Few people have good things to say about lockdowns but to understand how Harrison Crowe built the golf game to get the young star to Augusta National – and go viral from a Scottish pavement – you have to travel back to “the Valley”, circa 2021.
As Sydney went into a second COVID-19 lockdown, Crowe’s home course of St Michael’s at Little Bay, was outside the 5km radius of his family home in Bexley, and with it, the practice facilities that had helped him become one of Australia’s most prominent junior amateur talents.
But Bardwell Valley, the local par-62 course where Crowe first hit a ball and worked in a range of jobs, was just up the road.
“So I just played golf all day, every day,” Crowe said. “I would just take a cart and play 36 to 54 holes a day, basically. I would just play one ball and try to go as low as I can. I am not really much of a range warrior. I get most of my practice done out on the course.
“You are never really playing off a nice flat lie, you’re creating different shots. And the big thing is you just have to learn how to score.”
Before lockdown, Crowe admits he was struggling with his swing.
Harrison Crowe back at his home course, St Michael’s at Little Bay. Credit:Steve Siewert
“But I just played so much golf at the Valley and I kept scoring, and I just forgot about my swing,” Crowe said. “I just kept posting really good scores and I started figuring ‘OK, maybe I am not swinging great but I am still getting it done’. I realised it’s not always going to be pretty but it is all about making the most out of our B and C game, when the A game isn’t there.”
When lockdown ended and summer rolled on, Crowe began a breakout year that is still spinning heads. He won the Victorian and NSW Amateur titles, the Australian Master of the Amateurs tournament and then in April won the NSW Open, too, becoming the first golfer since 1937 to hold the professional and amateur titles.
Each win saw Crowe rally from tricky positions to “get it done”, and at the weekend, the 21-year-old did it again by coming from three shots down on the back nine to win the Asia-Pacific Amateur tournament in Thailand. It earned Crowe invitations to next year’s US Masters and the Open.
Crowe was back at St Michael’s on Wednesday, slowly returning to earth.
“I haven’t had a whole lot of time yet to accept … or to visualise the fact that I am playing in the Masters and the Open. I am sure when I have a few days off, and have a chance to ‘chillax’ and catch up on some sleep, I will be flicking through some old replays,” Crowe said.
Crowe had planned to turn professional in coming weeks but given he needs to still be amateur to play the Masters and the Open, that will now be put on pause. Crowe works part-time selling clubs and shoes at a Drummond Golf shop – “it doesn’t really feel like work” – and he’ll happily keep taking shifts to make ends meet.
Crowe will play at the Open and the US Masters in 2023.Credit:Steven Siewert
With a booming profile, however, there’s every chance the Bexley boy will be spotted teeing up with the likes of Cameron Smith and Adam Scott at the Australian Open later next month in Melbourne.
Prior to the Asia-Pacific amateur, Crowe spent time talking with Scott after the youngster has missed the cut at the Japan Open; continuing a frustrating run of outs on a three-month stint playing overseas. Scott passed on advice, urging him to re-set and go win in Thailand.
Sporting a Smith-esque mullet, Crowe says he’d be stoked to play in the same postcode of the Open winner this summer, too.
“If they paired me with Cam I would be very excited. I am a little bit of a fanboy,” Crowe said.
Knowing his knockabout sensibilities, Smith would know about Crowe already based on a video of the youngster hitting a ball onto the 18th green at St Andrews, from a pavement outside a pub, that went viral earlier this year.
“It was just spontaneous,” Crowe explained.
“We are just having a couple of drinks in the pub after we played the St Andrews Links Trophy and a few of the boys met Erik, from the Random Golf Club [YouTube] guys. Erik talked about what Ernie Els did, allegedly, and he was searching to recreate it.
“One of my best mates, Jack, he was ready to do it … but he was at the stage where he definitely wasn’t as coherent as I was so I thought, ‘You know what, if it’s going to happen, I’ll do it’. I felt like he might have put it through a window.”
It wasn’t quite the first tee at St Andrews but with a building gallery, Crowe hit the ball crisply from concrete and made the shot.
“I think it just kind of showed our Aussie culture a bit,” he said. “We like a laugh. We’re up for a challenge. I just thought, ‘I can make that’.”
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