I have been a member of the United States Golf Association since the mid-1970s. The USGA is golf”s governing body in the United States. Along with the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, the USGA coordinates rules interpretations and changes as well as equipment and ball testing. They also run national championships, everything from the high-profile U.S. Open to specific age and gender events such as the U.S. Girls Junior and the U.S. Men”s Senior Amateur.
Because I also donate money to the USGA every year, they send me USGA gifts such as a towel, rulebook, divot repair tool and a calendar. The calendar is pretty neat because it features picturesque holes of golf courses that are hosting USGA titles for the year. For instance, the month of June featured the fourth hole at Bethpage Black, site of the Open. The July picture is of the 11th hole at Crooked Stick, the host for the Senior Open.
However, until I thumbed through the calendar earlier this week, I hadn”t seen much of Southern Hills during April or September”s featured course, The Homestead. Ever since I received the calendar in the mail last December, it has been hanging up in a corner of my garage, always opened to November of 2009. The calendar has been perpetually opened to November. As strange as it may seem to you, every time I pass that calendar, I stare at the beautiful golf hole and think back to a time in my life some 39 years ago.
For those of you who also have the 2009 USGA calendar, you have only had it open to November of the past 21 days. I, on the other hand, have had it open to November of the past 325 days. The featured hole is the par-3 12th at Chicago”s Beverley Country Club, the site of the U.S. Senior Amateur contested in mid-September. The Senior Am winner was Vinny Giles, a longtime amateur of note who won the U.S. Amateur in 1972.
Beverly”s 12th hole is located on the far southeastern corner of the course. It is a short par-3 surrounded on three sides by bunkers. There is also a pond between the tee and the front sand trap. The 12th is also framed by large and picturesque weeping willow trees so as to hide 91st Street behind the green and the Baltimore & Ohio railroad tracks to the right of the green.
I worked for seven years at Beverly from 1967 through 1973. The first three years I was a caddie. In the caddie vernacular, I started out as a bird, a novice caddie, and I worked my way to a looper, an experienced caddie. During the 1967 Western Open at Beverly, I worked as a sign boy. During the 1970 Western, I caddied for Bob Lunn, a top-20 professional from San Francisco. Lunn was a high school teammate of Johnny Miller who was mentored by Haggin Oaks golf professional Tommy LoPresti. Beverley”s venerable head pro, Charley Penna, was a longtime pal of LoPresti from their days on the PGA Tour in the 1930s. I was somewhat cerebral as a looper, so Penna had me connect with Lunn for the ”70 Western as a favor to LoPresti.
After the 1970 Western, which was contested in early June, I got promoted to the pro shop, spending the majority of my time as the assistant caddiemaster. One of my jobs was to train new caddies. You would go out with anywhere from 20 to 80 new birds, showing them how to carry the bag, follow the ball (easier said than done), keep up with the player, keep the clubs clean, provide yardages and other assorted duties. It was a pretty good assignment that the longtime head caddiemaster, Ed Barr, dreaded as he got older.
The spring of 1971 was my second season as the assistant to Barr. It was my senior year in high school and I was playing high school golf. During spring break that year, I went out to the back nine early on a Thursday morning with about 80 new bird caddies. It would be their second caddie lesson.
Upon reaching the par-3 12th, I took out my pitching wedge and took dead aim at the flagstick some 130 yards away. The ball was hit purely and drew toward the flag. It landed about 4 feet behind the flagstick and spun back into the cup for a hole-in-one. Of the 80 kids in attendance, only about 15 reacted to my ace. The others had been unable to pick up the ball in flight and never saw it roll into the cup. My first hole-in-one was a big deal at Beverley. For a couple of weeks both the members and the caddies offered me accolades. I was even the lead story in the weekly golf column that appeared in Chicago Today, one of the city”s four daily newspapers. I also received an ashtray with the ball glued onto it from the fine folks at Titleist. An ashtray for a 17-year-old?
Recently I renewed my USGA dues. I will soon be getting a calendar from the USGA for 2010. Once again I”ll hang it up in the garage next to my golf locker. Of course, I”m sure my wife will shake her head in wonderment when she sees two calendars side by side, one open to January 2010 while the other remains at November 2009.
This will be our last update on the bubble boys of the PGA Tour for 2009. Last week”s tourney at Disney World was the final event for the year. Former PGA champ Rich Beem tied for 24th and finished a safe 122nd on the money list. Former British Open champ Todd Hamilton was 28th and ended up on the outside at 133rd. He is contemplating joining the European Tour where he is exempt for another five years. David Duval missed the cut and fell from 125 to 130. Ricky Barnes ended up in a tie for 47th at Disney and finished the year in the 120th spot. Rickie Fowler came in tied for 40th and ended up $67,000 short of getting his card for 2010. He heads to Stage Three at Q School in December.
The most telling tale was that Jimmy Walker finished on the bubble in 125th place with $662,683 in winnings. Walker canned a nine-foot bogey putt on the final hole to secure the final exempt spot.
Last year it took earnings of $852,752 to secure the 125th and final place on the exempt list. Guess the recession has even hit the PGA Tour as 2009 marked the first time since 1975 that total prize money dropped from the previous year.
Best wishes to you and yours for a happiest of Thanksgivings.
