After slipping on his final tee shot in a round this August, T.J. Howe stood over his ball located, somehow, in the middle of the 350-yard fairway.
Thanks to a bit of luck, Howe found himself with a chance to make it to the green of the par-4 hole in two shots, at which point his brother said, "Wouldn't it be cool if you just birdied this hole?"
One shot later, Howe's ball sat 6 feet away from the cup, resting on a green Howe described as being "the size of a postage stamp."
He'd tap in for birdie.
Thinking back on his final hole that day, the 9th hole of The Olympic Club's Lake Course, Howe described the experience as "a roller coaster."
With the birdie, he had just concluded his first round in this year's U.S. Amateur.
He'd posted a first round score of 2-over-par, good enough to put him in position to make the cut and advance to the match-play segment of the largest event on the amateur golf scene. He was about to enter the clubhouse two shots ahead of his first day pairing, the legendary amateur golfer and long-time friend of Tiger Woods, Trip Kuehne. And he did it all in front of the gallery and media contingent that followed Kuehne throughout the round.
Howe was an awfully far way from his days learning the sport back in the small town of Osceola in north-central Pennsylvania.
Howe, now a redshirt freshman on the Penn State men's golf team, didn't take the usual cart path to Penn State.
For one, he said, he's never taken a golf lesson.
"Mostly it was just me and my dad," Howe said. "We just started out when I was little. I was pretty good at it from the start. I never had a lesson. I just played a lot.
"I'm not a big practice fool. I don't go out to the range and pound balls for hours. I just practice on the golf course."
While most of his current teammates were taking part in notable prep careers, Howe honed his skills while taking numerous divots out of the fairways at River Valley Golf Club near his hometown.
"It's one of the easiest courses," Howe said, "but it was just somewhere where I could go and hit. They didn't care if I was taking a lot of divots out the fairways, they just enjoyed me being out there."
Jeff Rieppel, general manager of River Valley, remembers T.J. on the course every opportunity he had -- but he doesn't so much remember the divots.
Howe didn't alter his approach to the game, as he rode his informal training through high school, eventually winning the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) championship as a senior.
"I recall just before he won the PIAA, where it was cold and rainy," Rieppel said. "He was out there practicing every night."
Penn State coach Greg Nye met Howe during the summer between Howe's junior and senior years. On the heels of a strong junior campaign, Howe was playing in a tournament at Penn State's Blue Course. It was then that "a friend of a friend" introduced Nye to Howe, Nye said.
"I became interested in him, and actually followed him throughout the fall, and we saw him play the state tournament," Nye said. "He's a common sense, down-to-earth guy. We really liked that about him."
Howe redshirted his first year as a Nittany Lion, mainly because of his lack of experience in larger events.
"Last fall I wasn't playing that good," Howe said. "Then in the spring I was really playing better, but I figured I might as well just save my eligibility. They say you're supposed to be better in your fifth year than in your first."
With a year of Nye's coaching and time spent around the team, Howe entered into a whirlwind series of performances this summer.
It all started in May, when he lost the Pennsylvania Public Links in a playoff.
"That really got me kick-started," Howe said. "Then I played some local stuff and played all right, but then I went to the amateur.
"I went out there and that's when my game really started clicking. I was really playing good. I was hitting my irons good. I was putting good."
After Howe outperformed Kuehne in that first medal round, he made the cut and qualified for the match-play segment. If drawing the Kuehne pairing wasn't enough, Howe's first-round opponent was Drew Weaver, the 2007 British Amateur champion.
Howe got off to a fast start and never looked back on his way to dispatching another amateur star.
While his showing would end the next day, Howe left having surprised almost everyone involved. Almost.
"This summer he played better caliber tournaments and he achieved," Nye said. "He went ahead and took coach's advice on what to play in the summer and now here he is with an opportunity to play."
After a strong preseason, Howe was named one of the Lions' five starters and made his collegiate debut in Penn State's season opener two weekends ago.
He finished the weekend tournament in a tie for seventh with Penn State senior and All-America candidate Robert Rohanna.
"He should have been the [team's] low score," Nye said. "He really didn't do a good job over the last few holes. I think he was 3-over for his last three. Or he would have been our low score."
He followed his impressive debut with a third-place finish against a much tougher field. Rohanna and last year's Big Ten freshman of the year, Kevin Foley, finished in a tie for 11th.
"We're extremely pleased with his play," Nye said of the redshirt freshman. "He's got some stuff ahead of him he can do better. I think T.J. is an emerging player."
As for T.J., he said his strong summer showing has rolled into the fall, thanks mostly to the same work ethic that's stayed with him throughout his golf career.
"Certainly all the good things that have come to him, have come because of how hard he's worked." Rieppel said.
