Ranch’s Seath Lauer watches ex-roommate win U.S. Open

Former Lakewood Ranch High School standout Seath Lauer didn’t watch every second of the United States Open, but he stayed glued to the action in Sunday’s final round.

Lauer, who played in a sectional qualifier for the U.S. Open, had a rooting interest with eventual champion Brooks Koepka.

The two were college teammates on Florida State’s men’s golf team, and they lived together, along with teammate Cameron Knight, during Koepka’s freshman year, which coincided with Lauer’s junior season.

“I kind of hosted him on his recruiting visit,” Lauer told the Herald. “I took a liking to him, because he just kind of reminded me of me in terms of the way he played the game, and he was just an athletic kid.”

Lauer, who also roomed with NFL quarterback Christian Ponder in his senior year, said he didn’t see Koepka as a future major champion at the time he arrived at Florida State in 2008.

“But as an athlete to another athlete, did he always have potential? Yeah, absolutely,” Lauer said.

Lauer said he texted his father and Knight after the first few holes of Sunday’s final round to tell them Koepka was going to win the tournament.

“I said, ‘If he keeps driving it this good, he’s going to win,’” Lauer said.

The last time the two ran into each other for a significant length of time was in 2012. It was the second stage of PGA Tour Qualifying School at TPC Ranch in McKinney, Texas. It also was a significant moment in Koepka’s career. He failed to qualify there and went abroad to Europe to achieve the success needed to transition back to America.

Koepka claimed his first PGA Tour title in 2015 and starred for the United States at the 2016 Ryder Cup before capturing his first major title this past Sunday.

“He missed one green in the final round,” Lauer said. “That’s unheard of in a U.S. Open, especially with the pressure.”

Lauer’s playing partner in the sectional qualifier, Trey Mullinax, also excelled at the U.S. Open with a tie for ninth place at 8-under par.

Each year, the U.S. Open showcases arguably the most difficult test in golf. Making pars is often viewed as a great score with narrow fairways and high rough penalizing even the slightest wayward drives.

But in 2017, Koepka tied Rory McIlroy’s six-year old U.S. Open record and numerous others shot low scores — seven players posted double-digit under-par totals and 31 players finished at least 1-under par or better — as the tournament resembled a World Golf Championship event rather than the traditional-style U.S. Open.

“You’ve got to be driving it in a 20-yard grid, not a 45-yard grid,” Lauer said. “I think that’s what all of us golfers want to see as the Open progresses over the years.”

It’s the third straight year the USGA has struggled in its marquee showcase. The visit to Chambers Bay was widely panned, and last year’s rules discussion with eventual champion Dustin Johnson in the final round caught major heat on social media from various PGA Tour players.

This year saw Koepka win with a birdie barrage on the back nine, but the event wasn’t the battle against par that most expect.

“The USGA is in a different place right now, that’s for sure,” Lauer said. “They’ve gone back on some of their rule changes they tried to implement, and they’ve also gone out of their comfort zone in terms of golf courses. I think as an organization, they need to sit down and figure it back out and kind of go back to the way it was supposed to be. I don’t want to see three British Opens on the schedule like there were two years ago. ... Whistling Straits (PGA Championship), Chambers Bay (U.S. Open) and an Old Course St. Andrews (British Open). That’s three British Opens on the schedule, essentially in my mind. ... There’s supposed to be a couple different styles of golf in the majors and I don’t think we’ve really seen that.”

This story was originally published June 21, 2017 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Ranch’s Seath Lauer watches ex-roommate win U.S. Open."