SAN FRANCISCO — The rankings say that there are 4,291 amateur golfers in the world who are better than Jimmy Abdo. Entering this week at The Olympic Club, there was little reason to disagree. Heck, less than four years ago, Abdo couldn’t even qualify for his Edina (Minn.) High School team’s traveling lineup. He had never even tried to qualify for the U.S. Amateur until this year because, “I just never felt like I was good enough.”
It turns out, he is. Embracing the underdog mentality, Abdo has advanced to the quarterfinals and is just two victories away from a likely invitation to the Masters.
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“ Being the underdog, there’s way less pressure on me to perform well, and I feel I can go out there and play pretty free,” Abdo said after holing a 20-footer for birdie at the last to win his Round of 16 match against Northwestern’s Daniel Svärd.
Abdo, who was adopted from Lebanon and grew up in Minnesota, started hitting golf balls at age 3 but didn’t start playing competitive golf until he was in middle school. Even through his sophomore year in high school, he admits “I wasn’t really anything special.”
Eakin Howard
That’s when Abdo started working on his game with Interlachen Country Club’s director of instruction Dr. Luke Benoit, whose Ph.D. in kinesiology and focus on biomechanics and speed helped transform Abdo’s game. Paired with better technique, Abdo started working out in the gym and gained “60 yards off the tee,” between that sophomore and junior year. His scoring average dropped from 77 to 70.
“I give a lot of credit to [Dr. Benoit] for that. He’s honestly taken my game to another level,” Abdo said.
But the improved technique and speed didn’t just come from a few lessons. Seeing five guys better than him on his high school team motivated Abdo to outwork them. “I found out that if you want to get better than people, you can’t work the same as them. You’ve got to put in double,” he said. “As soon I started putting in double, I realized that I was good enough to get good, but I wanted to be better, and so I went triple.”
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Still, Abdo wasn’t recruited to play Division I college golf and instead opted to stay local and play for the Division III Gustavus Adolphus College. Abdo had a strong freshman season and won a collegiate event in April, which is what made him eligible to be included in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. Hopeful that his season would propel him to a Division I program, Abdo entered the transfer portal this summer. Very few schools showed any interest, so Abdo decided to stay in Minnesota.
THE JIMMY ABDO SHOW CONTINUES 🔥
The DIII golfer representing @GustieGolf will play in the quarterfinals at the U.S. Amateur. pic.twitter.com/Qv8NaPFHtV
— USGA (@USGA) August 15, 2025
“ No one really believes that I’m capable of playing good golf like this. I know I am, and I’ve had that confidence even when I was in high school,” Abdo said.
Now, Abdo finally has the results on amateur golf’s biggest stage to prove it. In Friday’s quarterfinal match, Abdo will play Tennessee standout and 2024 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball runner-up Jackson Herrington.
“ I’ve never been backed down from anybody,” he said, “but ready to play against anybody. I’m not even sure who I have tomorrow, but I’m ready to put up a fight against whoever it is.”
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
