In golf, as in life, it’s funny how things sometimes come together. Tyler Strafaci knows better than most. The Georgia Tech senior was one of the nation’s highest ranked recruits when he arrived in Atlanta in 2016, and established himself quickly as an invaluable part of the Yellow Jackets’ lineup with a win in his first spring. But the weight of his own expectations slowed him down, and by Summer 2019, Strafaci was burned out — and it began showing in his results, which included a missed cut at Pinehurst’s North and South Amateur Championship. It was a wakeup call for Strafaci to get back to basics. A year later, Strafaci’s struggles are in the rearview mirror after five top-5 finishes in his last 11 starts, including wins in consecutive weeks at the 2020 North and South Amateur and the Palmetto Amateur. Pinehurst was a particularly appropriate place for Strafaci to break through: his grandfather, Frank Strafaci, won the 1938 and 1939 editions of the North and South, setting both an inspiring example and a high bar for the grandson he never met. Now, both their names will be synonymous with the North and South, and Tyler is free to build his own legacy.
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LYING FOUR: What is it like coming off a four-month layoff at Pinehurst No. 2? That’s not an easy place to shake off rust.
TYLER STRAFACI: No, it’s not. Competitively, I was a little rusty — but playing-wise, I’d been playing a lot with some guys down here. We’ve been playing a lot of matches against each other. So we were somewhat sharp that way, but any time you go to a course like No. 2 and you haven’t played in four months and you’re not sharp, it leaves you with the question, “Am I ready for this?” But then you get there and start playing good, and it’s just like every other golf course — just a little tougher.
LYING FOUR: I read that you spent some time as a kid going to Pinehurst. How many times had you played No. 2 before this year’s North and South?
TYLER STRAFACI: I’d probably played it close to 25 times.
LYING FOUR: What is the key to getting around that golf course, having played it so many times?
TYLER STRAFACI: It’s one of those courses that’s really tough to overpower, just because it’s got some subtle doglegs around the waste areas — so you have to pick your spot where you want to put it. But the most important part is probably hitting your irons into the correct spot on the green, so you can have an easy par or maybe sneak out a birdie here and there. If you don’t hit your irons well, you’re gonna be struggling to make par all day because everything slopes off, and you’re gonna have tough up-and-downs.
LYING FOUR: What was the difference for you between this North and South and the 2019 tournament, when you missed the cut? That’s a pretty dramatic turnaround in one year.
TYLER STRAFACI: It’s just golf. My freshman year in college, I almost won the tournament — I was a quarterfinalist. And I played not great in the quarterfinal match, but it was the first moment when I thought I could win this golf tournament. Two years ago, I missed the match play by a shot. And then last year, after a long golf season and not really much of a break — it was my third tournament in a row, and I was pretty pooped. This year, I was fresh and playing good, worked my butt off over the break, had a clear mind — and I got it.
LYING FOUR: Looking back at your 2019 results, you could almost draw a line between that missed cut at the North and South and your next event at the Players Am — because after that North and South, everything changed: you had top-five finishes in seven of the next 11 events, including these two wins. What happened after that tournament that lit a fire under you?
TYLER STRAFACI: A lot of it was just that I’d played so bad at the end of my junior college season and just recognized some weaknesses that I had. I worked really hard with my coach, Todd Anderson, and my parents were very influential in that process: we all had a sit-down and talked about what we needed to do. And they were very close to the situation, so they’re great people to talk to, and they’ll give their honest opinion because they love me. I remember we had a discussion after the North and South, and we just kind of talked about stuff and got back to basics. Then we got back home and started working really hard again. That kind of golf carried through. And it kind of gives you confidence when one of your buddies, Andy Ogletree, wins the U.S. Am., and you’ve been competing with him for the past four years; it gives you some confidence that you’re not too far off. I’d say that was a pretty big moment, because it showed that if I worked hard, I could have my moment pretty soon.
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Georgia Tech’s Tyler Strafaci poses at Pinehurst’s Putter Boy statute after winning the 2020 North and South Amateur Championship. Credit: John Patota, Pinehurst Resort.
LYING FOUR: What did getting back to basics look like for you?
TYLER STRAFACI: A lot of it was just — I had a really good sophomore summer, and I put some unrealistic expectations on myself and kind of got away from what got me to that stuff. And I got away from that and the basics. A lot of it was mindset: all you can do is prepare to win and do your best, and I had gotten away from that before the North and South. There was some simple stuff with my swing, but it was mostly just a mindset change.
LYING FOUR: What does your game look like when you’re playing well?
TYLER STRAFACI: When I’m playing good, usually my iron game’s really good; I drive it in play; I’m a really good chipper and bunker player. At the North and South, I putted really good in match play; at the Palmetto, I putted relatively bad all tournament but just hit it really well. I’d say the common factor is that I hit my irons relatively close and hit a lot of greens, and it’s not really easy to make bogeys when you do that. When I get off, it’s usually driving — I’m just not hitting many fairways and greens.
LYING FOUR: It’s funny — you sound like a mirror image of Ogletree. When I talked to him after the U.S. Am last year, he said that he’d always hit it really well off the tee, but that the thing that made the biggest difference for him at Pinehurst was that he’d tightened up his short game in the six months or so before that tournament. It sounds like your short game is naturally a little more suited for a course like No. 2.
TYLER STRAFACI: Yeah, a hundred percent. Andy’s ball-striking over the past couple of years has been pretty unbelievable. What he’s done over the last few years — and he’d even say this — his chipping and putting hasn’t been nearly as good as his ball-striking. What he’s done is pretty unbelievable. He’s just a very successful practice-planner, with how he hits balls; he gets the most out of it. I would say we’re pretty similar in that regard. But a lot of players are similar: when you’re playing good, you’re hitting it good — and when you’re hitting it bad, you’re playing like crap.
LYING FOUR: So how did your practice routines look after the shutdown in March, when you suddenly had all this time staring you in the face?
TYLER STRAFACI: I spent two or three months back home. After I got back home, I took about a week off and just got my mind away from all the negativity going on and all the scary times around us. I got my mind straight. And all the courses down South are closed, obviously, so I pretty much snuck out on this par-3 course near my house for two months; I had a bag of balls, and I just hit balls and putted and chipped, and just got back to basics that way.
LYING FOUR: Let me ask you about the North and South. You cruised through medal play and then had a pretty routine first match — and then the second match got really interesting. You were 1-down after 14, then made birdie on 15 to pull all square and start a wild finish. Talk to me about that match.
TYLER STRAFACI: John [Brightwell] and I would both agree that was probably the worst golf we’d played in at least the last four or five months. It was horrible. We both were just not hitting it good off the tee, and we weren’t really hitting our irons good. It was just one of those matches that you kind of get lucky with. And maybe if John had played better from the start, I might have adapted — but we both were not playing good from the start. We both kept making bogeys, bogeys, and a couple of doubles. It was bad golf. But it was one of those matches that, if you can squeak through it in match play, you’re gonna be just fine — because you’re always going to have that one match in match play when you don’t play great. And if the other guy just plays a little worse than you, then you’re going to be fine. The next match that I played against Joe Highsmith, who’s a great player — Joe played phenomenal. That match was every bit as insane, because we were both playing great golf; I think I birdied two out of my last four holes, but Joe birdied the long par-4 16th to tie the match, and I birdied the par-3 17th to go back 1-up, and then had a 10-foot par putt to win the match. It was back and forth. It was pretty cool.
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Strafaci and North and South runner-up Will Holcomb (left), after both players earned exemptions into the 2020 U.S. Amateur at Bandon Dunes in Oregon. Photo credit: John Patota, Pinehurst Resort.
LYING FOUR: So then we get to the championship match on July 4th. How were you feeling before that match?
TYLER STRAFACI: To be honest, I’d been in positions to win golf tournaments over the past couple of years, and I hadn’t won any. So for me, I felt confident; I felt nervous, but only because I cared. I feel like if you’re nervous, then that shows you really care about what’s going on and it’s really important for you — especially with all the stuff with my family at that golf course. It was something that was bigger than myself, and that was kind of cool. But yeah, I was definitely nervous. It didn’t really affect my play that much — I played great. I was maybe a little shaky the first couple of holes, and I was only 1-up after the front side — but other than that, I thought I executed great.
LYING FOUR: Just looking at the hole-by-hole, it looks like you might have been playing your best golf of the week but just couldn’t pull away.
TYLER STRAFACI: Will [Holcomb] played just great golf. He made a couple of birdies, but he was just consistent: he was always giving himself putts for birdies, a bunch of really good up-and-downs — and I was just hitting iron shot after iron shot within 10 or 15 feet. I just hit it really good that match; I think I shot three under. To do that out there in a championship match, especially against a player of Will’s caliber, was pretty cool.
LYING FOUR: Tell me about the 17th hole at the championship match. You’re 2-up, and you probably only need par to close it out. What were you thinking there?
TYLER STRAFACI: Obviously, I knew my position; it’s match play. I was 2-up, dormie. It was a back-middle pin. In the match before, it was the same teebox and the same yardage, and I had sort of the same position: I was 2-up, and I kind of laid off a 6-iron and didn’t really hit a great shot — it landed short and right of the pin and rolled into the bunker, so I learned that it was maybe a hard 7 in the afternoon. I think it was 208 and downhill maybe five yards, and I wanted to land it about 20 feet short of the pin. So it was a perfect hard 7-iron for me, especially with the heat. Right off the face, I knew it was good: it started probably 15 feet right of the pin with a draw, and it was tracing the flag the whole way. When it landed, it looked for a second like it was going in. Once I saw it stop, I knew it was in my control now: I knew I was within two or three feet, and Will would probably have to hole out to move on to the next hole. So I was feeling pretty good. He had about 20 feet to make birdie, and I was at about three feet; and still, at that moment, you’re thinking, “I’ve gotta make this putt.” But he missed, and I put a good roll on it and made it. I kinda liked how he made me putt it out; he probably knew I wasn’t gonna three-putt from three feet, but just for him to realize that that was a cool moment and that it would be cool for me to make it in front of all the people and share the embrace with my father was pretty cool. I remember Dad walking on the green with his arms open — he had tears running down his face. It just meant a lot to him. To get that hug from him, my brother Trent, and my mom — it was something that I’ll probably never forget, because they knew all the stuff that I’d worked through, with not playing good golf for a year and not winning a tournament for three years. It took a toll on my mind and body. I mean, when you don’t do something how you expect to do it, it doesn’t feel very good. To see them know that I’d worked really hard and overcome a bunch of stuff and changed my mindset — that was a cool moment for me. To see my dad — it felt like he had a connection with this father at that moment, probably one of the first times in 30 years-plus since he passed away. He felt like he was back with his father again.
LYING FOUR: I read that after you finished on 17, you and your dad walked up the 18th fairway to the clubhouse. That’s one of the best walks in golf for anybody, but it had to be even more special for the two of you, given what you’d just accomplished. What do you remember about that walk?
TYLER STRAFACI: It was one of those things that you don’t remember everything — you just remember bits and pieces. We were just so in the moment — we were laughing, talking. Some of the stuff I can’t share. But he reassured me, saying, “You did this.” And I said, “You guys helped me all along.” He said, “I know, but this was all you. This is the start of your legacy.” He knows that I’ve been trying to fill Grandpa Frank’s legacy forever, and it was kind of cool to do something that he did.
LYING FOUR: And then after winning one of the biggest amateur tournaments of the year, you went and won again the next week at the Palmetto Amateur. There are two schools of thought about winning, of course. One school of thought is that if you put yourself near the top of the leaderboard often enough, you’re bound to win eventually. The other school of thought is that winning takes something extra — that it’s a skill. Having broken through twice now, what’s your opinion?
TYLER STRAFACI: I agree that you’ve got to put yourself in position a lot, but I’d won a lot in junior golf, and I knew how to win. I won pretty much right out of the gates, in my fourth college event at Valspar. After that, I would put myself in positions, but I hadn’t won a golf tournament in three years. At that point, you’re just learning how to win a golf tournament again. I probably had the lead in 5-10 tournaments over the past three years, somewhere within the third or fourth day. And I wouldn’t say that it was nerves, but I just forgot how to hit those shots when I needed to and buckle down when I needed to. I’d say it’s learning, once you’re in that position, how to execute and finish the job. A perfect example is Palmetto. Playing the North and South match play was huge, but to win, you’re just playing against one guy. And I’m not saying it’s easier to win a match play tournament — I think it’s actually harder, because you have so many matches and so many variables going on. But to win match play, you’re in the process the whole time and playing this one guy, and you’re zoned in. That gave me confidence so that, when I finished my 15th hole at Palmetto and saw on the leaderboard that I was ahead by two — I’d been in that position before. I forgot which tournament it was, but I played those last three in one over, and the other guy played them two under, and I lost the golf tournament. All that stuff kind of melts into one pot, so that on 16 — before, I wouldn’t say that I’d hope for it, but I’d just aim way away and play for a par. It was kind of a match play situation: if I played the last three in even or one under, then I’m gonna have a really good shot. So I took the pin out of the green in my mind, put it 10 feet left of the flag in my mind, and said, “Just hit a winning golf shot.” And I did that coming down the stretch every single hole, and played those holes just like I’d executed all week. The North and South was just huge, because I learned how to win again. I’m going to put in the work, and hopefully I’ll have an opportunity again very soon to win a golf tournament — but all that stuff aside, it’s cool just to learn how to win a golf tournament again. Everything that goes through your mind — I’d missed that. I hadn’t experienced that in three years. And it was cool to finally do that again.
Cover photo: credit Melissa Schaub, Pinehurst Resort
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