THE COMMISH: Klein’s Final Outing His Best

He doesn’t get a green jacket to show for his struggles and he won’t go down in golf history as winning one of the most exciting tournaments ever. But senior Andrew Klein and pro Phil Mickelson now have something very much in common—the monkeys on their backs are gone.

It didn’t matter to Klein that talk show hosts around the country weren’t questioning his work ethic, or that everyone wasn’t asking “when is he going to win?” He felt the pressure anyway.

After winning two tournaments last spring, Klein came into this year with high expectations. He was named captain and pegged as Harvard’s number one golfer—expected to distinguish himself as the Ivy League’s best.

But once the tournaments started, a different story played out. The fall season flew by and Klein never found his stroke or a win. Junior Chris Wu emerged as the Crimson’s most consistent force, and the success of Klein’s junior spring seemed a distant memory.

With the spring season came a new start, and while Klein played better, the wins didn’t come and the pressure started mounting.

Klein left all of that—the pressure, the expectations, the disappointing play—on the 18th green of Greate Bay Golf Course in Somers Point, N.J this past weekend, as he walked off the final hole of his last collegiate tournament victorious for the first time in over a year.

The monkey was gone—even if fans and the media never even realized it existed.

“It was nice [to win one my senior year],” said Klein, who shot a two-over-par 72 on Sunday to secure the victory. “My adrenaline was really rushing and I realized that this was going to be the last time ever.”

For a while at Greate Bay, it looked like Klein would have to swallow the tough pill of finishing his senior season without a win. The wind played havoc with his drives, his puts weren’t falling, nothing came easily.

So when he marched up to the 18th green and eyed his 50 foot birdie putt, you couldn’t blame him if he was a little wary of what the final green of the day might have in store for him.

But Klein hit the perfect putt and watched as his white ball disappeared into the cup, giving him a feeling that something special might happen.

“The wind was brutal,” Klein said. “It had kind of been a grind. I was feeling like I hadn’t gotten a lot out of the round and to make something like that as the final shot of the day was definitely a huge lift.”

Despite Klein’s rocky play, he went into the clubhouse to learn that the rest of the field had played worse. Surprisingly, he was just two shots behind the leader, Pete Phipps of Army.

So on Sunday, in the final pairing of his final tournament, you just knew something special would happen.

After bogeying one, Klein birdied five and finished the front nine three shots ahead of Phipps, who struggled mightily throughout the day.

On 12, after carding two consecutive bogies that gave Phipps life, Klein nailed a 15-footer for birdie to give himself some breathing room. From then on, there was little doubt how it would end.

Walking down 18, Klein savored every moment. He knew it was the end of a great career and a trying season. He thought about the memories and the heartbreaks and tried to get a grip on the past four years.

Then he walked off the green, the monkey gone and a victory under his belt—not a bad way to end a career.

—Staff writer David H. Stearns can be reached at stearns@fas.harvard.edu. His column appears on alternate Thursdays.