After Walker Cup snub, Peterson moves on

The FedEx St. Jude Classic is the first of consecutive PGA Tour starts for John Peterson after he successfully navigated two qualifiers in two states in two days. The latter event, the U.S. Open, will reunite him with an organization that spurned him nine months ago. Peterson was the most controversial omission from last year’s Walker Cup team and will join Brandt Snedeker on the short list of all-time snubs. Next week at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, Peterson is prepared to see the U.S. Golf Association committee members who deemed him unfit to represent the country. He was seventh in the R&A’s World Amateur Ranking at the time of last year’s Walker Cup selection. “I wouldn’t avoid it if they came up to me. I wouldn’t mind it at all," Peterson said. "I’d like to talk to them a little bit, maybe, and just see what’s been going on and their reasons for everything. I wouldn’t run away from it. I’ve never been one to do that. I’m not going to seek them out or anything, but if I run into one of them or Steve Smyers (chair of the USGA’s International Team Selection Committee in 2011), I’ll shake his hands and ask him how he’s been, but I’m not going to bring up anything that might bring some bad blood up.”