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W&L Alum Qualifies for U.S. Amateur Golf

Washington and Lee alumnus and former Generals’ varsity golfer Max Adler, of the Class of 2004, makes his living writing about golf these days. But he still plays — and pretty well, it seems.

Back in July, Max birdied the final two holes at the Shorehaven Golf Club in East Norwalk, Conn., to finish with a six-under-par, 36-hole total of 136. That was good for first place in the field and allowed Max to fulfill a dream by qualifying for the 2013 U.S. Amateur Championships.

On Monday (Aug. 12), Max joined 311 other amateur qualifiers to compete in what Golf Digest (where Max is a staff writer) described as “the world’s most prestigious amateur golf tournament” at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

It would be nice to report that Max blew away the field. That’s not exactly the way it happened. His two-day total was 153, and he failed to make it through to the match-play rounds, which featured the top 64 golfers in the field.

But Max did come away with great memories. As he said in the story on Golf Digest’s Website: “I feel like a pretty beaten man after playing The Country Club. It was the sternest, longest, but most importantly, most beautiful test of golf I’ve ever experienced…. I didn’t play great, but was happy to soak it up.”

He added that playing in front of 30 to 40 people was a new experience — “not exactly a big gallery, but it makes it different.”

In 2010, Max qualified or and played in the U.S. Public Links Championship and wrote about that experience here.

You can also find an archive of all of Max’s Golf Digest content here. Max is joined on the Golf Digest staff by Mike Stachura, another W&L alumnus (Class of 1986) and a former Sports Information director, who is the publication’s equipment editor. You can see Mike’s Golf Digest content here.

If you know any W&L alumni who would be great profile subjects, tell us about them! Nominate them for a web profile.