 10 years, Stuart smiled but didn’t shed any tears. “It probably would have been more emotional if the match had been tighter,” said Stuart, who works as a wholesaler in Perth. “But I like this better. It gave us some time to savour it.”
More recently, Luck Sr caddied for his son in June at the ISPS Handa Global Cup, a Japanese Tour event in which Curtis finished T-5, alongside former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel and beating Padraig Harrington and Victor Dubuisson. The event was just a few weeks after Curtis had won the WA Open on the Australasian Tour, a victory that helped Luck decide in his mind he was ready to turn pro later this year.
“It’s fun to be with him out there,” Stuart said. “It’s been great to watch him mature as a golfer.”
Luck had been planning to turn professional in October last year and was going to try to secure his card on the Japanese and Australasian Tours, but his US Amateur win has changed everything. And you'll have the chance to watch him this week at the unique ISPS HANDA World Super 6 in Perth.
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