Arizona's Zach Pollo living out childhood dreams at U.S. Open

For the most part, every high-level competitive golfer has a swing coach or a golf pro they see for consultation.

Arizona junior Zachery Pollo has been with the same swing coach since he was “13 or 14 years old,” he said.

Nearly a decade since their first session, Pollo’s swing coach will caddy for the UA golfer this week at the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania, which begins Thursday morning.

Pollo tees off on Thursday at 11:20 a.m. on USA Network. The second, third and fourth rounds of the U.S. Open will be televised on NBC. Pollo will be paired up with PGA golfers Ryan McCormick and Trevor Cone.

Pollo, who is set to play in his first-ever PGA Tour event, is one of 10 amateur golfers to qualify for the U.S. Open this year. Pollo is the first Wildcat to play in the U.S. Open since UA men’s golf head coach Jim Anderson was hired in 2012.

“It’s pretty cool,” Pollo said. “I’m excited and it’s something that doesn’t happen very often at this age. It’s a great opportunity for me to represent the U of A, go out and have a good time and enjoy the experience.”

The U.S. Open “is one of the biggest tournaments you could possibly get into,” Anderson said. Other notable Wildcats to play in the U.S. Open include Jim Furyk and Ricky Barnes, who set the 36-hole scoring record at the 2009 U.S. Open.

USGA announced it received a record 10,202 entries for the U.S. Open qualifiers at 110 local qualifying sites. For the final 10 qualifying sites, there were 744 golfers. Only 47 golfers from the qualifiers advanced to the 156-player U.S. Open this year.

A majority of the players at the U.S. Open “are there by way of how they played as professionals,” said Anderson.

“It’s an honor to make it, and it’s a lifetime experience for many,” said Arizona’s head coach. “There are professional journeymen who try to play golf for a living and it’s a serious hobby for them; they dream of having the chance to play in one U.S. Open.

“For Zach to do this at 21 (years old) and have aspirations to get to play in more of these, it’s a great way to kickstart what will soon be a great professional career for him. ... He’s going into his senior year and he has positioned himself as one of the best in college golf.”

Pollo was born in Sacramento and grew up in Rocklin, California, a suburb of the capital of California, and gravitated towards golf at 7 years old with the help of his grandfather.

“He noticed that I really enjoyed it and loved it,” Pollo said. “We started playing the course and it just took off from there. I started playing some junior tournaments, did well there and it just took off. ... It just clicked for me. When I was young, I would hit balls over and over again, and it just never got old.”

One of Pollo’s sources of inspiration is Scottie Scheffler, the top-ranked golfer in the world, “not because of the way he plays, but the way he handles himself on the golf course.”

“He’s very calm and he gets himself around the golf course good mentally,” Pollo said.

Added Pollo: “It’s very cliché, you hear it a lot, but it’s the best way to handle it: you really have to take it one shot at a time, especially when you’re in contention. One bad shot isn’t going to take you out of contention, it’s if you keep stacking bad shots because you’re not in the frame of mind; that’s what takes you out of it. When you’re in contention, every shot is vital and it doesn’t matter what the past shot was. Just focus on what’s ahead.”

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Pollo signed with Arizona out of Whitney High School in 2022 and immediately became an impact player for the Wildcats.

Pollo was named a Pac-12 All-Freshman Team member and was one of three Wildcats to play in every tournament in 2022-23. Pollo was the co-champion of Arizona’s National Invitational Tournament (NIT) at Omni Tucson National, becoming the first UA freshman to win the event since Henry Liaw in 2004. Pollo’s 13-under performance helped Arizona win the NIT for the first time since 2003.

As a sophomore, Pollo was a second-team All-Pac-12 selection. This season, Pollo won the individual title at the St. Andrews Links Collegiate in Scotland and had a Top 10 finish at the Amherst Regional in Virginia last month.

Over a week ago, Pollo shot 6 under at the 36-hole U.S. Open qualifier at Valencia Country Club in California. The U.S. Open qualifier is known as “Golf’s Longest Day.”

“It is a long day, for sure,” Pollo said. “But to my advantage, we played a handful of those days in college this past year. We played, like, five or six 36-hole days. I think that preparation helped guide me to have a good day because it takes a toll on you. Having done that in the past, I think, made it a little bit easier.”

Pollo said he “finished the first round really strong” at the U.S. Open qualifier, which positioned him comfortably for a spot in the U.S. Open.

“It wasn’t anything special to start the round until I rolled off a few birdies and got an eagle in there,” Pollo said. “Between rounds, I checked the leaderboard and I saw I was a couple (shots) ahead. That’s when I realized, ‘Just one good round and you’re going to be playing in the U.S. Open.’”

The reward for qualifying for the U.S. Open? Playing at Oakmont Country Club, one of the most daunting courses in the world. The eighth hole is a 300-yard Par 3 surrounded by bunkers. The rough at Oakmont Country Club is 5 inches thick, the greens are fast and mishits can be unforgiving. Dustin Johnson, who won the U.S. Open at Oakmont in 2016, said the course is the most challenging in the world.

“This is probably the hardest golf course that we’ll play,” said Scheffler. “Maybe ever.”

Pollo’s confident in his ball-striking and putting to potentially excel at the U.S. Open.

“Typically, if I get the putter going, it’s going to be a really good week,” he said. “I know I have the ball-striking and I know I have the game. I know the greens are going to be firm and fast and the rough is going to be thick. Keeping the ball in play and on the fairway and having irons from the fairway is going to be really important. If a few putts go in, it’s going to be a really good week, for sure.”

When Pollo first started his journey at Arizona, he was considered a “streaky putter,” according to Anderson. Since becoming an upperclassman, Pollo’s putting has been more consistent.

“When he was young, he had great weeks, but when it wasn’t all there, it was a little bit inconsistent, and that’s where he made remarkable strides,” Anderson said.

Pollo said, “That’s been something I’ve been working on for a while.”

“That’s an area of my game I always focus to improve on,” he added. “It gets streaky, but I’ve done a decent job at keeping it more consistent than it used to be. There’s still work to do and it’s a process. It’s not something that’s going to happen overnight. There’s been improvements, for sure, and we’re going to keep improving. That consistency is what I’m looking for.”

Playing in the U.S. Open “is not something you expect to happen, but it’s something you dream of when you’re a kid,” Pollo said. “I’m just going to enjoy the experience. Obviously, I want to play well and I’ll do whatever I can to play well.

“Overall, just being there in general is going to be a really great thing to experience.”