Texas golfer's Travis Vick follows Longhorns' NCAA victory with U.S. Open appearance

Travis Vick will get an early start at the 122nd U.S. Open week as the USGA’s flagship championship returns to The Country Club near Boston for the third time and first since 1988.

Vick will tee off at 5:56 a.m. CT on Thursday in the day's second group with Matthew NeSmith and Patrick Rodgers.

But his practice round experience on Monday already ranks as something he’ll never forget. He estimates there were 1,000 people at The Country Club there to watch the other Texas Longhorn in the group – World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.

The 22-year-old Vick says he’s on a golf high, and rightly so.

Bohls: Texas golfers bag Arizona State for NCAA title, which has become par for the course

Two weeks ago, Vick clinched the winning point for Texas at the NCAA Championship in Scottsdale, Arizona. One week before that, he shot 9-under 133 in final qualifying at Royal Oaks and Lakewood country clubs in Dallas. Vick eagled the par-5 17th hole at Lakewood to play his way into his first major championship, sweet revenge after being disqualified from his qualifier last year for accidentally playing with 15 clubs.

Vick had lunch with Scheffler ahead of his round at Royal Oaks to get some tips on his home track.

“(Scottie) shot a 58 there, I think,” said Vick. “That gave me confidence that it can be done. That you can go low.”

Their conversations around The Country Club on Monday were more about life than golf, though Vick enjoyed the up-close-and-personal view of Scheffler’s game, calling his iron play “underrated.”

“It was a very relaxed atmosphere,” said Vick. “It wasn’t intense grind mode.”

More: Patrick Mahomes leans on Texas teachers before taking on Brady, Rodgers in 'The Match'

Trey Vick typically caddies for his son but will be outside the ropes this week as swing coach Adam Porzak takes over.

Last summer, Porzak was on the bag for student Brian Stark when he met Vick in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur. Vick got off to a hot start, but then started to struggle with a swing flaw he hadn’t been able to shake mid-round.

“I turned to him and said, ‘Hey, do you know what I’m doing wrong?” Vick recalled. Porzak said yes.

Walking down the fairway together late in the match, Vick turned to Porzak and asked, “Hey, when can I get that lesson?”

Oklahoma State’s Stark, who was walking a few paces behind, said, “Not now!”

It makes for a good story, of course. Since Vick began working with Porzak, he has tightened up his wedge game and made great strides with his short game, though Vick is quick to interject that there’s still much to learn.

“When he has a wedge in his hand now,” said Porzak, “I feel like every time I’m just waiting for it to drop next to the hole. I can honestly say it didn’t used to be like that.”

Bohls: Masters winner Scottie Scheffler is as grounded a champion as he is with his game

When Scheffler competed as an amateur in the U.S. Open, he played practice rounds with Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson and said he’ll always do the same for young amateurs because he learned so much from those experiences.

For Trey Vick, the value of his son’s experience with Scheffler extended far beyond golf.

“Scottie just seems to be so consistent in the way he treats everybody,” said Trey. “I just really appreciate that. You couldn’t ask for anything more as a dad. Because you want your son to come along and to be steady as a human being, which is more important.”

Texas ex Brandel Chamblee blasts Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau

Shortly after former Texas Longhorn Brandel Chamblee noted on Golf Channel’s “Live From the U.S. Open” show that Phil Mickelson had taken “a flamethrower to the very PGA Tour that provided a great stage for you to amass unimaginable wealth,” it became abundantly clear Chamblee had his very own flamethrower in the form of his carefully crafted words. He aimed it at Mickelson and other supporters of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf league.

Chamblee has never been shy to share his opinion, but he arguably has been at his most outspoken in addressing the raging war between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.

Just last week, Chamblee said the debut of LIV Golf near London made him “want to puke.”

“When it comes to the richest sports stars in the world, Phil Mickelson is 11th. He’s ahead of Kobe Bryant, he’s ahead of David Beckham, he’s ahead of Kevin Durant, he’s ahead of Lewis Hamilton,” Chamblee said. “You’re talking about him being ahead of icons in sports that are far more popular worldwide than the game of golf. And yet why is it that golf has four of the highest paid athletes of all time? Why is it that Phil Mickelson is 11th, in terms of the stratosphere he does occupy, as an athlete … that athletes who have made less money than him but play a sport that is widely more popular? Why is that? It’s because of the image of the golfer.

Chamblee didn’t spare other defectors to LIV, including SMU product and Dallas resident Bryson DeChambeau, calling out his inconsistent comments and giving the 2020 U.S. Open champion a tongue-lashing for the ages.

“More recently, he’s been talking about how he’s found God and become a Christian and I just wonder how he squares accepting money from a regime that is anti-Christian,” Chamblee said. “You can’t pull a Bible out in Riyadh without going to jail. They are misogynistic, they are anti-Semitic, there’s no freedom of speech. He talks about his charities, about going home to do things, but meanwhile, he’s taking money from people who oppress the things he purports to stand for, which is philanthropic enterprises. That’s where the money is coming from. He says he’ll have a new legacy. He absolutely will have a new legacy, and it will be tarnished as a 100-year-old silver trophy that has been untouched up in a closet.”

Notes

• Lions Municipal Golf Course enjoyed a special delivery this week — a new fleet of golf carts and the revered track. The city of Austin continues to make improvements in the course, leading the Save Muny social media accounts to heap on doses of thanks: “Restoring the course, improving the 141-acre Lions Municipal Golf Course, and creating a dynamic public facility for everyone, this is the mission,” a post on Instagram said this week. “We appreciate these efforts by the City of Austin and will forever support the bettering of our home here at Muny by partnering on these improvements.”

More: Save Muny event raises $800,000 for renovations at Lions Municipal Golf Course

• Speaking of Lions, the first round of qualifying for the 2022 Firecracker Open starts this weekend. The tournament will be held July 1-3 at Lions. Last year, former UTSA golfer and Dripping Springs High School Mitchell Griffin put together a spectacular stretch of golf that included a second-round 63 to capture the trophy.

• As part of its 100 anniversary, Willow Brook Country Club in Tyler is hosting the 113th Texas Amateur, starting on Thursday. The last time the Texas Am was played at Willow Brook Country Club was in 1964 when Marty Fleckman of Port Arthur, one of the best amateurs in the country, won the title that year with a 2-and-1 victory in the final match against Richard Yates. It was also the last Texas Amateur conducted as a match-play championship before switching to a stroke-play format. Last year, Hutto’s Jake Doggett was the 54-hole leader at the event and played in Sunday’s final pairing. He fell by one stroke to Austyn Reily of Pottsboro.

Tim Schmitt is the managing editor for Golfweek, golf coordinator for the USA Today Network and lives in Round Rock. Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols and Adam Schupak also contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Longhorns golfer Travis Vick ready for U.S. Open this week