Deacon’s breakthrough begins at U.S. Amateur

Adam Candee

Monday, Aug. 29, 2005 | 9:31 a.m.

When freshman-year roommates J.C. Deacon and Ryan Moore first arrived at UNLV, Rebels coach Dwaine Knight wondered which hot prospect would first become a superstar.

The winner in that race is Moore, but if this week's performance at the U.S. Amateur is any indication, Deacon might be poised to blossom into quite a player himself.

Deacon, who finished his eligibility with the Rebels in the spring, advanced to the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa., before falling 1-up to Dillon Dougherty. Deacon went to the 16th tee at 1-up before Dougherty made some strong shots on the final two holes to steal the victory.

Italy's Edoardo Molinari made a 25-foot birdie putt at the 33rd hole to beat Dougherty 4 and 3 and win the U.S. Amateur championship at Merion Golf Club.

Still carrying his UNLV bag, Deacon put together one of his most consistent weeks of competitive golf in years and felt great about it.

"It was just absolutely a dream week of my life," Deacon said Sunday night, fighting a fading cell phone battery exhausted from a weekend of congratulations. "I played some of the best golf of my life. It was absolutely a dream."

Judging by his play coming into the U.S. Amateur, excellence might be much more of a reality than a dream for Deacon. After years of work with Rebels mental coach Dr. Mark Guadagnoli, Deacon said he began to feel a breakthrough in his game in March.

He barely missed making the Rebels traveling team for the Mountain West Conference championship, and began shooting practice rounds in the mid-60s in early June. Deacon, an Ontario native, recorded his first career ace and advanced to the second round at the Canadian Amateur earlier in the summer.

He arrived at Merion full of confidence, a major switch from his last two years at UNLV.

"You never know when that confidence comes through," Knight said of Deacon.

When he tied for second at the conference championship as a freshman, it appeared that confidence would come early for Deacon. He recorded a career-low stroke average of 74.12 as a sophomore and made his second consecutive appearance on UNLV's team at the NCAA championship.

Somewhere in the middle of his career, though, Deacon began fighting his game. He said there was no acute reason for the onset of his struggles, but once the mental concerns about his swing and his game crept in, they were difficult to get out. Deacon did not record a top-20 finish as a junior and played only the season-opening Preview with the Rebels as a senior through the first eight months of the season.

"We worked really hard on emotions, trying to stay calm and not force things," Knight said. "He's always had the game to recover if things were not going right."

When Deacon finally heard the click in spring, he qualified for the Rebels trip to Arizona State, where the team won without Moore. The click, Deacon said, became more of a silence.

"It's actually feeling nothing and thinking nothing," Deacon said. "That's the hard part to figure out about golf."

Without his second-half struggles as a Rebel, Deacon feels he would not have been ready for a big-stage experience like his semifinal run at Merion.

"Everything I went through at UNLV - the good times and especially the bad times - made me so much tougher," Deacon said. "I believe that toughness is what go me through this week."

Deacon, 22, plans to return to UNLV for the fall semester to complete his communications degree before turning pro in 2006.