UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. -- At some point during this week's U.S. Open, cameras will capture an image of 15-year-old Cole Hammer, his rosy cheeks prominent on television screens around the world. Invariably, somebody much older -- an on-course commentator, your dad, a random graybeard at the 19th hole -- will make the tired joke that he's not even old enough to shave. Everyone of a certain age within earshot will offer a polite chuckle at the expense of the peach-fuzz-faced kid competing among the world's best golfers.
Except, here's the problem: That tired joke won't even be factual.
"A little bit," he says when asked if he shaves. "Sometimes."
Here's another problem: Hammer is going to be stereotyped as a wide-eyed teenager, the third-youngest in this tournament's 115-year history, but perhaps the youngest-looking, his 5-foot-9, 125-pound frame belying his Paul Bunyan-esque name.
The reality is, he is wise beyond his years. It would be a terrific story for a kid to go straight from playing "Minecraft" to playing the U.S. Open, but golf doesn't work that way. This wasn't an accident.
Hammer has been playing golf since he was 2 years old, the byproduct of golf-obsessed parents Gregg and Allison, each of whom has won multiple club championships at River Oaks Country Club, near their Houston home.
He doesn't play video games, insisting he doesn't like them. He's looking forward to getting his driver's license, but only so he can go to the golf course whenever he wants. As for hobbies, he maintains: "I don't have any extracurricular activities other than golf."
And when he speaks about playing this week at Chambers Bay, he sounds eerily like any of the other 155 players in the field.
"I feel like my game is in a good place right now, so hopefully I'll be able to play pretty well. ... I think it's very important to put it in the right spot off the tee and miss it on the correct side of the green out here. ... Everyone's going to make bogeys. If you're making some bogeys, just know everyone else out there is struggling, especially at a course like this at the U.S. Open."
If such mature statements from such a young player reek of familiarity, it's because the phrase to best describe Hammer is one ripped from early 1990s basketball comparisons.
Just call him Baby Jordan.
Hammer calls Masters champion Jordan Spieth one of his role models. The rising high school sophomore is even verbally committed to the University of Texas, just like Spieth. And on Monday afternoon, they played a practice round together, Hammer following Spieth around the back nine, mimicking his practice of chipping to certain areas on the greens, keeping a relaxed composure and even signing a few autographs in between holes.
"He's getting better experience than I had at his age," intones Spieth, now a grizzled 21-year-old. "He maybe didn't expect himself to be out here testing his game this soon, but it just shows how the game is growing, how much better it's getting at a young age, and Cole's the living image of it. And I'm interested to see how he does this week. I think with really no expectations, it could help him. And on a golf course like this, you just never know."
The U.S. Open is one for the dreamers -- the most democratic golf tournament in the world, as Roy McAvoy in "Tin Cup" so poetically declared. If Hammer was to climb this week's leaderboard, it would drive home that point, especially because conventional wisdom says he's too short off the tee, will be hitting too many long clubs into the greens and, yes, is too inexperienced.
Of course, these were all criticisms of Spieth's game prior to his runner-up finish at Augusta National last year and his win two months ago.
That doesn't mean Hammer is ready for such a spotlight, but he's learning by keeping a close eye on his role model -- not just in how he plays the game, but how he handles himself outside the ropes, too.
"I think he's handling it OK," says his father, Gregg, who at 47 is younger than several players in the field. "He's certainly in awe of what he's seeing. This has been an amazing experience so far."
At one point, Hammer found himself pounding drives on the range next to Rory McIlroy, who "hits it so far, it's crazy." He chipped balls alongside Tiger Woods, whose historic 2008 victory is his first U.S. Open memory. Through it all, he said the right things. He's fascinated without being star-struck, overjoyed without being overwhelmed.
It all sounds so familiar, so much like a fellow young Texan who has taken a similar approach.
When that image of Cole Hammer's rosy cheeks flashes across your television screen this week and the tired joke is invariably made, remember these things. He's 15, but Baby Jordan is a 15-year-old who is mature well beyond his years.
