State Amateur Champion, Steven Fox, lines up his putt during the final round of the State Amateur Golf Tournament on Friday at the Chattanooga Golf and Country Club. Fox finished the tournament with a score of 270, 10 under par.One year ago, Steven Fox sat with his father anonymously in a Denver steakhouse with a cold Sam Adams lager on the table in front of him.
He was just an ordinary college golfer – one of many in the Denver area ready to compete for the U.S. Amateur championship at Cherry Hills – with nothing on his resume to indicate he could contend to be the nation’s amateur champion.
Other University of Tennessee at Chattanooga golfers had tried to be the champion, only to come up short. Thousands of other collegiate golfers had suffered the same fate of the prestigious tournament.
That night at dinner, after Fox ordered his steak and fixings, a friend joked to him over the phone that they would buy him a case of Sam Adams if he won the tournament.
The debt – in order to comply with NCAA and amateurism rules – has yet to be paid.