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Dammann's favorite courses and holes
When you have played as many golf courses as Clinton Dammann has, you’re bound to have a few favorites.
Here are Dammann’s five favorite courses he has played, and his top hole at each (listed in no particular order):
Hazeltine National Golf Club, Chaska, Minn. - “Everybody picks the 16th hole (as their favorite hole), but I like the 14th hole. It’s a 360-yard par 4, but you can hit driver off the tee, or you can lay up. It’s a pretty tough green. It’s a really tight hole. There are a lot of options off the tee and then into the green. Everybody picks No. 16, so I have to pick something different,” Dammann said.
Windsong Farm Golf Club, Independence, Minn. – No. 9 plays at 635 yards from the championship tees, and plays even longer since its up hill. “Eighteen bunkers, fescue right and left and 600 yards up hill; that’s about all you want out of a par 5. Play for par and good things might happen,” Dammann said.
Glencoe Country Club, Minn. – Dammann learned to play golf at this par 71 course, and he picked No. 10, a 208-yard (from the back tees) par 3. “It is guarded by an out-of-bounds (right and long) and a bunker left (of the green). The green is about 20 paces from front to back and left to right,” Dammann said. “Get away with a par and you’ve gained one on the field.”
Whistling Straits Golf Club, Kohler, Wis. – The links-style Straits Course was sculpted along two miles of Lake Michigan shoreline. No. 7, known as “Shipwreck,” may be the most striking hole of the bunch. The lake’s shoreline hugs the right side of the 214-yard par 3, along with bunkers. The left side is framed by a large hillside layered with bunkers. “It’s a great hole with an amazing view,” Dammann said. “Miss the green here and you might want to consider settling for a bogey.”
Oak Hill Country Club, Rochester, N.Y. – Oak Hill has hosted U.S. Open, PGA Championship and Ryder Cup events. Dammann picked the 482-yard No. 18, a “great finishing hole where you are required to hit four good shots to get par. It’s a tough green (to reach) even from the fairway, and even a little intimidating. It’s a crucial hole if you have a good round going.”
It's a wonderful (golf) life
By Mike Killeen
You’re the defending NCAA Division III men’s individual golf champion, who plays for the defending team champion from Saint John’s University.
You spend your summer working at one of the best golf courses in the Upper Midwest, with playing privileges to boot. You take lessons from the course’s teaching pro – who happened to qualify for the U.S. Senior Open July 5-8.
Could life get much better on the golf course for Clinton Dammann?
“Everything is going pretty well right now,” Dammann said. “The national title, what more can I say? And, winning the title as a team has been the No. 1 goal since I arrived at Saint John’s.”
And to think Dammann was ready to settle for second place just before the start of the NCAA Division III golf championships May 15-18 at two Indiana golf courses.
“I actually gave (SJU teammate) Joe Schoolmeesters kind of a fist pump before we went out the first day and I said, ‘One and two,’ because he was playing so good, and I said I’ll take two as long as you take one,” Dammann said.
“That’s just kind of kidding, but all of our guys wanted to place well. But winning it? I never, ever really thought I would win it at the time. I guess I didn’t expect to win,” Dammann said.
He shot rounds of 72-71-72-72 to finish at 287 and win his first collegiate individual title, eight shots ahead of second-place finishers Jacob Collinsworth from Huntingdon College and Andy Miller from Otterbein College. Dammann played the final 64 holes of the tournament without recording a double-bogey.
“He played within himself, and he played to yardages he was comfortable with,” SJU coach Bob Alpers said of Dammann’s medalist performance at the national tournament. “Clinton is one of the smartest players we have had. He was great off the tee all week, playing to yardages he wanted into the greens. He also made maps of the greens, and played to areas of the green where he could putt aggressively. He also has a big heart, and he makes putts.”
When Dammann took the Johnnies’ team trophy home in mid-June to Glencoe, Minn., he took it to the first place he played – his house.
“My mom (Carol) said I was hitting golf balls at the house at about two (years). Then, we had to get a membership (at Glencoe Country Club) because she didn’t want me to wreck anything. I’m sure I did,” Dammann recalled.
Too young to drive a golf cart because he didn’t have a driver’s license, Dammann and friends would walk and play 36 holes a day, every day.
“Mom would drop me off at the course, or I’d bike out there and just play all day. You’d get up and do the same thing the next day,” Dammann said. He played a couple of tournaments as a seventh-grader for the Glencoe-Silver Lake High School varsity golf team, then joined the varsity team as a full-time member the next year.
“That was probably the start of it, getting more serious about (golf),” Dammann said. “When you’re a kid, you’re just kind of whacking balls and you’re trying to get better, but you’re also still having fun.”
Dammann has played for three seasons for the Johnnies, but did not compete in the national tournament in 2006.
“I know he was disappointed with 2006, and he worked so hard to become a team leader (in 2007),” Alpers said. “He lifted, he ran and he got himself in terrific physical and mental shape and grabbed the opportunity and never let go. He is always trying to get better.”
This summer, Dammann is working at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., and taking lessons from Mike Barge, Hazeltine’s teaching pro who qualified for the U.S. Senior Open in early July at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis.
“We’re just working on a few swing things. I’m trying to be more consistent. Minimize my misses,” Dammann said. “Working at Hazeltine and taking lessons from Mike Barge is great. I didn’t ever think I would be working out here, but here I am. Mike is a great guy, teacher and player. Schoolmeesters and I have taken lessons from him since I started working out here last year, and it has helped my understanding of the golf swing in general and my own.”
The experience at Hazeltine is valuable, both in preparation for Dammann’s senior year with the Johnnies and his future ambitions to stay in golf as a playing professional, teaching professional, club professional or coach (he is majoring in business management with a minor in coaching at SJU).
“When I graduate (in 2008), I want to go south just to work at a golf course. I’d like to try golfing, see how it works on some mini-tour (events). If I don’t try it, I’ll regret it. There are some guys at the club telling me it’s tough working in the golf business because you’re working your hobby, and you don’t get to golf much,” Dammann said.
Spoken like a guy who enjoys his time on the golf course.
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