Devlin feeling ace at Oakmont
Chris Devlin pitches in for a birdie on the 9th hole during the first round of stroke play at the 2021 U.S. Amateur at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa. on Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. (Justin Aller/USGA)
Ballymena’s Chris Devlin will always be remembered as the man who gave up part of his scholarship so Graeme McDowell could go to the University of Alabama, Birmingham.
McDowell went on to win the US Open in a storied career, but Devlin never quite made it to the Tour after 11 years of toil.
Still, golf is the gift that keeps on giving and after regaining his amateur status two years ago, Devlin made a hole-in-one on the 198-yard sixth in the opening round of his US Amateur debut at Oakmont on Monday.
Now working as a healthcare executive, the 46-year old holed a six-iron en route to a two-over 72 for the 24th ace in the championship since 1993 and the first since 2018.
“I knew if I just hit a nice high cut six-iron it was just going to be right,” said Devlin. “It was just exactly the way I envisioned it. I was telling the guys that I’ve had eight holes-in-one now and I never had one as a professional, and I was a professional for 11 years.
“I had one in my very last amateur event a long time ago, and then I got my amateur status back and I made another one, two weeks later.”
Devlin followed his opening 72 with a 73 and looked set to miss the cut as he was tied on five-over-par with Oughterard’s Devin Morley, who opened with a 75. Scoring
Go on son!!!!!!! The reason why I ended up in Birmingham, Alabama right here……. https://t.co/Kt1B3SHKJh
— Graeme McDowell (@Graeme_McDowell) August 9, 2021
Devlin dealt with a neuromuscular disease throughout his career and had open-heart surgery in 2006 that forced him to leave the game for more than a year.
He returned to qualify for the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines through both stages but missed the cut.
He competed in Nationwide (now Korn Ferry) Tour and PGA European Tour events and was reinstated as an amateur two years ago.
Now a healthcare executive, he was a three-time Conference USA player of the year while playing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he was joined by McDowell.
"I got to know him when I got a student membership at Portrush and in those days it was always me that took the money," Devlin said.
"When I was at university in Alabama he came over for a holiday and he liked it so much that he applied and got a scholarship despite being at Queen's at the time.
"I told Coach (Alan Kaufman) that he needed to get Graeme. But the (financial) numbers were coming up a little short for him.
"I had had a great year and my scholarship was going to increase, but I told Coach to give my 10 percent (increase) to Graeme and it all worked out."
