The Back of the Range

Josele Ballester - 2024 United States Amateur Champion

September 4th, 2024  |  54 mins 12 secs

amateur golf, arizona state, college golf, golf podcast, hazeltine, josele ballester, masters, u.s. amateur, usga

My guest on this episode is the newly crowned United States Amateur Champion, Josele Ballester from Castellon de la Plana, Spain.
As you would imagine, Josele has been on quite the media blitz as of late. Lots of questions about the final match at Hazeltine against Noah Kent and his legion of Iowa fans. We did speak about the match, but we also dove into his start in the game in Spain, what ultimately made him decide to play college golf at Arizona State, and the other amateur accomplishemnts on his resume that played a huge role in his success at this year's U.S. Amateur.

There is a lot of great information in this episode, I really enjoyed speaking with Josele and I'll see him throughout the college season now that Arizona State has moved to the Big 12 Conference.

Noah Kent - 2024 United States Amateur Finalist

September 4th, 2024  |  57 mins 51 secs

amateur golf, augusta national, college golf, golf podcast, hazeltine, iowa, noah kent, the masters, u.s. amateur, usga

My guest on this episode of TBO is Noah Kent, a rising sophomore for the Iowa Men's Golf team and also the runner-up in this summer's United States Amateur Championship. I've known Noah for a few years now, I would see him during the Terra Cotta Invitational in Naples, Florida....which is essentially his hometown tournament. He had a great freshman campaign at Iowa that included five Top 20 finishes.

Although he did win both his stages of qualifying for this year's U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine, he came in well below the radar. And after a first round 77 at Hazeltine in the stroke play portion, it didn't look like Noah would be around for long in Minnesota. That all changed in a hurry after a 64 at Chaska Town Course, the U.S. Am companion site, that vaulted him into the match play portion of the championship. And that was just the beginning.

During this episode, we spoke about his miracle run all the way into the Championship match against eventual winner Josele Ballester. We also spoke about his fans, that donned yellow Caitlin Clark t-shirts. Clark shirts rooting for Kent.....Clark Kent....yes, sometimes the headlines really are too good to be true.