By Clair Goodwin

sports@joplinglobe.com

When 16-year-old Andrew Maier stepped on the first tee for a sudden-death playoff with veterans Les Taylor and Paul Ashe in the 2007 Ozark Amateur, he was understandably nervous and perhaps even a little shocked.

“I never expected to be in that situation,” he said. “I just tried to keep really calm. I wasn’t expected to win, so if I didn’t come out on top, no one was going to be disappointed.”

Fifteen minutes later, Maier dropped a 25-foot birdie putt on the opening par-5 at Schifferdecker Municipal Golf Course and then watched as Taylor and Ashe missed their attempts from 10 to 15 feet.

And thus the drama ended and Maier became the youngest Ozark champion.

Andrew had displayed a maturity beyond his years as well as character in the face of adversity, determination and a championship-caliber game.

Still, going into the last four or five holes of regulation on that final day, Maier had no idea he was still in the hunt.

“I was a couple over . . . and I thought that I had shot myself in the foot,” he said. “I really didn’t want to know how I stood . . . and no one said anything. When I made a couple of birdies coming in and got back to even, I was still, like, ‘well it was a good tournament.’ Then I heard people saying that the leaders in the last group had struggled.”

Maier attributes his solid play to his father, Mike Maier, one of the top amateurs in the area for many years, who has helped him with his swing and course management, and to the experience he gained from a University of Arkansas golf camp last year. Mike is the course superintendent at Eagle Creek Golf Club.

Andrew went to the camp on a scholarship awarded by the Joplin Golf Foundation. What he got out of the program was the result of pounding golf balls for hours in learning to make better contact and intensive one-on-one instruction.

Young Maier also credits his father with “doing a good job of showing me the ropes about the mental part of the game.” He seldom displays more emotion than an occasional fist-pump after a birdie. But, he says, “I never show negative emotions. I tend to do pretty good forgetting my bad shots and getting back to the positive side.”

Andrew was disappointed by his showing in last weekend’s Ozark Amateur, placing fifth in A Flight with 75-73—148. Two days before the tournament, he shot a 68 at Schifferdecker to win the Harold Kirk Junior Championship.

Maier will be a senior at Webb City High School this fall. He played No. 2 on the golf team his first two years, was No. 1 last year and expects to be No. 1 this year. His goal is to play four years of college golf and then try to play on the pro tour.

Now 17, the 5-foot-11, 165-pound Maier is striving to improve. He works out in the offseason to add strength and increase flexibility under a special training regime designed by Webb City coach Wayne Smith. And to further hone his game, he competes in friendly, but competitive matches with his father.