PARAMUS, N.J. – As Bryce Lewis, Caleb Surratt and Jiri Zuska sat inside the scoring tent just off the 18th green Tuesday afternoon at Ridgewood Country Club, in stepped Ben Kimball, the USGA’s senior director of championships.
The morning wave for Round 2 of this U.S. Amateur had been averaging about 5 hours and 10 minutes – about a half hour over the time par of 4 hours and 47 minutes – and the threesome was in just over that pace. Gnarly scoring conditions and a combined 11-over score by Surratt and Zuska helped explain the slowness, but the trio had still fallen behind the group ahead and missed two checkpoints.