There are things in life that stand out. Indelible memories that are engrained in our hearts and minds as if it were yesterday.
 
Then there's the morning before playing for the United States Amateur Championship.



That's the life of a competitor…of a champion. The minutiae fades away, but what happens on the course, between the lines, that's what sticks out to Steven Fox, 2012 U.S. Amateur Champion.
 
Coach Mark Guhne agreed. "That morning was so different. When you get to a golf tournament, you're used to seeing all of these players milling around and all the golf bags. But there were only two guys…two golf bags. Everybody is just kind of watching them waiting for what's to come."
 
There's really not much that jumps back to the Mocs contingent about the first 18 holes. Fox took an early lead, Weaver came back and was up at the break. That's when a funny thing happened.
 
Despite carrying his son's bag throughout the match play rounds, Alan Fox made a beeline to Guhne and assistant coaches Ben Rickett and David McKenna. The message was clear.
 
If anyone wanted to take the bag, he would happily become a fan again. In hindsight, that decision was pretty easy.
 
"His dad said 'I'm not the person to finish these remaining holes'," Rickett recalled. "We sat there as a group, Daisy [McKenna], Coach Guhne and I. We came to the conclusion that the best person to help him at this point was myself.
 
"I told his dad that if this is the direction you want to go, I'll absolutely do it for you. But that was between him and Steven."
 
The match continued to ebb and flow in the afternoon with Weaver 2 up through 14. The 15th looked like a turning point. The long par 3 was shortened for the final 18. It put wedge into the hands of a master. We'll let the "wedge artisan" explain.
 
"The match was so much fun," Fox noted. "I don't know if we played our best golf over the first 27 holes. I was up one or two after the first five holes and then never sniffed the lead again until the 37th hole. That last nine holes, I think there was a birdie on every one of them.
 
"They moved the tees up at 15 which is good for me because Weaver hits it longer than I do. It's a wedge, my strength. It was the fastest putt, we read it perfectly and it goes in. That puts all the momentum my way down 1."
 
Despite the surge, Weaver was not swayed. He followed making a long birdie effort on 16 to return to a 2 up lead with two to play. It was a dire situation.
 
Well dire for most, but not with Fox's mindset according to Rickett.
 
"His personality is so relaxed and laid back," Rickett noted. "He had his emotions under full control throughout the day, and the situation never fazed him. That's why I thought that he would be able to execute the game plan while also trying to keep it as stress free as possible.
 
"Going into 17, the mindset was to make sure we made Michael win, rather than giving it to him. This meant playing smart golf and giving ourselves the best chance to make birdies without handing it to him. Those chances on 17 and 18 were enough to get us into extra holes."
 
He won 17 with a 15-foot birdie putt and went to 18 needing to even the match. Both players were on the left side of the green with 40-50-foot putts. Fox's effort was tantalizing close, but only ended up in a par. What happened next defied imagination.
 
Weaver's short putt caught something along its path to the hole. It veered slightly left and horseshoed around the hole for bogey. To the 37th hole!
 
"My hat was off when he was hitting it," the champ recollected. "I thought I had lost and that was it. As soon as it missed, Ben said let's get to the first tee."
 
They went to the historic first hole. Arnold Palmer's improbable comeback to win the 1960 U.S. Open started by driving the first green at Cherry Hills. A driver played a part in this drama.
 
Throughout the week, Fox had hit 4 irons off of one. In the morning with a little extra adrenaline, he chose the 5. With the 37th hole to look forward to, he went with the 6 and flew his usual ball placement that week by about 25 yards. He had 75 yards to the hole, dead center of the fairway.
 
Weaver chose driver.
 
"I didn't know it at the time," Fox continued. "Actually found out a few months ago while I was visiting Cherry Hills. Michael had hit driver in all his matches and hit one to 4 feet in one of them. He had good memories and good thoughts with the driver there.
 
"There's not many places you can miss it though, so fortunately for me, he hit it left."
 
Fox's approach skipped hard and settled around 20 feet from the hole. It was right on top of the hill. Six inches to a foot shorter, it would have fed right back down to the hole.
 
Weaver's initial offering stayed short of the green. His third shot ended up just inside Fox's distance to set the drama.
 
"All I had to do was hit it six inches," he smiled. "I found a good line, it went in and then the coolest part of it, we have photos of you, Mark Guhne, my dad, David McKenna all behind the green. It has me fist pumping and all of you going crazy. It's in my room...awesome photo."
 
 
There was no time to reflect. He was presented the trophy, photographed a billion times with a variety of people and signed several autographs to go with the post-round press conference. Then came the members of Cherry Hills celebrating their champion.
 
"Nothing sank in," Fox added. "I didn't know what I had accomplished. I had one college win and then suddenly, I'm on top of the amateur world. Go from 500 in the world into the top 10. That night, I don't think we left the course until 1 or 2 a.m., and I had to catch a 5 a.m., flight. I think I had one beer the whole time because it was spent talking to people.
 
"The membership at Cherry Hills is like the Honors here, absolutely phenomenal."
 
It wasn't until the next morning that being the U.S. Amateur Champion really hit him.
 
"So I had just a few hours of sleep," he continued. "Taking the trophy through the airport and security was a cool thing...probably a top 10 cool thing. I just balled on the plane. I don't know why, but it just hit me. Luckily my dad was asleep. I don't think he knew to this day about that. We got into Nashville at 10 in the morning. All I wanted to do was get back to Chattanooga and celebrate with my teammates.
 
"It was the first day of school, might've missed a class or two, but that week was crazy. You would pick me up at 8 in the morning and drop me off at 6 at night with a full day running through media and celebration, but the big thing was getting back to my teammates.
 
"All the support, friends and family...there was no place else I'd rather be (than Chattanooga)."
 
It was a win that will be forever remembered in Chattanooga sports history. And that's where the school and community intersect. It was a win that was not just for an individual or a program.
 
It brought the community together in celebration. The Power C shined brightly on NBC that weekend bringing the city and its school into the world's consciousness.
 
"I still get asked about it all the time," Fox added. "They want to know about playing the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open...what was it like? How's Michael Weaver, who is actually a good buddy of mine now. Five years seems like a long time.
 
"Just getting there was big for me. I wasn't a big name. You had Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Thomas Pieters all there, (Hideki) Matsuyama was there. I was a nobody. So it was a big deal for me just to qualify for the tournament. Just getting to the playoff (17 players for 14 spots) was exciting going an extra four holes to snag the 63rd seed.
 
"It's obviously the biggest thing I've done in my career so far. People recognize that event sometimes as a major. Wherever I am in the golf community, at my home course and even out to dinner in Chattanooga getting noticed in restaurants, it's cool to me just for that one tournament I won. It was awesome for my family, coaches, teammates.
 
"It wasn't just me that won it, it was a whole group and we got to celebrate it."
 
For more to the written story, check out the "Cause & Effect" and "Degree of Difficulty" to the win. Goosebump alert…to hear it in their own words and see it for yourself, watch the video below.