This waiter and former Duke maintenance worker advances at US Open qualifier
As he stood over a 40-foot putt on the 18th green, Zane Lewis probably should have known exactly how it would break. He spent three years mowing, watering, top-dressing and otherwise coddling that green as a golf-course maintenance worker at Duke while and after he played golf at N.C. Central.
If it was in prime shape for Tuesday’s U.S. Open qualifier, Lewis could take at least a little credit for that. But he could also put a little local knowledge to use. Not only did Lewis roll in that left-to-right rainbow, he knew exactly where the safe spots were on a day the dangerous greens and swirling, gusting wind left many others baffled.
“I knew how difficult it was,” Lewis said. “I had people try to tell me 66 was going to be what it took, and I said, ‘Y’all haven’t played out here before.’”
That birdie on 18 mattered. It was good enough for a 1-under-par 71, a three-way tie for medalist honors and a spot in a June 7 sectional qualifier for the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego. Lewis may not have been the biggest name among the 77 golfers, but he was by far the most popular, collecting a steady stream of congratulations from pretty much everyone working in a Duke blue shirt Tuesday.
Literally, it is the Cinderella story of golf lore: Former greenskeeper, now about to become, a U.S. Open sectional qualifier.
Working on golf courses, waiting tables
Lewis started working at Duke during his junior year at NCCU, two to three days a week. And this was not agronomy or any of the fancy stuff, this was labor, the hard, manual work of keeping a showpiece golf course in top shape. It didn’t leave much time for golf, so Lewis quit a year and a half ago to make a full-time run at professional golf. He took a job as a waiter at Davison’s Steaks in his native Sanford to keep his days free to play the regional mini-mini-tours, the Darwinistic lowest level of professional golf, where the winner might fetch $1,000.
With an understanding boss -- “I’ve probably requested 18 days off over the next two months,” Lewis said -- he started playing everywhere he could find: the Coastal Players Tour, the Gator Pro Tour and even the Bag Tour, a new match-play circuit that connects potential sponsors with golfers of varying abilities. That tour’s founder, Andrew Keene, caddied for Lewis on Tuesday, and Lewis won enough head-to-head matches on that loop for a sponsor -- Gashouse Shirts, which provided the cocktail-themed print number he wore Tuesday -- to pay his way to the Nevada Open last November.
This wasn’t the first time Lewis had tried to qualify for the U.S. Open, but it was the first time he was able to do it at Duke. Every other time, the qualifier filled up before he could enter. This time, he left no doubt.
“The day I got the email, I was like, I was not missing this one again,” Lewis said. “It was really good to be back out here and play well. I’m excited.”
A pseudo-practice round
Buoyed by the support of his former fellow employees and properly respectful of the lurking danger, Lewis was able to navigate Duke’s treachery Tuesday when many others were not. Duke freshman Ian Siebers, the only amateur to advance, also shot 1-under 71. Another local, former East Chapel Hill and UNC star Ben Griffin, shot even par and won a playoff for one of the final two sectional spots, but the low score of 1-under was four or five shots worse than what it usually is for a local qualifier at Duke in milder conditions.
Lewis had Tuesday night off from waiting tables, and Wednesday as well, to play in a mini-tour event at River Landing in Wallace, a pseudo-practice round for those playing in the local qualifier there next week. Lewis, alone among them, no longer has to worry about that.
While he was hitting balls on the range, the last group finished and a Carolinas Golf Association official called down that Lewis’ 71 was good enough to advance. Lewis and Keene bumped fists as another Duke employee filmed their celebration on his phone.
“I may still go by the steakhouse tonight,” Lewis said. “To eat.”
This story was originally published April 27, 2021 at 4:33 PM.
