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TABLE OF CONTENTS 2022 APRIL/MAY

Volume 12 Issue 2

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2022 PGA Championship

PREVIEW ISSUE PLAYERS TO WATCH

ABE ANCER

PATRICK CANTLAY

TALOR GOOCH

VIKTOR HOVLAND

DUSTIN JOHNSON

BROOKS KOEPKA

RORY MCILROY

PHIL MICKELSON

10 14 17 20 23 26 30 32 36 38 40 42 44 46 50 54 56 59 62

Young stars make for incredible field Viktor Hovland comfortable in Oklahoma Talor Gooch a homegrown star Southern Hills to bare new fangs Pros expecting a challenging venue Panel ranks seven previous S-Hills majors Dave Stockton looks back at 1970 triumph Ten questions with the AP's Doug Ferguson Filling up on Phil Nick Sidorakis leaves a major legacy 38 Bob Tway's 1986 PGA Championship Scottie Scheffler impresses roommates Course map Spectator Guide Tulsa offers more than ever to do 76 Public courses abound in area Perry Maxwell's standing on the rise 3,000 volunteers make this week work Traden Karch looks forward to reunion

Features 68 Top prep stars ready for battle 70 The Transfers: OSU's Eugenio Chacara, OU, Chris Gotterup have teams poised for run at national championship 74 No. 1 OCU to host women's NAIA National Championship 76 The Battlefield leads our course construction roundup

Departments COLIN MORIKAWA XANDER SCHAFFELE

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER JORDAN SPIETH

JUSTIN THOMAS

TIGER WOODS

8 64 65 82 85

Letter from the Mayor OGA ED Mark Felder Felde WOGA ED Laurie Campbell Chip Shots Schedules and results

On the cover, the Wanamaker Cup will be the coveted prize for the world's best professionals at the PGA Championship. Photo by Gary Kellner, PGA of America.

Support junior golf by contributing to the OGA Foundation Call 405-848-0042 for more information

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

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WITNESS MAJOR MOMENTS MAY 16-22, 2022

GRAB YOUR TICKETS TODAY PGACHAMPIONSHIP.COM

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE O K L A H O MA G O LF A S SO C IATI O N Volume 12, Number 2 Golf Oklahoma Offices Southern Hills Plaza 6218 S. Lewis Ave., Ste. 102 LIKE US! Tulsa, OK 74136 FACEBOOK.COM/ 918-280-0787 GOLFOKLAHOMAMAGAZINE

The Wanamaker Trophy on the first tee outside the Southern Hills CC pro shop.

2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP ISSUE FROM THE MAYOR OF TULSA, OKL AHOMA

Welcome!

n behalf of the City of Tulsa, Whether you enjoy barbecue, burger it is my pleasure to welcome joints, premium steaks, seafood, or etheach of you to the 2022 PGA nic fare, Tulsa has something to offer evChampionship at Southern eryone - including Oklahoma’s first Food Hills Country Club, May 16–22. When Hall, Mother Road Market, located on Tulsa hosts a major golf event, the energy historic Route 66. For a night out on the spreads throughout our city, town, our entertainment disand we love to showcase our tricts in the downtown area hospitality. provide fun for all ages. From During your stay here, elegant dining in the Arts I invite you to explore our District, to a concert at the beautiful city and discover historic Cain’s Ballroom, to all the things that set us Major League Soccer matches apart. Tulsans are known at ONEOK Field – there’s no for their warm and invitend to what you can experiing hospitality, especially ence here. where visitors are conTulsa’s stretch of historic cerned. We are dedicated to Mayor G.T. Bynum Route 66 also features onemaking Tulsa a world-class city that will draw visitors back here, of-a-kind businesses, neon signs, and landmark attractions including two largtime and time again. Tulsa has exciting venues within a 15- er-than-life artworks. You can also visit mile drive from the golf course. Explore the Avery Plaza Southwest neon sign park our shopping and dining areas including and the Route 66 Historic Village. As Mayor, I hope you enjoy your visit Utica Square, Cherry Street, Brookside, Woodland Hills Mall, and Tulsa Hills and come back often to experience opshopping center. While the City’s Gil- portunities you won’t find anywhere else. crease Museum is closed for reconstrucBest regards, tion, other museums are available to visit including Philbrook Museum of Art, the Discovery Lab Children’s Museum, Tulsa Air and Space Museum, the Woody Guthrie Center, and Greenwood Rising. As you take in multiple rounds of golf, G.T. Bynum you might be hungry, but Tulsa won’t Mayor leave you hungry. The variety of dining City of Tulsa experiences we offer is second to none. 8

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

Oklahoma City Office 405-640-9996 Publisher Ken MacLeod ken@golfoklahoma.org

COO/Marketing Director A.G. Meyers agm@golfoklahoma.org Reporter Sam Humphreys sam@golfoklahoma.org Art & Technology Director Chris Swafford chris@golfoklahoma.org Subscriptions to Golf Oklahoma are $20 for one year (five issues) or $35 for two years (10 issues). Call 918-280-0787 or go to www.golfoklahoma.org Contributing photographers Rip Stell, Bill Powell Golf Oklahoma PGA Instructional Staff Jim Young Teaching Professional, River Oaks CC 405-630-8183 Ryan Rody Director of Instruction Southern Hills Country Club rrody@southernhilscc.org Pat McTigue Director of Instruction, Meadowbrook CC pmtigue277@gmail.com Maggie Roller Director of Instruction, Cedar Ridge CC maggie.roller@sbcglobal.net, 918-261-1441 Oklahoma Golf Association 2800 Coltrane Place, Suite 2 Edmond, OK 73034 405-848-0042 Executive Director Mark Felder mfelder@okgolf.org Director of Handicapping and Course Rating Jay Doudican jdoudican@okgolf.org Director of Junior Golf Morri Rose morose@okgolf.org Director of Rules Bob Phelps bphelps@okgolf.org Copyright 2022 by Golf Oklahoma Magazine. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without written permission from Golf Oklahoma. Golf Oklahoma is published by South Central Golf, Inc.

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Roman Nos e State Park

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outh, it seems, is no longer wasted on the young, at least where the group of golf’s bright young things are concerned. Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, Justin Thomas, Cameron Smith, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Bryson DeChambeau, Sam Burns and, to a lesser degree, perhaps Daniel Berger and the strangely difficult to categorize Jordan Spieth all appear to be living their best life right now. And it is fun to watch. The precise reason for the trend isn’t clear, but a couple of obvious and wellknown factors are evidently at play. U.S. collegiate golf, which allows talented young players to compete against each other regularly on great courses, has produced world-class players going all the way back to the first Inter-Collegiate Golf Championship in 1897, and especially since the NCAA became involved in 1939. Add to that the Tiger Woods influence which posits that experience can be overrated and if you’re good enough you’re old enough, and the result is a steady stream of golfers ready to take on the world shortly after graduating from their chosen school. Woods won three U.S. Junior Amateur titles before entering Stanford, two U.S. Amateur trophies while he was there and one shortly after leaving. He won his first PGA Tour event a few months later, a second a couple of weeks after that, a third at the start of 1997 and, in April of that year – seven months after turning professional - his first of five green jackets and 15 majors. Woods was an historical talent of course, but watching him 10

succeed so young was an inspiration to so many who came after him and who realized they didn’t require a decade’s worth of professional experience to win the game’s most prestigious tournaments. The Woods effect has snowballed in recent years, meaning the world’s top10 is now packed with players under 30 years of age (eight at the time of writing, including Scheffler, who rose to No. 1 after four early-season wins capped by his rout at The Masters). Morikawa and

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

Scottie Scheffler Cantlay are two of the most impressive, and a pair we expect to give Schefffler a run for his money at Southern Hills. By the end of last season, Morikawa, like Scheffler just 25, had already won two majors, a World Golf Championship and three other big-time tournaments. A 2019 graduate of California-Berkeley, he has a poise, nerve and quiet assurance very few people of his age

Illustration by Chris Swafford

Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa and Patrick Cantlay are three of the least demonstrative players among golf's current crop of young stars. But they could be ideally suited to Southern Hills.

Photos courtesy of PGA of America

the field 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP • MAY 16-22

The quietest young guns

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Collin Morikawa

Patrick Cantlay

can muster. It’s a combination of almosthidden but extremely powerful characteristics that made his victory at the 2020 PGA Championship only slightly surprising, and last year’s deft handling of the final 18 at Royal St. George’s, where he claimed his first Claret Jug, almost predictable. His overall game is less explosive than Woods’ at a similar age perhaps, and he seems much less of a showman than Woods ever was, but the way he deals with the pressure of a Sunday back-nine at a major seems eerily familiar. Garrett Johnson, host of the ‘Beyond the Clubhouse’ podcast and a regular contributor to golf publications on both sides of the Atlantic, is a big fan. “Morikawa probably impresses me the most among the crop of young players,” Johnson said. “He has the best mind in pro golf right now, and maybe even sport. He's so positive and thinks clearly, and he obviously has all the shots as well.” Johnson describes Morikawa as an “old soul” saying he thinks and acts like someone who’s been doing this for much longer than he actually has. He is, in short, a natural and is bypassing the years of scar-tissue players of yesteryear endured before finally landing a big one. And speaking of humility and hunger, how about the manner in which Cantlay strode to last season’s Player of the Year award and FedEx Cup win? Although he turned 30 in March (so he may be on his way out already – joking), Cantlay is another intense grinder and actually seems a little younger than he is because of a couple of missed seasons. He only played 12 times in 2019-2020, but it is his 2016 season people remember and which surely played a pivotal role in molding the player, and person, he has become. Told he needed to sit the season out because of a stress fracture in his spine, Cantlay was spending time with his best friend and caddie, Chris Roth, in Newport Beach, Calif. W W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG

Jon Rahm

Crossing a road at around 1 a.m. on Feb. 13, Roth was killed by a hit-and-run driver only a few feet from where Cantlay was standing. With the help of his family, inner circle and especially swing coach and close friend Jamie Mulligan, Cantlay healed from the mental scars sufficiently to return to the Tour in 2017. Mulligan taught him new swing moves that helped avoid any more tension on the back. And losing his best friend helped Cantlay gain a new outlook on life that, in time, actually proved beneficial. “It put everything in perspective,” he told the Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner earlier this

Talor Gooch year. “Because everything I thought was very important, obviously, in light of something like that, became completely irrelevant.” It would be wrong to suggest that whatever happens on the golf course now doesn’t really matter to Cantlay because it plainly does. But whenever he hits a bad shot (not very often admittedly), he is able to put it behind him before he hits his next one. As soon as he and new caddie Matt Minister arrive at his ball, Cantlay is able to focus entirely on the task at hand. Again, Garrett Johnson admires Cantlay’s inner conviction. “He has a great foundation

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THE FIELD

Jordan Spieth hits his tee shot as Dustin Johnson looks on. with his team,” Johnson said. “And his drive and fire are evident. Golf at this level requires consistent repetition of your thought process, pre-shot routine and swing, and Cantlay is the master at that. He has no weakness and is so consistent which will surely lead to an important role at the Ryder Cup for many years and certainly a major. And probably soon.” Johnson clearly believes Morikawa and Cantlay have the game and tenacity to win at Southern Hills in May. Another who is confident that both will contend is Gil Hanse, who in 2018 renovated Perry Maxwell’s 1936 original design. Southern Hills has relatively small, contoured greens surrounded by a lot of short grass, resulting in tricky chip shots for anyone failing to hit the putting surface. This, says Hanse, will put a premium on sound iron play – an area of the game at which both Morikawa and Cantlay excel. “I think Strokes Gained; Approach The Green will be a very important part of who does well at Southern Hills,” Hanse added. “The best putter any given week is usually in contention, of course, but I like the chances of anyone who can put themselves on the small sloping greens with regularity.” Past winners here include Tiger Woods, Retief

Goosen and Nick Price – superb iron players able to find not just the green itself but the best part of it. “Collin has obviously shown he has the game to win majors,” Hanse said. “But I think his game is especially well-suited to Southern Hills. And Patrick Cantlay has the precision to win here, too.” Hanse mentions a few of the other young guns – Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas and “local” Viktor Hovland (who lives 70 miles west in Stillwater where he played on the Oklahoma State team), but, like us, is wondering if anyone can derail Scheffler, whose game seems suited for any venue atthis point. After being regarded as the best player not to have won on the PGA Tour, Scheffler broke through in February at the Phoenix Open, then added the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill and the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship in short order. That was all a prelude to his overwhelming performance in The Masters, in which he was five shots ahead of Rory McIlroy going into the final hole. With the participation of both Woods and defending champion Phil Mickelson uncertain, look to the young guns to come out on top at venerable Southern Hills.

Justin Thomas

Abraham Ancer

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

Viktor Hovland

Rory McIlroy

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PROFESSIONAL SPOTLIGHT

Hammer time Hovland conquers with a smile

Norway's Viktor Hovland enjoys his time in Stillwater and Edmond. and it’s contributing to better play earlier.” After winning three times during a Ben e comes from the land of the ice Hogan Award-winning junior season at and snow and seemingly armed Oklahoma State, winning the 2018 U.S. Amateur with coach Alan Bratton on the with a Hammer of the Gods. Viktor Hovland, Norway native and cur- bag and helping lead one of the best colrent Stillwater resident, has bashed his way legiate teams of all time to the ‘18 NCAA into the top four of the World Golf Rank- championship on OSU's home course at ings at the age of 24, probably a great age Karsten Creek, Hovland knew he was ready for plundering but until recently viewed as to test himself on the PGA Tour. But he wasn’t ready to leave a bit young for world Stillwater. domination. To this day, he plays Look now, howevand practices with the er, and youth is being OSU team when he’s served. Hovland, Colin town and feels perlin Morikawa (25), Jon fectly comfortable doRahm (27) and Scottie ing so. As time goes Scheffler (24) were the on, he can see the role top four in the OWGR changing from one at this writing. of the guys to more Tiger Woods came of a mentor role, but out of Stanford with, he doesn’t plan to be “Hello, World,” on his headquartered in Stilllips and a steel grip water much longer. on everyone’s throat. Hovland is building That was regarded as a house near Oak Tree precocious on a tour National in Edmond, then dominated by where he often plays 30-somethings. Not Hovland at the 2018 Big 12 Champi- and practices with the anymore. onship at Southern Hills host of talented young “It’s pretty crazy and kind of hard to pinpoint exactly why professionals and amateurs that are memit’s happening,” Hovland said. “But you bers, including former OSU teammate Matsee other guys do it before you and it gives thew Wolff, Talor Gooch, Austin Eckroat, you the belief you can do it as well. It’s a Quade Cummins, Rhein Gibson, Josh Creel, domino effect. Kids have much more in- Michael Gellerman, Blake Trimble and a host formation now on swing speed and proper of others. “Oak Tree is awesome,” Hovland said. training. Guys are hungry, they want it bad by ken macleod

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

“Any day you go there, there are at least a couple of guys around and you can get a game going. “My plans are to stay in Oklahoma for a bit, but I don’t put any restrictions on myself. Stillwater has been great, but I feel like I’m maybe in an inbetween place now.” Hovland could see himself eventually moving to the East coast to be closer to direct flights to Europe and his Nordic homeland. For now, however, Oklahomans are fortunate to enjoy the company of one of the nicest young men in the game, one who does his conquering with a radiant smile. His chances of being in strong contention at Southern Hills in May would seem to be strong. But in his first visit to the course after the restoration by Gil Hanse, Hovland said he preferred the venue he competed on during the Big 12 Championship in 2018. “I only played it one time since the restoration,” he said. “It was cold and we played one step from the tips and it was brutal. Really long compared to the Big 12. I didn’t dislike it, but just felt like a different course from the Big 12, where you didn’t have to hit it the longest, but you really had to shape your shots. “But it’s going to be a great week. We don’t see a lot of professional golf in Oklahoma and people in Oklahoma love golf. Hopefully we’ll get some good weather.” OSU coach Alan Bratton is not going to say he foresaw Hovland’s metoric rise up the rankings when he first saw him play in Europe six years ago, but he recognized plenty of innate talent. “That would be pretty arrogant of me to say,” Bratton said. “I may have said it about Rickie (Fowler) or Pablo (Martin). But I thought Viktor could be great. He could continue to get better and do anything he wanted to do in golf. “I think the environment in junior golf and college golf is empowering these guys to do what they’re doing. It’s good for the game to see the power shift younger. It’s a credit to the popularity of junior golf and the compeW W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG

PROFESSIONAL SPOTLIGHT tition and work they put in in college.” In his first full season on Tour in 2019-20, Hovland made 17-of-20 cuts, won the Puerto Rico Open and earned nearly $2 million. In 2020-21, he won at Mayakoba, had seven top-10s and made over $5 million. Already this year he repeated at Mayakoba, won the Hero World Challenge, finished second in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and also won the non-PGA Tour Dubai Desert Classic. “He’s just built on what he did in college,” Bratton said. “He’s very disciplined in what he eats and tries to figure out how to maintain weight and strength so you feel the same all the time when you’re on the road. He hasn’t changed his swing any, he’s just refined it and improved his strategy. He’s learned how to prepare mentally when he’s on the road. “It’s a tremendous benefit for our guys when he’s home and they get to play with one of the top players on the world. It would be real easy to have him up on a pedestal, but he still acts like a college kid. It’s rare and unbelievably valuable for our guys.” Hovland’s ball striking is a sight to behold and his putting has improved tremendously over the years. His chipping and finesse shots around the greens are a work in progress, one reason he enjoys playing at Oak

Tree National where those touch shots are show. The way he hits it and the way he more often required than on the large greens putts it, he’s going to be pretty danged good at Karsten Creek. for the next 20 years. The last thing you want is for any negative thoughts about chipping to creep into the rest of your game.” “With chipping you have good weeks and bad weeks, it’s a work in progress,” said Hovland. “I think I’m a way different player than I was in college. I can hit it higher and been putting a lot of emphasis on my longer clubs and getting more speed off the tee. I’ve really had a good putting year (ranked 51st in strokes gained putting in early April).” Hovland’s career has already included a stint on the European Ryder Cup team, where he took some serious ribbing at Whistling Straits from U.S. fans, who chanted Boomer Sooner at him. But he’s a hard guy not to like. What are his goals after so much early success? “It’s a boring answer, but I would love to put on the green jacket at Augusta, and I would like to win the PGA Championship in Oklahoma,” Hovland said. “But that’s not Hovland, left, with current OSU players what I focus on. I look at little things, like Brian Stark and Leo Oyo. how do I get a little more ball speed, how do “I would tell him not to worry about his I chip it better. If I can slowly improve those chipping,” said fellow OSU alum and rising things, the big goals are much more likely to PGA Tour star Talor Gooch. “He’s a stripe come my way.”

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GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

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Growing into greatness

by sam humphreys

t least one Oklahoma native, Midwest City’s Talor Gooch, will be competing in the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club. It has been rewarding to watch Gooch’s journey from winning national junior events at age 9 to being a PGA Tour winner, FedEx Cup title contender and one of the game’s rising stars. Mark Felder, executive director of the Oklahoma Golf Association, remembers being introduced to a chest-high Gooch at Shawnee Country Club by his father Ronnie, who noted enthusiastically that he had just shot a 67. “We figured great, that’s his ninehole score, not too bad for a kid,” Felder said. “So he played with Morri (Rose, director of the Oklahoma Junior Golf Tour) and I for nine holes. Well, he beat our brains out. “That’s when we realized the 67 was for 18 holes. “ Mike McGraw, then the head coach at Oklahoma State and now at Baylor, got wind of this young talent and went to see him when he was a seventh-grader playW W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG

ing in the Red River Challenge, the sea- Viktor Hovland (24). After OSU, he played two years in Canson-ending final event at Dornick Hills in Ardmore between the OJGT players and ada, then a year on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2017, where he won the New Sentinel their counterparts in North Texas. Open, had four “The first day I other top-10 finishwatched him, he es and earned his had on an OU hat, PGA Tour card. OU shirt and his In four years bag said Sooners on the PGA Tour, on it,” McGraw Gooch has made a said. “I told Morri continuous rise in that this kid is a the rankings and great player, but broke through for he’s not very smart his first win at the to have all that RSM Classic in Sea Sooner gear when Island last fall. He the OSU coach already had four is following him top-10s and nine around. top-25 finishes “As God is my through March witness, the next during the 2021-22 day he was playing season and has esout of a John Contablished himself rad bag and no OU U.S. Kids champ at age 9. as one of the most gear to be seen. I consistent players on tour. guess Morri got to him.” Not bad for the young man who grew Though his family members were huge Sooner fans, and he listened to a late up playing at John Conrad Golf Course pitch from newly hired OU coach Ryan in Midwest City and just two years ago Hybl, Gooch did wind up signing with was ranked outside of the top 200 in the OWGR. McGraw and OSU and “Early in 2017, he renever missed a tournaalized he had to start ment, a fact recalled doing everything betproudly by instructor ter, working out, nuSteve Ball of Edmond, trition, practice habits, who worked freall of it,” Ball said. “His quently with him as a Callaway contract was youngster and through running out and he was his early professional about out of money career. and thinking he might “He joined a team have to get a job. But he that had Morgan Hoffdid it and he ended up mann, Kevin Tway and having a great year.” Peter Uihlein on it, so Gooch, who played there’s three spots gone, in his first Masters in and yet never missed a April, is eagerly lookstart,” Ball said. “He’s ing forward to reprealways been really good senting the state and when his back is to the Midwest City in the wall. He’s got that fifth Gooch traded crimson for orange. PGA Championship. gear. His dad thinks he Southern Hills is a favorite venue. procrastinates, but he’s clutch.” “I’m super, super pumped,” he said. “It’s Gooch, now 30, has taken a more traditional route to PGA Tour stardom than one of my favorite courses in the world. I those shooting to the top of the World played my first U.S. Amateur there as a juRankings now, the top four of whom at nior in high school in 2009, and it’s really press time were Scottie Scheffler (24), Jon special to come full circle and be playing a Rahm (27), Collin Morikawa (25) and PGA Championship out there.” 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

PROFESSIONAL SPOTLIGHT The Gooch family’s life off the course when Gooch broke through for his first Gooch is also finalizing plans for a foundation with intent to give back to various has changed quite a bit over the past cou- victory. The scene on 18 was unforgetorganizations, with the Oklahoma Junior ple of years as well, welcoming baby girl, table as he gave them a huge hug after the Golf Tour definitely included. He is host- Collins, to the world. While he has lost biggest success of his young career. That win vaulted ing a fund-raising tourGooch to No. 1 on the nament at Tulsa Country FedEx Cup over the offClub the Monday after season, but also got him the PGA Championship. into his first Masters. Gooch is adamant that He made a trip to Auhe has one simple goal, to gusta right after the Arbe No. 1 in the world. nold Palmer Invitational “I know that everyone in early March with his probably feels like this, best buddy on Tour, Max but for me even more so, Homa. Per Augusta Naif I can get the ball in the tional rules, it was just fairway, we are going to Gooch and Homa along have a good chance of dowith two Augusta Naing some good stuff,” he tional Caddies. said. “And so, continuing Gooch said, “The most to work on hitting driviconic moment that hit ers farther and straighter, me was walking off of that is the goal. 12 green at Augusta, and “My irons are solid, and I wedge it decently, so if I can Gooch with then OSU coach Mike McGraw in the NCAA Championship. I look back up to the tee and up 11, and I’m just get the ball in the fairway just one more time per round, my caddie, out on some sleep when he is home, he like, dude, this is what you see, this is Aucoach and myself think that is the difference said being a new dad has helped him with gusta, this is just how I pictured it, this is between being a 30th or 40th ranked player time management, a sentiment to which the most iconic scene in golf.” in the world to top 20 or top 15 just like that. all parents can relate. Wife Ally and Collins were at the RSM – Ken MacLeod contributed to this story. That is my next progression.”

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

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HOW TO PLAY SOUTHERN HILLS

The iconic 18th hole at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa.

Ready to take on all comers by ken macleod

hen Tiger Woods conquered the field in the 2007 PGA Championship at 8-under-par at Southern Hills, he mostly navigated the rolling, twisting Perry Maxwell gem with limited use of his driver, preferring to hit stinging fairway woods and long irons off the tees. It was blisteringly hot, the ball was carrying forever and the muscular 2007 Tiger was one of the longest hitters in golf. He didn’t need driver to position himself for proper apGil Hanse proaches. Average driving distance on the PGA Tour has increased since 2007 from 289.08 to 295.3 in 2021 with many players often able to carry it 330 yards or more in the air. What does that do to a venerable course like Southern Hills? Particularly in May without the defense of a thick Bermuda rough? Well, this is not your dad’s Southern 20

Hills, or even your older brother’s. A restoration by Gil Hanse has added considerable fire to the green surrounds and new tee boxes have pushed the total distance on the par-70 course to 7,556 yards, considerably longer than the 7,131 it played in 2007. In all of his restorations of major championship venues, Hanse, Jim Wagner and his team face the same questions: Where

Kerry Haigh

Russ Myers

to position bunkers to challenge the world’s best and longest while also making sense for daily member play from various tee boxes. “A lot of the attention goes to the few outliers who can really bomb it, but until they do something about distance we just have to react to where they are right now,” Hanse said. “We were more

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

focused on restoring the course and the intent of Perry Maxwell. If we find a situation where we can challenge the longest hitters while embracing Maxwell’s design, that’s fine. “But the challenge is not going to be bunker carries, it’s in the greens. And they don’t even have to be fast. It’s firmness that matters. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and (superintendent Russ Myers) has all the infrastructure to create a firm, fast challenge.” That infrastructure includes hydronic tubing beneath every green for temperature control, not that it should come Cary Cozby into play that much in May. Hanse made the greens effectively smaller with grading and restored runoffs in areas that had become backstops. The members got a full dose in the 2019 club championship, where the average score was five shots higher than it had been in 2017, the last year before the restoration. Handicaps have taken a beating and many W W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG

members have responded by moving up a set of tees. For those pros who haven’t visited since 2007, they may be surprised to see that hundreds of trees have been removed. The corridors are wider. But the trees remaining are large and healthy and fully capable of blocking access to greens after any significantly wayward drives. The restoration of all the greens and surrounds will force them to relearn the greens complexes, particularly where not to miss. Unless it rains, the runoffs around the greens are likely to be much more fiery than they were during the Senior PGA Championship in 2021, when much of the surrounds had to be replaced due to winter kill from the arctic blast in February. PGA of America Championships Director Kerry Haigh’s goal is to allow players to hit to the green from the rough, but make it hard for the ball to stop there. And the roll-offs will leave lots of delicate pitch or chip shots. Those who can consistently get up-and-down will stay in the game, those that don’t will shoot well over par and be eliminated as contenders. “It was a great course and now it’s even better,” Haigh said. “What Gil and Southern Hills did with the restoration will make it more interesting, challenging and strategic for the best players in the world. The green complexes really are the challenge.” To that end, Haigh and his team will consult with Myers and come up with a detailed plan the weekend prior to the championship for pin and tee placements for each of the seven days, including practice rounds. From there, he will adjust depending on wind direction, moisture, temperature and other factors. “The scoring is not really what we’re concerned about,” Haigh said. “We don’t try to manipulate what the winning score will be. Our aim is to showcase the golf course and hopefully set it up so the best players in the world are rewarded if they hit good shots. If you play well and hit it in the right spots, you can score. If not, . . .” Haigh said Woods’ round of 7-under 63 on Friday in 2007 was a perfect example, but noted he was only W W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG

1-under for the other three rounds. “It’s going to be a real challenge,” Haigh said. “You’ve got to have your game together and keep it together. We are blessed right now with how many great young golfers there are in the game and golf is in a great place. It’s going to be wonderful to see them challenged by the venerable Southern Hills.” Director of Golf Cary Cozby, who competed in the 2021 Senior PGA Championship at Southern Hills on an exemption, said the winning score is likely to be hugely weather dependent, with the wind in mid-May as likely to blow from either north or south and rain a likely factor as well. “If we can somehow be firm and fast and get a little May Oklahoma wind, it will really challenge them,” Cozby said. “If it’s soft, it doesn’t matter how long it is, these guys hit it so far and the scores will really come down. “It would say the guy who has the patience to spend four days hitting shots to the center of the front 1/3 of the green will have a good chance to win. It sounds cliché, but the greens are small enough that you won’t have a lot of long putts. If you go flag hunting and start missing greens and can’t get up and down on a consistent basis, it gets tough in a hurry.” Hanse concurs with Cozby. “Keep it in play and hit to the center of the greens,” he said. “If the rough is thick enough, they will have trouble holding shots and that will make a big difference if the greens are firm. Then they have to deal with Maxwell’s brilliance. Like every great championship course, it starts on the tee and then becomes hitting greens and staying away from the edges.” Like Haigh, Hanse said he is not worried about the winning score, only that the course setup produces a great champion. “That’s all we’re rooting for,” said Hanse, who will be in Tulsa to witness the event. “We want the name under Tiger Woods to be a worthy champion.” Let’s look at some specific changes since 2007 that will be key in how the players handle the new Southern Hills.

No. 1, Par-4, 468 yards From the new tee just outside the pro shop, it’s about a 310-yard carry over the large bunker on the left side. With a prevailing south wind, players will be able to clear the bunker turning the hole into a wedge or 9-iron approach. Even just staying to the right of the bunker leaves a short iron for the longer players. But the green sloping away is not easy to hold and pin positions, particularly behind the bunker guarding the right side, can make this a very difficult opener.

No. 2, Par-4, 500 yards Hanse brought back a second fairway area on the left side of the creek that had been blocked by tree planting, but it will likely only be used by accident. The green is not easy to hold out of the rough. The second most difficult hole in 2007 at an average of 4.359, the green is now more difficult to hold and putt.

No. 3, Par-4, 472 yards Teeing off from the hill by the par-3 sixth hole, the distance has been pushed back another 20 plus yards to 472. Now driver will often be needed to move it far enough out to have a short iron into the green. Trees on the right and trees and a creek on the left will punish any wayward shots. This hole has grown up and could wind up ranked in the top three or four in difficulty for the week. 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

HOW TO PLAY SOUTHERN HILLS

No. 4, Par-4, 377 yards Good time to pick up a birdie if you can be very precise with your wedge approach. The third easiest hole in 2007 playing just below par for the week.

No. 8, Par-3, 251 yards A brute of a par-3. Played the fourth most difficult in 2007 with only 25 birdies and 150 bogeys. The green has bunkers right and short and cants left. Not an easy up-and-down from all sides of this one.

No. 5, Par-5, 656 yards From the back tee it takes a carry of 325 yards for the bunker on the left and to shorten the hole up to go for the green in two. Some will do it, but there will also be a lot of layups. The severely sloping green can make any wedge that misses its target area suddenly a hard par. There will be birdies, but there will be a surprising amount of bogeys as well. It played right at par (5.092) in 2007 and likely will again.

No. 9, Par-4, 391 yards Kicks off the best scoring stretch at Southern Hills. A short par4 to an elevated green, somewhat similar to No. 4. Holes 9-11 all ranked among the easiest eight in 2007.

No. 6, Par-3, 214 yards Guarded by water and a bunker and played into a north wind and downwind with the prevailing south wind, this one is a great hole to hit the green in regulation, two-putt and move on.

No. 10, Par-4, 441 yards Players will tee off from a new tee up on the plateau by the first tee, meaning some will be able to hit driver and others 3-wood to move it down in the valley just short of the creek that encircles the landing area. Still going to be a short iron in to a difficult green.

No 11, Par-3, 173 yards This hole ranked second easiest behind the par-5 13th in 2007, but may not this year. It’s a short iron for the pros, the restored No. 7, Par-4, 489 yards The “new hole,” the green has been moved back and down to green has more severe edges. Anything on the left side will roll the right hard against the creek. A tee box has been built just be- off hard. “Eleven is now about the left edge and how that rolls off,” hind the green on 6, meaning players could be tempted to use driver but anything that crests the hill and is heading right with Hanse said. “There used to be a shelf there that’s been pulled away. It’s a presentation that will get their attention.” any speed will likely end up in the creek. 22

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Pros expect thorough test at Southern Hills Wagner, including all new greens, sharper surrounds, a new location of the seventh hen it comes to insight about green and new back tees on 1, 3, 8 and 13 the upcoming PGA Cham- that have added length to what he faced in pionship at Southern Hills the Trans-Miss. For example, the par-5 13th now has a Country Club, Dallas golfer Will Zalatoris new tee behind the green said local course knowlon the par-4 12th that edge could mean more stretches the hole out to than at most majors beover 650 yards. Yet Zacause of the design and latoris was able to reach the challenges around the green in two with a the greens. driver and long iron, acThis will be the eighth cording to witnesses. men’s professional major “Southern Hills is a bit championship at Southof a throwback in that ern Hills, a par-70, exmany of the pros may pected to play at a maxinot think it’s that hard mum of 7,556 yards in tee to green, but I can tell May. you that that third hole Zalatoris won the Will Zalatoris won the 2014 (a sharp dogleg left) is rain-shortened 36-hole 2014 Trans Mississippi Trans-Mississippi Amateur at diabolical and the 10th (a Championship staged Southern Hills. Courtesy Trans-Miss. dogleg right with a twoat Southern Hills, shooting rounds of 67- level green) is nasty,” Zalatoris said. “The par-3s have less rough, but a lot 68 to finish at 5-under. He was in Tulsa early this spring to take a look at the ex- more runoffs and you can make a mess tensive changes made by Hanse and Jim out of many holes in a hurry. If you hit a

by art stricklin

mediocre shot to the green during the PGA you can make double-bogey in a flash and wonder what just happened.” This will be the first major golf championship held at Southern Hills, an original Perry Maxwell design, since the brutally hot 2007 PGA Championship won by Tiger Woods. Considering the youth movement on the PGA Tour, many in the field will be playing it for the first time in a competitive format. “I remember it was hot,” said Lee Westwood. “Bloody, bloody hot. It’s not going to be that hot in May, is it?” Not likely, but Robert Streb, now the elder statesman of the flood of Oklahoma players who have made their way onto the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour, Robert Streb said golfers may be dealing with different weather challenges, including wind and storms.

See PROS, page 25

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HOW TO PLAY SOUTHERN HILLS

No. 12, Par-4, 456 yards What Arnold Palmer called one of the great par-4s in the world is now protected only if wind and temperature prevent the players from blasting their drives over the large bunker on the left side of the fairway, about a 300-yard carry. If they clear it as most will, it’s a short iron in to the green, if forced to go right, it’s a longer second shot, but the hole would only truly be scary now if it could be played at 500 yards or more. Unfortunately that would require building a tee box on the other side of Harvard Avenue. Still the 12th hole ranked the third most difficult in 2007, mainly because the green fronted by bunkers and a pond led to 25 double-bogeys or worse, second most behind No. 18. “It’s not the hole that Arnold Palmer and Ben Hogan raved about,” Cozby said. “The bombers will be hitting sand wedges for sure. But the green is not easy and with any wind it can still be very challenging.” No. 13, Par-5, 632 yards Yes, you read that right, 13 is now well over 600 yards from the new tee built south of the 12th green. Pretty amazing that you have to go to over 600 yards to reintroduce a risk-reward element to a rolling par-5 with awkward stances and a small green guarded by water and bunkers. But in case you thought that would automatically make it a three-shot par-5, Will Zalatoris reached the green with a driver and 3-iron on a visit in February. Viktor Hovland got home in two with a 3-wood second shot in the same month. “If it’s not brick hard, they’ll have some decisions to make on their second shots,” Myers said. “If you’re hitting 3-iron to 3-wood over water and bunkers to a small green, that’s a challenge. Usually these guys go to places where they are almost guaranteed a couple of kick-in birdies on par-5s. That won’t be the case here.” This was the easiest hole in the 2007 PGA Championship playing at 537 yards, giving up 15 eagles and 197 birdies and playing to a 4.612 stroke average. Expect that stroke average to rise. No. 14, Par-3, 230 yards The runoffs here will make it difficult on those who miss the green.

No. 15, Par-4, 417 yards A fairway bunker on the left can be carried with a poke of 310 yards or more but the fairway pinches in on the left so most players will just hit a fairway wood or long iron and stay right, leaving themselves a second shot inside 150 yards. The fun starts on the severely sloping green and anything that misses right can make for brutal chipping. No. 16, Par-4, 527 yards The bombers let loose here on what is a par-5 for the members, just avoid the fairway bunkers on the left and the trees on the right and the distance is not a big issue.

No 17, Par-4, 371 yards Haigh moved the tees up to make this a drivable par-4 on three of four days during the Senior PGA. He said he will do it at least once and probably twice during the PGA Championship. Myers said having firmer and faster surrounds this year will make the prospect of getting up-and-down for birdie if you miss the hole more difficult than it was last May. “I love 17 as a short par-4,” Haigh said. “Depending on the wind direction and wind strength, it’s a great risk-reward hole and could go a long way toward deciding the championship.” No. 18, Par-4, 491 yards To have the ideal second shot, you have to hit it just short of the creek at the bottom of the hill on this iconic hole, otherwise the golfers faces a shot of over 200 yards off a downhill lie to an elevated green, or an even longer shot from the top of the hill. The green is pitched back to front and getting the speed and break correct on putts from above the hole is difficult. Witness the carnage on this green in the final round of the 2001 U.S. Open. Par remains a great score on 18. The hole was the most difficult during the 2007 PGA Championship with 147 bogeys and 28 doubles and a stroke average of 4.429. It hasn’t been made easier.

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Pros, from page 23

good friend Scottie Scheffler, who rose to “There will be some wind to con- the No. 1 ranking in the world with his victend with, that’s pretty certain,” said tory in the Dell Technologies Match Play Streb. “There is some in June, a little in July Championship at Austin Country Club and cemented that rankand almost none in Auing with his 3-shot gust (the date of the last victory in The MasPGA at Southern Hills). ters for his first major “Obviously, it's a championship. course that Tiger has Spieth played in the won at, Retief Goosen 2009 U.S. Amateur, has won at. It's been a shooting 73 at Cedar course that has some Ridge CC and 75 at really great champiSouthern Hills during ons,” PGA tour veteran qualifying, then missBilly Horschel said. ing out in a playoff to “And I think with this make the field of 64 PGA coming up, you're for match play. going to see someone “I remember it bewho's a quality player ing way too big of a win there again.” golf course for me at Having never seen 14 years old,” Spieth the course in person, said. “Hopefully I but watching the Senior feel a little differentPGA on TV last May at ly going back. I reSouthern Hills, Horschel member the starting is making his own twoScottie Scheffler won the 2015 Big 12 holes and the finishday scouting trip before Championship at Southern Hills. ing holes just being a the major in May. Also coming in early will be a pair of lot for me back then.” Scheffler added, “We played it when I Longhorns, Dallas-based Jordan Spieth and

was at University of Texas and it was pretty tough, but I will come up early to take another look for sure. That’s an easy trip for me.” In the 2018 Big 12 Championship at Southern Hills, Scheffler tied for fifth with rounds of 71-75-69-70. He was 5-over, a shot ahead of Hovland and tied with OSU’s Matthew Wolff, both of whom will be in the field. While Spieth remembers his first visit painfully, Ian Poulter has blocked it out of his mind. “I remember it was tough, but I must have played crappy or I would remember more,” said Poulter, who actually made the cut and tied for 28th in the 2007 PGA Championship “That was 15 years, who can I remember what happened 15 years ago? Do you remember what happened 15 years ago, does anybody?’ Former PGA Championship winner Collin Morikawa is taking the opposite plan than many. He doesn’t plan any early scouting trip to Southern Hills, only to show up tournament week and play. “I didn’t show up early for the British Open before I won or in Reno before I won there,” Morikawa said. “I’ll get there Monday, see the course, get a plan and be ready to go.”

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2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

PAST MAJORS

Who's the fairest of them all? Our panel ranks all seven majors at Southern Hills by ken macleod

irror, mirror on the wall, what’s the greatest major of them all? Southern Hills has hosted seven previous golf major championships prior to the 2022 PGA Championship, a rich history not many clubs can match. How are they remembered by observers who have personally witnessed most or are intimately familiar

with the history? We asked seven panelists to rank the seven majors. Not by any set criteria, but on the impact they had on them personally and the legacy they left on the club and golf. Each of the panelists has witnessed, worked on or covered multiple majors and have a deep knowledge and appreciation of Southern Hills and golf.

OTIS WINTERS The son of John Winters, who was the 1962-63 USGA president, founding member of Southern Hills and the man most responsible for the 1958 U.S. Open coming to Tulsa. Oits began his observations of major tournaments at Southern Hills as a forecaddie on the seventh hole of the 1946 Women’s Amateur Championship won by Babe Zaharias. He was a committee member for the 1958 U.S. Open, committee chairman for the 1970 PGA Championship and Vice Chairman for the 1977 U.S. Open, and a keen observer of every major since.

JENK JONES JR. Former editor and publisher of the Tulsa Tribune, Jenk covered most of the majors and took a famous picture of Hubert Green flanked by three police officers in the 18th fairway in the 1977 U.S. Open after the infamous death threat.

DAN GRIFFIN A caddy of more than 2,500 rounds at Southern Hills since 1959, including for Lee Trevino in the 1970 PGA Championship, Florentino Molina in the 1977 U.S. Open and Omar Uresti in last summer’s Senior PGA Championship, also for Donna Caponi when she won the 1970 U.S. Women’s Open at Muskogee Country Club. 26

BRYAN JOHNSON A recent past president of Southern Hills, Johnson, a senior vice president of wealth management at UBS, has served in numerous capacities at the club.

ANDY JOHNSON Past president and Southern Hills club champion in 2010, 2011 and 2020, also a former competitor in national long drive championship events. Johnson is an attorney at Johnson & Jones, P.C. in Tulsa.

CARY COZBY Director of Golf at Southern Hills since 2015, where he also worked previously as an assistant from 1995 to 2000, first stepped on the grounds at Southern Hills in the 1977 U.S. Open with father Jerry Cozby, a PGA of America and Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame inductee.

MIKE CARTER Now athletic director emeritus at Oral Roberts, Carter was the club champion at Southern Hills in 1981, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1990. A former NCAA rules committee member for 18 years and rules chairman for five years, he has worked on every major at Southern Hills since 1977.

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

THE CONTESTANTS

MEET THE PANELISTS:

Tommy Bolt The Southern Hills majors as described by club historian Clyde Chrisman

1958 U.S. OPEN Tommy Bolt birdies the opening hole, looks back at the clubhouse and says, “OK boys, who’s going to finish second?” He goes on to win his only major by four over 22-year old Gary Player.

1970 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP Dave Stockton holes a wedge on No.7 for an eagle two to increase his lead over Arnold Palmer to 7. He never looks back and wins by two over Arnie.

1977 U.S. OPEN Hubert Green, using his trademark lowhands and quick tempo, prevails over Open pressure and a death threat to win by one.

1982 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP Raymond Floyd makes nine consecutive 3’s in the first round and shoots a competitive course record 63. He goes on to win by three over Lanny Wadkins.

1994 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP Nick Price runs away from the field, shoots 11-under par, and wins by six. Runner-up Corey Pavin says, “ I feel like I won B Flight.” Arnold Palmer plays in his final PGA Championship. Arnie’s golfing career at Southern Hills spans 36 years (ages 28 to 64) beginning with the 1958 U.S. Open.

2001 U.S. OPEN Retief Goosen rebounds from a three putt from 10 feet on the 72nd hole and tops Mark Brooks by two in an 18-hole playoff.

2007 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP Tiger Woods fires a major championship record-tying 63 in round two and captures his 13th major. Tiger makes a crucial SunW W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG

Dave Stockton day birdie on 15 to hold off Woody Austin and win by two. And finally, the rankings, from last to first, with observations from the panelists: No. 7, 1994 PGA Championship, 41 points Ranking sixth or seventh on five of seven ballots, Nick Price’s brilliance could not overcome the lack of drama that such excellent play induced. Winters: “This was the Nick Price show and he set the PGA scoring record at 269. He is acknowledged as one of the nicest men in professional golf. He had just won the Open Championship and this win propelled him into the golfer of the year award and number one in the world rankings. This was Arnie’s last of 37 PGA tournaments. He holed a long putt on 18 and his army responded appropriately.” Jones: “Great golf doesn’t always bring exciting finishes. Nick Price was red-hot at the 1994 PGA, leaving Corey Pavin (six back) and the rest of his competitors in the Nick Price

Hubert Green

Raymond Floyd

dust.” Carter: “The number one player in the world led wire to wire and showed why he was the best defeating the top field in golf. Price’s friendly graciousness was displayed not only after winning the championship but also the next year at the Tour Championship at Southern Hills. After shooting 79 the first round, he was as nice and engaging to those of us working in the locker room as if he had shot 63. He sat and visited with us for almost an hour. The 1994 PGA was Arnold Palmer’s last, and the crowds gave him a standing ovation on every hole.” No. 6, 2001 U.S. Open, 35 points No one wanted a Monday playoff, and the way it came about, with three putts galore on 18, made it worse. Ranked sixth or seventh on four ballots, only a No. 1 vote from Jones kept it from battling 1994 as the least favorite. Winters: “I hate to see golf tournaments lost rather than won. Reteif Goosen, Mark Brooks and Stewart Cink all three putted Retief Goosen

the 18th hole. Cink’s last miss was about 20 inches, which dropped him into third place and Goosen prevailed by two shots in a dull playoff. None of the big names were ever in contention.” Jones: “The event that broke Tiger Woods’ incredible run of four straight majors victories. He was brought down in particular by the relatively short ninth hole which he played in four over.” Griffin: “I thought it was a little bit lackluster with Goosen, Cink, Brooks and others playing the last hole so poorly resulting in a 18 hole play-off won by Goosen.” Cozby: “The carnage on 18.” Carter: “Goosen had the tournament won and three putted the final hole from 12 feet. I was the chair of the marshals, and after a long, hot week of exciting golf, we thought the tournament was over when he had hit it so close. Two of us had carried the table down the hill for the trophy presentation, only to have to carry it back up after he 3-putted. Goosen and Mark Brooks played an 18-hole playoff the next day that Goosen Tiger Woods

Retief Goosen

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2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

PAST MAJORS won handily. We had to scramble to get the marshals needed for a Monday playoff, but all went well, except maybe for the squirrels playing in the front bunker on 12 while the players were approaching!” No 5, 1982 PGA Championship, 32 points Winters: “The Ray Floyd show. His opening round of 63 was the course record and featured the amazing streak of nine straight 3s from number 6 to 14. He led the field and was never really challenged. Lanny Watkins finished second. “ Jones: “The only suspense at the 1982 PGA was whether Ray Floyd would break the tournament’s scoring record. He hacked up No. 18, however, and his double bogey left him a stroke short of tying the mark.” Cozby: “One of the greatest chippers of all time makes nine straight 3s from 6-14. Over.” No. 4, 1977 U.S. Open, 31 points Winters: “Once again the big names were not in contention. The highlight was Hubert Green receiving a death threat as he walked off the 14th green. He said, “let’s play” and promptly revealed his nerves by snap hooking his drive on number 15. He was fortunate to have hit a tree as his ball was headed

out of bounds. He made par, birdied 16 and pared 17 to go to 18 with a two-stroke lead. Lou Graham had mounted a charge and had birdied 12, 14, 15 and 16 to get within two. Hubert was leaking oil by 18 and had to make a trembling 4-footer for a bogey to win by one.” Jones: “I took a photo from mid-fairway that showed Hubert Green sitting on his golf bag and staring up at No. 18, green the tournament’s final hole. Three police officers were with him; Green had received a death threat while on the back nine, though spectators TV viewers and other golfers didn’t know it. He hit a poor second shot into the huge front-left bunker, but managed a long blast out and a testing bogey putt to defeat Lou Graham by a stroke.” Griffin: “The course played at 6,873 yards and was won by my pre-tournament pick, Hubert Green. Hubie played the last 5 holes under a death threat as some idiot called the club and said they were going to shoot him on 15. Another tournament with all the big names of that era, Nicklaus, Palmer, Trevino, Player, Miller and many more helped to make it a big gallery draw.” Andy Johnson: “Star players not in contention and death threat against the leader sums it up.”

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GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

Cozby: That was my first time at Southern Hills and at a professional golf event. I had a program and got autographs and had Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and a bunch more. My mom recently gave me some items from my dad’s office and I noticed that he had turned the autograph page upside down and signed it at the bottom for me. (Jerry Cozby, a member of the PGA of America and Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame, passed away in 2020.)” No. 3, 1958 U.S. Open, 23 point Winters: “Tommy “Thunder” Bolt controlled his well-known temper to win the first major at SHCC. This was the introduction of Gary Player who played beautifully and finished second 4 shots behind Bolt who led wire to wire. Jack Nicklaus was 18 years old and made the cut in his second Open. This was a chance to see the great players of that time. Ben Hogan was mediocre and finished 10th, Julius Boros was third, Sam Snead missed his first cut in 18 years and Jimmy Demaret withdrew. Bryan Johnson: “Wasn’t alive for this one but very important as it established Southern Hills as a major championship venue. Have always appreciated seeing that 22-year-old Gary Player finished second behind the winner Tommy Bolt.” Carter: “The greatest names in golf were in the field including Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Gene Littler, Cary Middlecoff, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer and a very young Jack Nicklaus. The fiery Bolt held them all off to win his only major championship over second place Gene Littler.” No. 2, 1970 PGA Championship, 22 points Received three first or second-place votes. Tulsan Jed Day played a key role as the caddy for Dave Stockton, who recalls his memories of this event in this issue. Winters: “This is my favorite and I count it as a tribute to Arnie and all he has meant to golf. Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller led the first round. Dave Stockton won the tournament with 98 percent of the gallery rooting for Arnie on Sunday. On the 13th hole on Sunday, Arnie was 4 shots behind and had hit his ball to about 15 feet from the hole. Stockton had hit it in the water and was looking at a double bogey. If Arnie holed his putt, it could be a threeshot swing. To his great credit, Stockton hit a beautiful pitch from a very difficult spot. He made bogey, Arnie missed and could not close the gap. Stockton was gasping for air and made shaky fives on 17 and 18 to win by two. This was Arnie’s third runner W W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG

fans in Oklahoup in the PGA championship HOW THEY VOTED, LAST TO FIRST ma may not reand was his last time in conmember all the tention in a major.” Otis Winters: 2001, 1994, 1982, 1977, 1958, 2007, 1970 cha mpion sh ips Jones: “On the final day of Jenk Jones Jr.: 1994, 1982, 1970, 2007, 1958, 1977, 2001 that have been hosted in the 1970 PGA tourney a great Dan Griffin: 2001, 1958, 1994, 1982, 1977, 1970, 2007 the state, but they will alshout went up from spectaways remember that Tiger tors at the seventh green. Andy Johnson: 1977, 1994, 1982, 1970, 2001, 1958, 2007 Woods won the PGA at People around the course figBryan Johnson: 1994, 1977, 2001, 1970, 1982, 1958, 2007 Southern Hills. ured crowd favorite Arnold “I was the chair of the Palmer had birded, but t was Cary Cozby: 1994, 2001, 1970, 1958, 1977, 2007 Marshals, and we were told Dave Stockton holing out for Mike Carter: 1977, 2001, 1982, 1958, 1994, 1970, 2007 that no one would start a an eagle — the two-stroke practice round on the 10th margin by which be ultitee so marshals were not scheduled to mately defeated Palmer and Bob Murphy. AND THE WINNER IS: work the back nine until after 8: 30. I The PGA remained the only major Palmer No. 1, 2007 PGA Championship, look up from the half way house at 7: 30 did not win.” 12 points Griffin: “Stockton, Palmer and Murphy Received five votes at No. 1 and one at No. 2. to see Tiger and Mark O’Meara teeing up on the 10th tee. I ran down to the were in the final group of the day on SunAndy Johnson: “One word, Tiger.” day. Stockton holed out a wedge from 120 Bryan Johnson: “Tiger Woods win- USGA officials who were testing the yards on number 7 for a 2 and Arnold dou- ning furthered the legacy of Southern speed of the 9th green, apprised them ble-bogeyed 12. So close for the win and Hills, as great major courses are defined of the situation and asked what they the crowds were so jubilant in rooting for by their champions. The heat was op- wanted us to do. They looked at each other and held their hands up. Our area him to win. pressive all week.” “With all of the big dogs . . . Palmer, NickCozby: “Arguably the greatest player marshal captains escorted the twosome laus, Trevino, Player and others playing in of all time in his prime, one of the two until marshals arrived for their shifts on the 14th and later holes. It was a this event, it made it a big draw for crowds. best players ever to walk the earth.” My brother-in-law, Jerry Hausner, caddied Carter: “The excitement was unpar- great tribute to the Tulsa fans that folfor Murphy and I caddied for Lee Trevino alleled. Tiger was the No. 1 player in lowed 6-7 deep without any incidents. in this event. Lee shot a course record 65 on the world and ever yone was waiting At that point in time, nothing was largSunday hitting all 18 greens in regulation.” and hoping for him to win. The golf er than Tiger!”

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2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

Dave Stockton of Westlake, Ca., watches the ball drop into the cup on the fourth hole for a par 4 in the fourth round of the PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. on Aug. 16, 1970. The entire week in Tulsa was the fans displayed. The eventual champimemorable. Wife Kathy, pregnant on had to endure a hazard not part of the with son Ronnie who was born course. On every hole there was yelling in a month later, spent much of her support of Palmer and catcalls to disrupt time in the clubhouse out of the Stockton’s concentration. He particularly heat and the question of where remembered a scream from the gallery to eat was solved after finding an after he three-putted the fifth, “You’ve all-you-can-eat buffet featuring got’em now Arnie!” Along with other anMexican food. Both Stocktons noying instances, Stockton remembered it love south of the border food, and made him play harder vowing to “stand up it gave them a relaxing place for to Arnie’s Army.” And he did. At the sixth, Stockton made meals during their stay. Fortune was smiling on Stockton a long birdie putt followed on the seventh although it may not have seemed by an eagle after holing out a wedge. Stumso at the time. He related, “That bling to a double bogey on No. 8, he comweek was the first and only time I pleted the nine with another birdie putting fired a caddy. On Monday, the one everyone on notice he was in control. There was a final opportunity for Palmer they assigned me, the son of a bar owner the caddie master knew, I on the long 13th when Stockton hit into don’t think had ever the water guarding the green. Palmer had a been on a golf course. birdie putt, but Stockton’s wedge to inches In the practice round, gave him a tap-in bogey slamming the door right on the very first on his pursuers. Palmer’s second place was his third in a hole, he put my bag down in a bunker, PGA Championship and turned out to be so I knew there was his final bridesmaid finish and his last top a problem. I couldn’t 10 in the PGA. As most golf fans know The wait to finish the nine King never did win a PGA which kept him from achieving a career Grand Slam. to get someone else.” by ed travis Stockton was never a long hitter and Stockton continued, “The new caddie’s I asked Stockton about the equipment he name was Jed Day and Jed was a Southern used that week 52 years ago. “The Dave Stockton model by Spalding,” Hills member and had a low handicap, he certainly knew the course. He has since passed he said. “That’s persimmon woods and irons away, but this was one of the few times I you wouldn’t want to have to play today." Stockton also contrasted the ball back ever had my caddie read the greens. He was then, a Spalding Top Flite, that good and a lot of help, a big with those used today telling part of why I did so well.” me, “The game is different, At that time the PGA rechanged. The ball comes off quired players to use caddies the face so much faster dissupplied by the course, not tances are much greater.” their regular caddies they had The impression I received week-to-week on Tour. The was he wasn’t lamenting the fortunate teaming of Stockton modern equipment but simply and Day was a significant faccommenting on the facts. tor in the victory. Stockton, who had 10 wins “I had a good third round (a Jed Day during his career, received a 4-under 66) and had a nice lead going into Sunday. I was feeling pretty good 10-year exemption on the PGA Tour for his 1970 PGA but four years earlier, prior to a for Sunday’s last round,” Stockton said. The lead was three strokes over Ray- change in the rules, his friend Al Geiberger mond Floyd and by five over Palmer. How- had been given a lifetime exemption for ever, no one anticipated the drama that his 1966 PGA win. Stockton told me after his second PGA in 1976 he asked the Tour, would occur the final day. On Sunday, Stockton played with Palmer I’m sure with tongue in cheek, if he could in the last pairing. He pointed out, “Arnie add the six years between his two chamwas best of any of us with the galleries,” pionships to the 10-year award for 1976. and quick to say Palmer was always apolo- Needless to say, the answer was no but it getic about the often-boisterous favoritism does give us a sense of Stockton’s attitude

Local assist Stockton credits Jed Day for 1970 PGA

ome of us remember the 1970 PGA Championship when Tulsa’s Southern Hills Country Club hosted the event for the first time with the result being a first-time major winner and The King missing another opportunity for the one major championship needed for a career Grand Slam. As everyone knows, the winner was a young Californian named Dave Stockton and The King, Arnold Palmer, finished in a tie for second at 281, two strokes behind the winner’s score of 1-under par. We caught up with the 80-year-old Stockton at the offices of Stockton Golf in Redlands, Calif., to ask him about his memories of the win and Oklahoma in August, when in Saturday’s third round the temperature reached 101 degrees. Stockton told me that as he completed his Monday practice round at Southern Hills while walking up the fairway to the 18th green he could visualize thousands of fans behind the green, just as they would be on Sunday. The 28-yearold, three-time winner in the preceding three years, was sure the vision was a great sign for his victory. 30

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

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of handling a situation in a humorous way. Throughout his career, Stockton was one of the Tour’s best putters and a master of the short game. This led him to becoming an instructor for players on the professional tours as well as conducting hundreds of clinics for recreational players. A few years ago I was the beneficiary of a Stockton putting lesson and it stuck with me. His contention is we take technique, the mechanics of the putting stroke, much too seriously. Concentrating on the “how” almost ensures problems with the stroke and this eventually leads to a loss of confidence which is then reinforced by more poor results. Stockton told me putting is like signing your name, something you do without a lot of thought, relaxed, and concentrating on the outcome not the process. He told me to just figure out the line and then hit it. Almost the same way a kid starting out does, without stopping to check if his stance is OK, his weight distribution is right, his balance even, the grip is square…well, you get the idea. The kid just steps up and knocks it in. Stockton is planning to be at Southern Hills during the PGA and looking forward to again seeing the course where he played some of the best golf of his life.

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2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP • MAY 16-22

QUESTIONS

coming off the carousel, our national writer, Nancy Armour, texted to say Tiger was a WD with the flu. I walked with associated press golf straight upstairs and booked a flight writer doug ferguson , the 2019 to Tulsa and drove to Hutchinson. recipient of the PGA of Ameri- Juli Inkster, who I think is the most ca's Lifetime Achievment Award . under-appreciated female American Doug once covered sports for athlete, returned to the site of the U.S. Women’s Amateur she won right afthe ap right here in tulsa . ter getting married. Annika Sorenstam This will be your 104th major was at the absolute top of her game and this 42-year-old gamer flat out championship. What sticks out whipped her to win a second Womas the top three and why and en’s Open. Tremendous. how about the other end of that, any The not-so-memorable are hard to one stick out as the worst major for find. Trevor Immelman winning the any reason? Pebble Beach for the 2000 U.S. Open Masters in 2008 because he had a big always seems to come to the forefront. lead without any sense he had real stayTiger introduced himself in 1997, but ing power, such as Seve or Tiger when that U.S. Open to me is when he re- they led big. Shaun Micheel saved the ally became Tiger because it was the ‘03 PGA at Oak Hill with his 7-iron at one time he was playing against himself the end, but that never had an edge-ofmore than the field. His 12-under par reyour-seat feel to it over the last hour. cord has since been broken, but the difWhat about PGA Tour or other ficulty of Pebble and the fact he won by events, how many have you cov15 shots is incomparable. He won by 15 ered and do you have a top three with a triple bogey. 2005 at St. Andrews would be next, there and why? I’m approaching 650 tournaments on only because of the images in my head from that week and the symbolic torch- the PGA Tour alone, including the Ryder Cups. From the Tiger division, passing of that the most epic to me was Kaweek. I don’t think palua in 2000 when Ernie Els I’ve ever seen more caught him on Saturday (believe people on balconies he faced a 4-shot deficit) and and looking through they went toe-to-toe on Sunwindows down day. They match eagles on 18 across the 18th as to force a playoff, birdies to exJack came across the tend it, and then Tiger wins on bridge in his final No. 1 with a 40-foot putt that major appearance was downhill, into the severe and, of course, birdgrain with about 6 feet of break. ied the 18th. I recall That’s the year Ernie said, “He’s Jack saying the hole Jack Nicklaus on the Swil24. When he’s 40, he’ll probably would have moved can Bridge for final time be bigger than Elvis.” if needed — I think at St. Andrews. Pebble in 2000 gets runnerhe was joking. And about that time, Tiger was teeing off in up in the comeback division. We were his second round and two days later had having soup in the press dining, thinkhis own Swilcan crossing in his return to ing of what this would mean to Matt dominance. That was the fourth time Jack Gogel, when Tiger’s approach on the played a major for the last time and Tiger 15th spun back into the cup for an eagle. About four of us pushed back our chairs won them all. Going slightly outside the box, but and got back to our seats about the time also standing out is the 2002 U.S. Wom- he nearly jarred it on 16 and went on to en’s Open at Prairie Dunes. Tiger was on make up a 7-shot deficit that he faced on a heater that year and I went to Chicago the back nine. The Canadian Open in 2004 felt as for the Western Open. As my bags were

GOLF OKL AHOMA • APRIL/MAY 2022

In pursuit of the elusive Tiger quote. big as major that year. On the 100th anniversary of golf’s fourth-oldest national championship, the 50-year anniversary of the last Canadian to win, Mike Weir had a two-shot lead late in the round. He wound up in a playoff with Vijay Singh, making his debut as the new No. 1 in the world. Singh wound up winning, and the air was sucked out of the Great White North. I still remember my lead from that one: “Vijay Singh is No. 1 in the world and Public Enemy No. 1 in Canada.” As for the favorites, I was home for the 2003 AT&T Pebble Beach because Tiger stopped playing. Watching on TV, I remember thinking, you can never miss this again. Not because it was nice weather. Not because Davis Love III staged a great comeback. It’s one of the best events in golf, a confluence of all that tour golf is about — professional, entertainment, corporate and amateurs. There is a spirit about Pebble and Carmel that in my eyes rivals St. Andrews. And then Riviera follows, which is probably my favorite tournament course. Best two weeks in golf (before the NFL added a week and Phoenix got dumped in the middle). You’ve conducted thousands of interviews with PGA Tour players, who are some of the best at being honest, informative and also entertaining.

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2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP What are your expectations for Scheffler and the like will get rewarded Geoff Ogilvy was always the smartby winning, and not just prize money. the future of the SGL? est interview. There should probably be a When there’s money, there’s a When you win big, you’re must-see golf, separate Irish division among McDowell, Harrington, Rory, Darren Clarke and Paul chance. We haven’t heard any names as or watched more than before. I think that McGinley. The most entertaining was Co- of late March, only an eight-tournament leads to top 10 in needle-moving. Otherlin Montgomerie. Nicklaus was always the schedule offering money that not even good wise, we’re dealing with the “it factor,” most gracious with his time, Nick Price players deserve. The top players care more and the only reason we call it the “it facand Adam Scott are always engaging and about their legacy and I can’t see them go- tor” is we don’t know what “it” is. We just honest, Arnold made you feel the most ing. Rory referred to “pre-Champions Tour,” know it. Spieth has it. So does Rory. Rahm comfortable. Paul Goydos was highly en- which was clever. I think you’ll see a Jason isn’t a big self-promoter, and he was on the tertaining because he delivered humor Kokrak or Kevin Na — I mention them be- list because of his performance. That’s a broad look. You leave out Max Homa through fact. Some of the newcomers because these are people who are in the press used to expect him to be there for the tweets regardless of the funny. You could never lead Paul to trophies. The PIP people are known humor. You just asked serious quesby the mainstream sports fan. tions and you received answers full of insight and often humor. In terms of Rory McIlroy seems to have being practical and intelligent, given emerged through the pandemthe right question Patrick Cantlay can ic, Ryder Cup and SGL as the be exceptional. conscience of golf. Is he as respected I’ve increasingly found it difficult a player and person as there is in the to ask players about their very good game today or who else is up there? rounds on Thursday or Friday at a He’s up there pretty high. Spieth tournament that doesn’t really take would be as well if he had kept winshape until Saturday afternoon at the ning at the rate he had from 2013earliest, barring anything special. Catching a moment with Phil Mickelson above, 2017, and still might. Rahm strikes Last year, Patrick Cantlay shot 68 on Patrick Cantlay below me with that potential, too. These Thursday morning, tied for fifth, bigare not perfect people, but they are time player. They brought him over real and they are consistent. Rory is mainly to capture a few comments bold in thought. Whether his views for the tour’s video. I had nothing have staying power, he is willing to and it felt like a waste of time, his put himself out there. and mine. So I asked him, “What would you ask you?” He smiled and You’ve witnessed the Tiger thought about this and said, “I think Woods story from the start. I wouldn’t be very good at your job.” Any amazing chapters left to To which I replied, “Obviously, I’m be written on the course? not very good at it, either.” And we See above — be surprised by nothsent him on his way. ing. But if you’re looking for an answer, I’d be surprised. I used to jokAs we go to press, we don’t ingly say if only he knew how to know if Phil Mickelson or Tiger Woods will be competing at South- cause of their connections to Golf Saudi — lose, he never would have won the ZoZo ern Hills, which is very unusual. If they caring only about money. Worth watching Championship in Japan so that ‘19 Masters both wind up in the field, any chance either is when a journeyman wins against a field would have been the last one. Pretty special. comparable to an opposite-field event and He was really flat, and at times the behavcould be competitive? Nothing either does surprises me, but this pockets $4 million. Greg Norman has gone ior was odd, the rest of ‘19. Then the panwould be close. The PGA Championship is from a “league” to vague details of a tourna- demic and still lacking purpose in his game, a month or so after Alan Shipnuck’s book. ment to force the tour’s hand. To me, that it seemed. And then the car crash and some We don’t know what else is in there, but the shows he cares more about taking over golf still unanswered questions (what kept him from hitting the brakes?). Saudi stuff will be revisited and it’s not pret- than “growing the game.” ty. Tiger took a pretty big spill with his perHow much has your job changed The Player Impact Program, is sonal life at the end of 2009. He was 34 and due to social media and the expectait just another way to give money had time to recover. Phil is 51. I think Phil tions of readers to know everything to those who have built the tour has the tools to compete for several more years, but can only see one magic week ev- or do they really want to reward those immediately and be able to comment on it ery 18 months or so. That happened to be who are moving the needle now? What themselves? What’s been the most satisfyKiawah last year. Tiger? He was playing in about quiet guys like Collin Morikawa ing aspect of your career? That’s still a work in progress. Twitter, a scramble and riding in a cart. And how and Patrick Cantlay, who just hit amazmuch he wants to or can practice to get back ing shots and win tournaments, how do along with bringing a little more immediacy, has brought poor journalism and endto a non-ceremonial level, I’m not seeing it. you reward them? Morikawa and Cantlay and Scottie less gossip into the world. People hear and Not ruling it out, either.

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

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repeat without asking questions, without making even a phone call to verify. Tweet first, check later. Plus, I’ve found most of the social media stuff — “OMG, you have to see this!” — has a short shelf life. I try not to spend too much time there or I’ll either go blind or lose my head. If it’s important, we’ll get to it. I have been caught behind on occasion, but I would take that over rushing out with material that really doesn’t matter. I’m probably in the minority here. So be it. Satisfying? Very simple. Telling stories that inform and entertain, and using 25 years of experience for context. That’s the job part. The travel? Sure. Not sure I would have ever made it across the bridge from Denmark to Sweden (‘03 Solheim Cup) or gone Down Under and to South Africa. I’ve covered golf on every continent where it’s played. That’s cool. But the people rule the day. Everyone. Players for whom I have great respect while keeping the line clear between press and athletes, rules officials, TV production crew, cart drivers, volunteers and police I see every year. It’s a wide net if you’re paying attention. There is no one performing at the level of Tiger from 19972008 and maybe never will be, but is the depth on the tour now the best you’ve seen? How many players right now are capable of being No. 1 in the world if they have a good stretch and is that more than ever before or is this all hype? I say this all the time: No way I would want to play this game for a living unless I was really, really good. You sent me this question before Scottie Scheffler rose to No. 1 in the world. Collin Morikawa went through commencement at Cal three years ago! It’s brutal out there. It’s so hard to win and such a fine line. You take notice of those who do. Are Scottie and Viktor and Rahm on heaters? I doubt it. Because ultimately it’s about winning. And the ones who get my attention are those who give themselves a chance. That’s all you can ask. We’ve had tournaments where No. 1 could have gone to five players. And none of them were named Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy, the two who have been No. 1 longer than anyone since Tiger. If you want to make it big, you better be prepared to put in the time. That’s what strikes me about today’s golf. It’s now a sport and a job. It is full-time on the range and in the gym and looking at what’s on your plate at dinner.

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2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

The

BOOKSHELF

Getting your fill of Phil by tom bedell

ullabaloo surrounding Tiger Woods’ will-he-orwon’t-he? appearance at this year’s Masters — ending with he would — managed to partially obscure the otherwise glaring absence of three-time green jacket winner, Phil Mickelson. There should be no need to review here the sorry details that led to Mickelson’s missing the year’s first major. The only question might be whether he choose to skip the tournament as part of his self-imposed abeyance from competition to become the man he wants to be, whether the Augusta National powers-that-be asked him to sit this one out, or whether the PGA Tour had slapped him with one of their never-to-bespoken-of suspensions (its version of double secret proba- tion). [On the eve of the opening round, Masters Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley said Mickelson had not been disinvited.] It does beg another question: whether Phil will show up at Southern Hills in May to defend his 2021 PGA Championship title? As we went to press, the issue wasn’t clear. It’s almost impossible to imagine he will not, but one thing you can count on with Mickelson is his unpredictability. That one of the most popular players in the game today could hit such a glorious peak after that amazing victory and then so quickly plummet to such a tawdry nadir was as unseemly to witness as Will Smith at the Oscars. Propelling the brouhaha was an excerpt released from one of the three titles under consideration here, Alan Shipnuck’s “Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf's Most Colorful Superstar” (Simon & Schuster, $30), which detailed Phil’s comments about the proposed Saudi league and his efforts to gain “leverage” over the PGA Tour. Though I read the book in galley, that whole exchange, including Mickelson accusing Shipnuck of airing off-the-record comments, and Shipnuck’s denial that there 36

were any off-the-record comments, is included toward the end of the book. I also read galleys of Bob Harig’s “Tiger & Phil: Golf’s Most Fascinating Rivalry” (St. Martin’s Press, $29.99) and Rick Reilly’s “So Help Me Golf: Why We Love the Game” (Hachette Books, $29). Neither mention Mickelson’s recent imbroglio, and a check with the publishers indicated the authors were not planning to add a postscript about it. I can’t help but think that Harig is an unfortunate victim of bad timing here. He’s a fine and talented writer and the book at hand is a perfectly acceptable account of the careers of the two superstars stacked up against each other. But stacked up against Reilly and Shipnuck, Harig is a little like J.B. Holmes at the 2016 Open Championship, finishing a respectable third, but more than 10 strokes behind Henrik Stenson and Mickelson. For some reason, Harig opens his narrative with Hal Sutton’s disastrous pairing of Woods and Mickelson at the 2004 Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills in Michigan. At the time the two stars were not particularly fans of each other, and their fruitless results didn’t improve matters. From there, Harig backs up to proceed chronologically through the players’ careers, but the trek through countless tournaments begins to feel like a summary — a bit dry, a little like looking through a scrapbook, pleasant enough to recall some of the highlights, but not an experience you couldn’t live without. Harig lacks Reilly’s humorous touch, and though he sprinkles ample anecdotes throughout the book, they lack the incisiveness of Shipnuck’s reporting. Still, fans of either Woods or Mickelson, or both, will find enough to feast on here. Reilly’s book isn’t really about Mickelson or Woods at all, and yet he manages to suit-

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

ably characterize the pair in a few well-chiseled phrases: “I’m a Phil Mickelson guy, not a Tiger Woods guy, and here’s why: Phil lets us into his life. Tiger stations Dobermans at the door of his…..Tiger’s thoughts are on a need-to-know basis, and nobody needs to know. Phil practically gives you the passkey to his mind.” What “So Help Me Golf” is about is 70 short takes on the ways golf weaves its way into our psyches, using Reilly’s various life roles as its structure — Kid, Teen, [Golf] Addict, Writer, Caddy, Fan, Father, Grandfather and a few others. Most are hilarious, like the club pro playing a practice round with Stephen Ames before a tournament. Ames never actually takes a club out of his bag during the entire round — all 18 holes with an imaginary swing. At the end of which the club pro’s caddie asks, “What’d you shoot?” Some are poignant enough to provoke tears, like the story of Tour player Erik Compton being served by a waitress who improbably turns out to be the aunt of the man who had given him his second heart transplant. And there’s also the way golf allows Reilly to negotiate life around an alcoholic and abusive father, one whom he’s only able to forgive years after his father had found sobriety, during a road trip to the Masters. I would have said this is the best golf book I’ve read in quite some time. But then I read Shipnuck’s, another winner, and about as rip-roaring as the title promises. Most of the more recent inflammatory material about Mickelson comes in the last chapter, along with instances of Phil telling Shipnuck he was wary of the author’s effort. But other than the Saudi material, Mickelson didn’t really have that much to worry about. Sure, Shipnuck offers plenty of instances of Mickelson being his own worst enemy in shooting his mouth off without pondering the ramifications. (Example: The 2014 Ryder Cup press conference, when Mickelson raked captain Tom Watson over the coals.) His personal style carried over to his swashbuckling play, brilliant when it worked (Augusta National, hole 13, 2010 Masters), calamitous when it didn’t (Winged Foot, hole 18, 2006 U.S. Open). But it’s a W W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG

Hall-of-Fame career by any reckoning, starting with 45 wins, putting him in a tie for eighth on the all-time PGA Tour list with Walter Hagen. Shipnuck covers Mickelson’s off-course gambling as well as on, the boastful Mickelson, the trash-talking Mickelson, while blowing up some of the hoary Mickelson legends (fathering a black baby, he and Amy swinging with other couples). But he also covers the thoughtful Mickelson, the helpful to other players Mickelson, the generous Mickelson (unlike Woods, a big tipper), the philanthropic Mickelson, and the devoted family man Mickelson. A lot of this is revealed in a brilliant first chapter in which Shipnuck asks a single question, “What’s your best Phil Mickelson story?” and then unfurls 2 ½-dozen answers from other players, athletes, writers. Shipnuck’s Mickelson contains multitudes. It’s a portrait of a clearly complex character, one who, as Stewart Cink puts it in that first chapter, is all about “juice.” I’d call it a largely admiring portrait, with plenty of juice of its own. Tom Bedell recalls interviewing Phil Mickelson a long time ago, before his first leap in the air at Augusta in 2004.

Danny Edwards' driven life

anny Edwards has done seemingly everything a man can squeeze into a life, why not write a book about it. That’s just what the 2021 Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame entrant has done. “Driven, The Danny Edwards Story,” with a gracious foreword from Johnny Miller and a writing assist from PGA of America Historian Emeritus Bob Denney, will be available in May by visiting ClassicsofGolf.com ($24.95), and on Amazon. Additionally, the book will be carried through independent bookstores and available in eBook for Kindle and Apple. Edwards, who was inducted along with brother David Edwards in the class of ‘21, rose from humble beginnings to become a five-time PGA Tour winner, a champion race car driver, a renowned business entrepreneur and a far-seeing organizer with his early role in the Tour Players Association. How did he accomplish all this and why? From his early days growing up in Edmond, Edwards writes that he was always in a hurry, perhaps to impress a father who was largely

disinterested in his son’s athletic accomplishments. He became great at basketball, baseball, golf, ping-pong, you name it. As his golf career advanced from high school champion to Oklahoma State AllAmerican and PGA Tour winner, he became increasingly drawn toward auto racing and developed a longtime friendship and business relationship with Roger Penske. Edwards covers the trials and triumphs of Royal Grip, the grip company he founded based on knowledge gleaned from his racing pursuits and one that became the dominant grip company in the world. GreensFix and now the Chipping Equation, two other business ventures, are also included, and Edwards will be doing several chipping clinics at LaFortune Park Golf Course in Tulsa around the PGA Championship. For golf nuts, there are some intriguing insider tales, including a frosty day with Gary Player and Tom Watson, ending with Watson storming off without signing Player’s scorecard due to his constant dalliance with the rules of golf. Overall, a fast, fun and intriguing read about a man whose life has been the same.

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UnitedGolfLLC.com 2108 N. 129th2022 E. PGA Ave. • Tulsa,PREVIEW OK 74116 • AHOMA 918-461-0731 CHAMPIONSHIP • GOLF OKL 37

NICK SIDORAKIS

A major legacy in Tulsa over $10 million since the program’s inception in 2002 to provide free golf lessons and he 2022 PGA Championship is life skills to more than 120,000 children in likely the last major golf champi- the Tulsa area, all free of charge. (Full disonship for 64-year-old Nick Sidor- closure, this writer is on the city golf adviakis, as general manager at Southern Hills sory committee, is executive director of the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame and is on the Country Club, a job he's held for 27 years. He hasn’t officially announced his re- First Tee Board.) Nothing is nearer to his heart in his protirement, and members and club officials would surely love him to stay through the 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship. As far as majors go, however, Sidorakis has no plans to be around if and when either the PGA Championship or U.S. Open returns. The next unassigned U.S. Open date is 2029 and Southern Hills officials have been wooing the USGA for a fourth Open to go with those in 1958, 1977 and 2001. The next PGA Championship open date is 2030, the date Southern Hills was slotted for before PGA officials moved it from former President Donald Trump’s Bedminster course following the riot at the U.S. Capitol followed by his second impeachment. So this will likely conclude a run that has seen Sidorakis oversee the 1995 and 1996 Tour Championships, the 2001 U.S. Open, the 2007 PGA Championship, the 2009 U.S. Amateur and the 2022 PGA Championship, the fifth PGA Championship in the Southern Hills GM Nick Sidorakis club’s illustrious history, two more than fessional life than the First Tee program, any other club has held. The run of championships is just the recognized as the only First Tee chapter to beginning of his impact. With a full and provide all of its services at no cost. “To go back to the first days when John thriving membership enjoying the fruits of a massive 2018 course restoration by Gil Johnson and I thought of developing the Hanse and Jim Wagner along with tremen- program back in 1999 to see what it’s bedous improvements to the practice facilities, come and the impact that it has made on clubhouse and other infrastructure, com- all of these children that would not have bined with personnel he considers “absolute had the opportunity to be involved in golf, superstars” led by Director of Golf Cary it’s beyond any expectation we could have Cozby and superintendent Russ Myers, he had,” Sidorakis said. “When you see some will leave the club perfectly positioned to of the outstanding young men and women continue its role as one of the nation’s lead- that have come back to work at the First Tee, or gone on to be successful in business ers when he does decide to step down. Yet all of that doesn’t begin to capture and life, it’s truly rewarding. Janice (Gibthe impact Sidorakis has had on the game son, the executive director since the outset) has been truly amazing with the time and and the community. Sidorakis is one of the prime movers and effort she has put into this program.” Gibson says the same about Sidorakis, past chairman of the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame board. He is a leader on a citizen’s marveling at how someone with his busy advisory committee dedicated to helping day job has managed to pour so much time restore the rundown city of Tulsa-owned and effort into building the First Tee. “Nick finds time to not only spearhead municipal courses at Page Belcher and Mohawk Park. And above all, he is the co- fundraising efforts, but to provide leaderfounder, leader and ongoing chairman of ship, direction and guidance on a regular the First Tee of Tulsa, having helped raise basis,” Gibson said. “Nick and John’s hard

by ken macleod

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

work and dedication built the First Tee of Tulsa from the ground up.” Though he may turn the reins at Southern Hills over in time, Sidorakis has no intention of relinquishing his role with the First Tee and intends for the program to continue to evolve and grow. “We’re getting into now where Janice and her managers are helping coach high schools in Tulsa Public Schools and we want that role to grow,” Sidorakis said. “We would like to eventually have a satellite program at Page Belcher which would open the doors and touch other parts of Tulsa. That’s just one of my visions for it. “We want to continue to expand the educational aspect. We’re helping second graders improve their reading and writing skills. We’re helping older kids prepare for their ACT tests and doing STEM work. There’s just so much good the program does and can do.” A native of Westfield, N.J., Sidorakis was an accomplished golfer, twice winning the club championship at Shackamaxon G&CC. He came to Southern Hills with a deep background in food service and hospitality, owning and running his own restaurant, the Sleepy Hollow Inn in Scotch Plains, N.J., but his most recent stint was seven years of corporate hospitality work for Marriott in Phoenix. He was hired at Southern Hills to replace previous GM Bill Dorman on April 1, 1995, with the first of back-to-back Tour Championships looming just eight months away in October. He plunged right in and money the club made from the Tour Championships eventually became the seed money that former club president Johnson persuaded the Southern Hills board to use to start the First Tee program. The club has supported the endeavor ever since, holding an annual fundraising tournament on site each fall and supporting it in myriad other ways. For now, Sidorakis is locked in on the PGA Championship. Hundreds of planning and operations meetings go into hosting, and his staff in the clubhouse and club hospitality tent will swell to more than 450 for tournament week. His days will begin by rising at 3 a.m. and he loves the 4:30 a.m. meetings with Myers and PGA of America Championships Director Kerry Haigh to outline the day’s setup and strategy. Will he get to watch any golf live in his final go-round? “I tape it,” Sidorakis said. “There’s just W W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG

so much going on. Just providing food membership, the executive committees, being the site of more PGA Championships and beverage in the clubhouse, we’ve got and the PGA staff. He’s just got the whole than any other course, and expects the 2022 version to be a huge success. our hands full, up to 5,000 meals a day. package.” “The golf course is prepared,” he said. The 2001 U.S. Open was the result of a We’ve got to be extremely well prepared and think of everything that could possi- member-led effort by Larry Houchin, Ran- “Gil did an amazing job and Russ and his bly happen and have contingency plans for dy Olmsted, Bill Warren and others, but crew will have it in tremendous condition. We just want to presthose things. If not, you ent the best golf course could fall flat on your and facility we can and face and I won’t accept what happens from that. You’re working there will happen. But 18-hour days for the I think the winner will 10 days including the be in single digits unevent and running on der par. adrenaline. By Wednes“I’m proud and honday, you’ve got your ored that we’re about game face on and really to host our fifth PGA refining the operations, Championship. It and then by Thursday makes you stick your you’re in full bore and chest out a bit. I didn’t getting after it.” Nick Sidorakis with students at the First Tee of Tulsa think we’d ever be in Longtime member and volunteer Cathey Barkley said, “Nick Sidorakis was the key figure in landing the this position again and we’re honored and has been such a solid leader and our go- 2007 PGA Championship. He worked hard blessed. Tulsa and the state of Oklahoma to guy when it comes to anything re- on landing another U.S. Open to follow, should be proud as well.” Proud of being a city of major champigarding major championships. He works but when it was not forthcoming after the so well with others, doesn’t put himself 2009 U.S. Amateur, reopened a dialogue onships and proud of the man who helped above anyone and will take on anything, with the PGA of America, leading to the make them happen. And thankful that he anywhere. I remember in the 2007 PGA 2021 Senior PGA Championship and now will continue to bring golf and life lessons to the lives of thousands of Oklahoma chilChampionship we were out there pick- the fifth PGA Championship. Sidorakis takes pride in Southern Hills dren each year. ing up trash. He has the respect of all the

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2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

LOOKING BACK

by john rohde

ob Tway holing out for birdie from a greenside bunker on the 72nd hole of the 1986 PGA Championship at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, remains one of golf’s most memorable shots. No small feat given how proudly the sport immerses itself in history. Rarely is a major championship winner identified by a single swing of his club, but such is the case with Tway’s “Hole-y Toledo” moment that instantaneously and unceremoniously made Greg Norman a major runner-up (again). Oklahoma golf also is saturated in history. The Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame, established in 2014, had an inaugural induction class that included Charlie Coe, Gil Morgan and architect Perry Maxwell, the man who happened to design revered Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, site of the forthcoming 104th PGA Championship (May 19-22). A steady flow of worthy inductees has followed ever since and will continue to do so. Tway was a member of the 2017 class. Video of his captivating bunker shot, many more career highlights and his emotional acceptance speech are available at the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame website, www.oklahomagolfhof.org. Also available is footage of more than 30 other HOF inductees. Tway’s magnificence during the 1986 season included four victories, 13 top-10 and 21 top-25 finishes, which resulted in his peers selecting him PGA Tour Player of the Year. Tway also excelled in other majors that year. He tied for eighth at the Masters, finishing five strokes behind a 46-year-old Jack Nicklaus when he captured his sixth Green Jacket. In that year’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills (N.Y.) Golf Club, Tway was the first-round leader and trailed by two strokes entering the final round. A double-bogey on the par-5 16th and a bogey on the 17th pushed him down into a tie for eighth, five strokes behind winner Raymond Floyd. In just his second full season on the PGA Tour, a 27-year-old Tway already had collected a lifetime’s worth of achievements for many touring pros. However, Tway struggled to accept his excellence. He strived for perfection and constantly tinkered with his swing. A frustrating dry spell ensued. His first four victories on the PGA Tour came in a span of six months and 22 starts. His next four victories required 17 years and 468 starts. From 1992-94, Tway managed 40

Bob Tway flashback just two top-10 finishes and missed 37 cuts in 75 starts. “At the time, you don’t realize it all, to tell you the truth,” Tway admitted. “I knew it was great to win a major and I was playing against all these great players, but I was still so young and naïve. I guess I didn’t know any better.” Tway had good intentions and made no apologies for trying to improve his game. “Even though I messed with my swing, I was always trying to get better, so I can’t fault myself for that,” Tway has said. “Obviously, if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have messed with my swing because I would have known what to do. I guess that’s part of digging it out of the dirt, trying to figure it out.” After collecting six career victories on the PGA Tour by 1990, Tway ended a five-year victory drought by capturing the 1995 MCI Classic at Hilton Head Island, S.C. He also had eight top-10 and 15 top-25 finishes in 27 starts that season. As a result, Tway was voted 1995 PGA Tour Comeback Player of the Year. Tway, who turns 63 on May 4, retired from competitive golf after suffering a detached retina in his right eye four years ago. “It throws off my depth perception,” Tway said at the time. “I can’t tell a good lie from a bad lie. I can’t read the greens very well and it just makes things look strange. I look at straight lines and they’re wavy. It’s just a weird phenomenon. It doesn’t neces-

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

sarily change your quality of life. I can get around fine. For golf, when you need to have your eyesight be a little bit better, it just makes it tough. It’s just one of those things. It’s no big deal. I’m glad it happened to me at (age) 58 as opposed to 35. That would have been a little disappointing. I can still play golf. I just won’t play as much.” Despite the debilitating setback, Tway’s outlook and attitude remain impressively positive. Those eyes now focus on the potentially blossoming future of his touring son, Kevin. Bob and wife, Tammie, reside in Arizona. Daughter, Carly, is a jewelry designer living in San Clemente, Calif. Bob’s primary residence makes it easier to follow Kevin during the Tour’s West Coast swing each January and February. Other than that, Bob tries to see Kevin play in person once a month or so. A past All-American out of Oklahoma State just like his father, the 33-yearold Kevin began April ranked 107th in championship points toward qualifying for the 156-player PGA Championship in May. The top 70 from the points list are exempt from qualifying. That number can grow, depending on the number of withdrawals due to injuries, etc. Asked if he thought Kevin’s pro aspirations included repeating his father’s feat of winning a PGA Championship, Bob said, “Well, obviously he’d love to win a major. People ask him about it, but he wasn’t even born when I won. He’s not a big goal guy or whatever. Maybe quietly he is, but he doesn’t talk about it that much. I just think he concentrates on trying to get better and kind of whatever happens, happens, to tell you the truth.” When Kevin captured the 2018 Safeway Open in a three-way playoff, he and Bob became the 10th father-son duo in history to win on the PGA Tour. But imagine the symmetry if Kevin were to someday win the PGA Championship, particularly this May in his native state should he qualify. It would make Bob and Kevin the first father-son combination to win major championships on American soil. Willie Park and Willie Park Jr. won a combined six British Opens from 1860-89. Tom (Old Tom) Morris Sr. and Tom (Young Tom) Morris Jr. each won four British Open titles from 1861-72. “Obviously, you want to play in all the majors,” Bob said. “Kevin likes Southern Hills, so he’d love to be back there. I’d like for him to get in it, too, because I’d love to go back to Oklahoma and watch.” W W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG

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Scheffler's OU roomies not surprised by streak Grant Hirschman as well as Drew Ison of Edmond, who played collegiately at Drake cottie Scheffler is on one of the hot- and is now a sales consultant at Collective test streaks in PGA Tour history. Health. With his love for Southern Hills docuJust to recap, in the last six months he went 2-0-1 at the Ryder Cup as a Captain’s pick, won at the Waste Management, again at Bay Hill in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and then prevailed in the WGC Match Play at Austin Country Club, moving to No.1 in the world. Surely that meant he would freeze at The Masters? No, he went on to win in dominant fashion, with his high, soft irons, fantastic touch on chipping and pitching and solid putting leaving the field in the dust. It capped one of the best streaks of any player not named Tiger Woods. The Oklahoma pros who lived with Scheffler and played against him on a daily basis while the world struggled through the first Covid shutdown are not surprised. They have seen this before. In June of 2019, after leaving the Uni- Left to right, Max McGreevy, Meredith and Scottie Scheffler and Grant Hirschman. versity of Texas and starting his pro career on the Korn Ferry Tour, Scheffler moved mented and the previous success he’s had into a house in Dallas with former Soon- there, winning the Big 12 Championship in ers Max McGreevy, Charlie Saxon and 2015 as a Longhorn freshman and finishing by sam humphreys

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

tied for fifth in 2018, he would have to be a favorite for the 2022 PGA Championship. McGreevy, who now plays on the PGA Tour, and Saxon, currently on the Korn Ferry Tour, didn’t know Scheffler when he moved into the house, but McGreey said they quickly bonded. McGreevy recalls a time the Saxon was struggling with his chipping and Scheffler came to the rescue. “It was a cold day, so we were all inside, and I remember Scottie giving basically a lesson on bounce and chipping in our living room. He’s 23 at the time,” McGreevy said. “But I am listening to literally every word that he said. Obviously he was trying to help Charlie, but all of us sat in the living room listening because he really was just way more golf smart than all of us. And that is hard to take when it’s someone younger, but he had so much knowledge that we would always run questions by him and he would sit there and answer every single one. I took a lot from that little chipping lesson in our living room. Things I still think about two years later.” “What is cool about Scottie is that you would never know he’s the No. 1 player

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in the world,” Saxon said. “It’s not going to change him. All of his various player of the year trophies and trophies from wins were stuffed under a pile of NIKE stuff in his closet. He’s just a humble guy unless he beats you in a money game, and in that case, he’ll make sure you hear about it for the rest of the day.” And there was plenty for Scheffler to crow about to his Sooner roomies. “Around April of 2020, Scottie had a stretch where in a few week span, he shot 59 twice,” Ison said. “Once at Texas Rangers GC and once at Royal Oaks, and the day before he shot 59 at Royal Oaks, he shot a 60! He made golf look like a video game! “The day he shot 59 at Rangers he was playing with his group from Royal Oaks and he didn’t even know he shot 59 until they were driving home and counting everything up. He had a bogey on the ninth hole after trying to hit a driver off the deck and topping it into a creek. He said he had to halve all the bets because it got out of hand.” “We all obviously knew he was really good, but during Covid, he went on this run of next level golf for a few months. He took Max and me to the cleaners every time we teed it up.” Saxon said.

W W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG

2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

MAY 16-22, 2022

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M MM

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M Media Hotel Lot MLot -Lot Media Hotel Lot K K---Kirk Kirk of ofthe the Hills Hills PGA Premier Shuttle K -of Kirk the Hills LotHospitality K Lot - Kirk theof Hills

PGA PGAPremier PremierHospitality HospitalityShuttle Shuttle Lot C - Victory Church

PGA Premier Hospitality Shuttle PGA Premier Hospitality Shuttle Lot LotC C--Victory Victory Church Church

EAST 65th PL

Disability Services Shuttle C - Victory Church Lot C Lot - Victory Church

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SOUTHERN HILLSHILLS COUNTRY CLUB SOUTHERN SOUTHERN HILLS COUNTRY COUNTRY CLUB CLUB

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PAR PAR

PAR

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468 YARDS PAR SOUTHERN HILLS COUNTRY CLUB PAR

Road Closure

468 468 500

144 41

442 4 2 44 5 355 3 500 500472 472 472 377 377 377 656 656 656

500 500 YARDS 4 YARDS 5 468 468 6 AHOMA.ORG 7 472 472 8 3 W W W.GOLFOKL

This page sponsored by First Oklahoma Bank

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214

432

251

391

3,761

441

173

456

632

230

417

527

371

491

3,738

7,499

OUT 10AHOMA.ORG 11 W W W.GOLFOKL

18 INPREVIEW • GOLF TOTAL OKL AHOMA 2022 17 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

SOUTH HARVARD AVE

EASTX361st ST

2022 PGA Championship Spectator Guide TICKETS:

ter may fill to capacity. Please monitor PGA Championship social channels (@pgachampionship) and the On-Site Guide for the latest updates. In this scenario, spectators would be directed to Lot General Public North at the Tulsa Promenade - Macy’s Parking Garage (5097 E 43rd St, Tulsa, OK 74105). There will be no overnight parking in any PGA Public Parking Lots, and PARKING: PGA PUBLIC PARKING any vehicles left overnight will be towed (LOT GENERAL PUBLIC SOUTH) at the owner’s expense. PGA Tournament South of Southern Hills Country Club Corporation is not responsible for damoff-site PGA Public Parking will be com- age to your vehicle, or items lost or stolen plimentary and located at the Mabee from your vehicle. Center (2599 E 81st St, Tulsa, OK 74136). Complimentary shuttle service will be PGA PUBLIC PARKING provided to and from the Main Spectator (LOT GENERAL PUBLIC Entrance at Southern Hills Country Club. NORTH) There will be no public parking at SouthNorth of Southern Hills Country Club ern Hills Country Club during Champion- off-site PGA Public Parking will be comship Week. plimentary and located at the Tulsa PromLot General Public South will be open enade - Macy’s Parking Garage (5097 E Monday, May 16 - Sunday, May 22, 2022. 43rd St, Tulsa, OK 74105). Lot General It will be the only PGA Public Parking lot Public North will only be open Thursday, open, Monday - Wednesday. May 19 - Sunday, May 22, 2022. Monday, Please note that during the Champi- May 16 - Wednesday, May 18, 2022, PGA onship Rounds, Thursday - Sunday, Lot Public Parking will only be available at Lot General Public South at the Mabee Cen- General Public South at the Mabee Center. Tickets for Friday through Sunday are sold out. Remaining tickets for practice rounds and Thursday round available at www.pgachampionship.com/tickets

RIDESHARE & SPECTATOR DROP-N-GO Spectators electing to utilize UBER, Lyft, or other rideshare services must be picked up and dropped off at the PGA Championship’s Official Rideshare lot located at the Southern Hills Tower (2431 E 61st Street. For an efficient Rideshare experience, simply enter “2022 PGA Championship” as the destination in your Rideshare app of choice and your driver will take you to the designated Rideshare lot. Spectators utilizing rideshare will enter and exit the Championship grounds through the 61st Street Entrance, a 5 minute walk from Southern Hills Tower. The Championship’s Rideshare lot will also be available for any spectator drop-ngo. Do not attempt to perform spectator pick-up or drop-offs at or near either spectator entrance or in the neighborhoods surrounding Southern Hills Country Club.

WALK OR BIKE Spectators who live within walking distance of Southern Hills Country Club, may enter and exit the Championship grounds through one of two spectator entrances. North of the property there will be an

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SPECTATOR GUIDE entrance off 61st Street between S. Birmingham Place and S. Delaware Avenue. South of the property there will be a walkin entrance off E. 65th Place between S. Lewis Ave. and Timberlane Road. Bike racks will only be available at the E. 65 Place (Main Spectator) entrance (South). Note: All spectator drop-off and pick-up should occur at the Rideshare Lot located at Southern Hills Tower. There will be no daily readmission to the Championship grounds. If you leave the grounds, you must have an unscanned ticket to return to the Championship.

ACCESSIBLE PARKING

Nick Faldo and Jim Nantz will anchor the CBS broadcast team.

Designated accessible parking for those requiring lift-equipped transportation to RESTROOMS: the course will be available at RiverGate See locator map for locations Church (1439 E 71st St, Tulsa, OK 74136). You will need a verified Disabled Person TELEVISION: Parking placard, permit, or license plate to Thursday, May 19 enter this parking lot. The person to whom Live first round coverage on ESPN+ from the placard or plate is issued must be pres- 7a.m. – 1 p.m. CDT; live coverage on ESPN ent in the vehicle, as a driver or passenger. from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. CDT Friday, May 20 Live second round coverage – same CONCESSIONS: Many ticket packages include conces- schedule as first round Saturday and Sunday, May 21-22 sions, please check your tickets. See locator Live on ESPN+ 7-9 a.m. CDT both days. map for concession locations

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

ESPN 9 a.m. to Noon both days. CBS coverage Noon to 6 p.m. both days. Live stream on Paramount + of third and final rounds. Featured Groups and Featured Holes coverage on ESPN+ all day for all four days of the tournament

MERCHANDISE: Main merchandise tent located below clubhouse to south of main entrance road.

CELL PHONE POLICY: All cell phones must be silenced at all times.

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SPECTATOR GUIDE

Much to do for PGA visitors by kimberly marsh macleod

housands of guests from across the country and the planet will converge on our little slice of flyover heaven in May for the 2022 PGA Championship at spectacular Southern Hills Country Club. And after hours of shadowing the world’s best golfers, where to repair for food, fun and frivolity? Those here for the 2001 U.S. Open or the 2007 PGA Championship may have trudged back to their hotels and ordered room service. Well, we have a bit more to show off these days. “Professionally, I can’t wait to see the best in the world here at Southern Hills. I’m excited for the club but equally or more so for the city,” said Southern Hills Director of Golf Cary Cozby. “You think about how cool the town is now, how much hipper it was than in 2007. What has happened downtown, on Cherry Street, Brookside, the corridor around Peoria and Route 66. You’ve got the River Spirit, the Hard Rock, the Osage Casino. There will be great concerts in town that week, including The Eagles. It’s going to be off the charts electric and the vitality of Tulsa will really show through for all of our visitors.” Whether you’re a foodie, music lover, art aficionado, gambler or just want to chill out in the world’s most stunning urban park, you’re in the right place.

BUT WHERE TO START? Let’s all gather at the River The first place to mention is one of America’s best attractions and Tulsa’s riverfront park: The Gathering Place. This 66-acre public park near the Arkansas River with access to the RiverParks and Midland Valley Trails, is a popular destination for all ages. Explore gardens, kayak, ride an electric-assisted bicycle, grab a scooter, play basketball, or hit the skate park if you happen to have your board on you. You may want to grab a coffee or a sandwich at an indoor or outdoor patio cafe or take a seat to enjoy the view at the ONEOK boathouse, or linger for a spell in The Williams Lodge, a spot described as an “extroverted” multi-level building and the park’s anchor, offering many activities and rooms to explore.

Take a walk on the wild side Woodsy spots for 1-to-3 mile hikes may 50

The Gathering Place western swing bands who made the Cain’s Ballroom legendary. On May 18, alternative rockers They Might Be Giants make their mark on the Ballroom stage, where musical history has been made since the 1930s. Golf announcer and comedian David Feherty is no longer on the CBS crew, but he will be appearing at The Joint at the Hard Rock Casino in Catoosa May 19. It might get loud As far as legends go, folk singer Woody After a day of walking and whispering on the course, it’s time to get a little loud at one Guthrie’s legacy lives here in Tulsa as well. His archive of work, housed at the Woody of Tulsa’s music venues. You are welcomed to Tulsa’s BOK Cen- Guthrie Center, consists of more than 100 notebooks, corter on May 16 respondence, for The Eagles’ and many other 2022 Hotel documents that California tour. show his misIt’s such a lovesion to speak ly place, there for the disenis plenty of franchised. As room any time we watch in of year, and horror as famiyou may never The Eagles on May 16 lies are forced leave. The tour features some Eagle band veterans Don out of their homelands around the world, Henley, Timothy Schmit, and Joe Walsh Woody reminds us that “This land is my (what a nice surprise) with Deacon Frey land, this land is your land.” The PGA Championship does not co(Glen’s son) and Oklahoma’s own Vince Gill. If you’re more into boot-scootin’ boo- incide with Bob Dylan’s Tulsa stop on his gie, dosey doe over to the BOK Center yet 2022 tour, but the Bob Dylan Center opens again for another country music great and May 10 in the Tulsa Arts District on Reconhonorary Oklahomans, Brooks & Dunn, on ciliation Way to offer unprecedented access May 21. For a bit cozier music venue and bit to the creative life of one of America’s most of gambling as well, escape to the Cove at important and influential artists. If fine art is your taste, visit the Philbrook RiverSpirit Casino, just two miles southwest of Southern Hills, for the legendary Bonnie Museum of Art, in the historic home of oil Raitt on May 20. Alternatively, the Home pioneer Waite Phillips. If your senses run of Bob Wills attracts more than the historic more modern and abstract, visit ahha Tulsa be found at RiverParks’ Turkey Mountain trails and the City of Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center trails. The Keystone Ancient Forest is just 20 miles west of Tulsa, near Sand Springs, and worth the drive for a 15-minute-to-1-hour trek among the 300-year-old cedars and 500-year-old post oaks.

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

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2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

SPECTATOR GUIDE and 108 Contemporary in the Tulsa Arts District. While you’re there, take a break to contemplate the mysteries of the universe at the Center of the Universe. Yes, we in Tulsa are at the center of the universe. The area looks unremarkable, marked by a concrete circle in the center of a larger circle of bricks near a strange looking rusty sculpture known Gathering at the Guthrie Green downtown. as The Artificial Cloud. But the real mystery is in the sound. TravelOK.com books, healing with talks, candlelight vigils, gives an okay description of the acoustic prayer and more. anomaly. “Any noise made inside the brick Today, when you visit the Greenwood circle is loudly echoed, but only those inside District on the northeast edge of downtown the circle can hear it.” Tulsa, you will find growth and community anchored by Greenwood Rising. This Black Wall Street history and cultural center is free But I came here for the golf Tulsa is an evolving city, from its oil to the public at the corner of Greenwood capital days that created much wealth and Avenue and Archer Street, the center of the abundance, to the bustling Black Wall Street 1921 massacre and the district’s current reentrepreneurs who generated a prosperous birth. Check the Oklahoma Eagle newspacircular economy out of necessity. That per at shops in Greenwood for weekly art, economy was destroyed in 1921, hundreds culture, music, poetry and forum listings died, homes were destroyed and fortunes prior to the 101st anniversary of the Race were lost. In 2021, 100 years later, Tulsa re- Massacre at the end of May. The entrepreneurial spirit is seen in membered the Black Wall Street Race Massacre with the creation of art, music, poetry, Greenwood. Among those are The Green-

wood Gallery, Wanda J’s Restaurant, Silhouette Sneakers & Art, Black Street Liquid Lounge for coffee and conversation; Lefty’s on Greenwood for late night food and drink; DW Speakeasy for nightlife; Cobbler Mom, souvenir shops, barber shops, burgers, landmarks and murals that pay tribute to the past, and more small businesses that make up the fabric and the foundation. While in the area, also take a stroll through the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park, named for a survivor and champion who successfully fought legislation that would have stymied the rebuilding of Greenwood.

Shop ‘til you drop If you’re looking for more shopping opportunities, be sure to make your way to midtown for the upscale Utica Square shopping center, unique boutiques, art galleries and eateries in the Cherry Street and Brookside districts, and go south for the familiar national chain stores at Tulsa Hills Shopping Center and Woodland Hills Mall.

Just drive, she said You can learn a lot about Tulsa just by driving around and let the city’s.murals tell a story. Grab a map at tulsa.tours/murals-tour and take a drive. Take a selfie at the foot of the Golden Driller at Tulsa’s Expo Square, with the Praying Hands at Oral Roberts University, with Buck Atom at Buck Atom’s Cosmic Curios on Route 66 (11th Street). And if that lure of the open road, namely Route 66, gets you excited, there is a whole lot more here in Tulsa to see. Check Facebook.com/tulsa66comission for more.

To be Deco or not to be Deco Tulsa also is known for its architecture: Art Deco churches and downtown office buildings, mid-century modern homes, as well as the classic mansions and historic renovations for modern life. On May 19, The Tulsa Foundation for Architecture offers two opportunities for touring “Deco vs. Not Deco” at noon and 6 p.m., starting at Chapman Green.

For daily stuff Here are a few websites for daily schedules: RootTulsa.org; tulsa arts district.org; downtowntulsaok.com; facebook.com/TulsaEvents; instagram.com/thisweekintulsa; facebook.com/thisweekintulsa. 52

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

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2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

SPECTATOR GUIDE

Bailey Ranch Golf Course in Owasso

LaFortune Park in the heart of Tulsa

Public golf options abound near tulsa Casino, though much of it has been rerouted has a second 18 called Pecan Valley. For public golf, many great adventures over time, including a major redesign by Tripp n town for the PGA Championship Davis of Norman. And Maxwell also had a await within a 40-mile radius. In town, Tulsa County Parks offers LaForand wanting to get in some tune Park in the center of town, golf yourself? an 18-hole public course designed If you’re fortunate enough to by 2021 Oklahoma Golf Hall of know someone at one of Tulsa’s GOLF COURSE CITY PHONE Fame inductee Floyd Farley along historic private clubs, you are in for Adams Golf Course Bartlesville 918-331-3900 with an 18-hole par-3 recently a treat. The routing genius of A.W. Bailey Ranch Golf Course Owasso 918-274-4653 renovated by Randy HeckenTillinghast is in evidence at both kemper, who also oversaw a resTulsa Country Club and The Oaks Battle Creek Golf Course Broken Arrow 918-355-4850 toration of the big course. Tulsa Country Club, both recently reBristow Golf Club Bristow 918-367-5157 County also offers South Lakes stored. Cedar Ridge Country Club Buffalo Rock, Cushing 918-225-0811 in Jenks, one of the most popular in Broken Arrow is fantastic and riCanyons at Blackjack Ridge Sand Springs 918-246-2606 public courses in the state, devals Southern Hills in difficulty. signed by Heckenkemper. Two of the best and most sceCherokee Hills Golf Club Catoosa 918-384-7600 Heckenkemper is also the arnic layouts in the state are at The Cherokee Springs GC Tahlequah 918-456-5100 chitect of one of Oklahoma’s finGolf Club of Oklahoma in BroForest Ridge Golf Club Broken Arrow 918-357-2443 est public courses in Forest Ridge ken Arrow, a Tom Fazio design, GolfSuites, Jenks 918-528-7717 Golf Club in Broken Arrow. Also and at The Patriot in Owasso, Heritage Hills Golf Course Claremore 918-341-0055 in Broken Arrow you will find Batdesigned by Jay Blasi and Robert tle Creek Golf Course, one of the Trent Jones Jr. LaFortune Park GC Tulsa 918-496-6200 18 holes and par-3 course state’s top municipal courses. Up The Club at Indian Springs has to the north in Owasso is Bailey two fine 18-hole courses, while the Links at Bixby Bixby 918-369-6035 Ranch Golf Course, which boasts Broken Arrow and Owasso Golf & Lit’l Links GC Broken Arrow 918-481-3673 new greens and is in excellent Athletic Clubs are also private but Meadowbrook CC Tulsa 918-252-4122 condition. Farther north, Adams may have some access that week. (limited outside play) Golf Course in Bartlesville, is a fun Meadowbrook Country Club in Mohawk Park Tulsa 918-425-6871 course, as is Heritage Hills in ClaTulsa has a private membership 2 18-hole courses remore and Pryor Creek in Pryor, but also offers some tee times to Page Belcher GC Tulsa 918-446-1529 all exceptional values for the price. the public and it is a winding tree2 18-hole courses Two of the best public course lined treat by George Fazio. Patricia Island Grove 918-786-3338 layouts in the state are Olde Just 40 minutes up Highway Peoria Ridge Miami 918-542-7878 Page and Stone Creek at the Page 75 there is a Perry Maxwell dePryor Creek Golf Course Pryor 918-825-3056 Belcher complex in west Tulsa. sign that many feel holds a lot A bit farther to the west is Rock of similarities to Southern Hills Rock Creek Golf Course Sapulpa 918-224-0287 Creek Golf Course in Sapulpa, a at Hillcrest Country Club in Shangri-La Resort Monkey Island 918-257-4204 popular spot on historic Route 66. Bartlesville. And another MaxSouth Lakes Golf Course Jenks 918-746-3760 If you have time, a visit to well design you may be able to Shangri-La Resort on Grand Lake play is Muskogee Golf Club. Maxwell also had a hand in two public hand in designing the Woodbine Course at is a must. Public or private, we hope you enjoy your courses in the area. He was the original de- Mohawk Park in North Tulsa, a delightful signer of Cherokee Hills at the Hard Rock romp around the Tulsa Zoo. That course also time on the links in this golf mad state. by ken macleod

Tulsa area public access golf courses

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YOUR PREMIER GOLF & SOCIAL MEMBERSHIP AWAITS

For more information, contact our Membership Director, Mark Antonio, at 918-357-1032 or email M.Antonio@forestridge.com.

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2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

ARCHITECT SPOTLIGHT

The elevation of Perry Maxwell by ed oden

founder of perrymaxwellarchive .com

MacKn 1982 when I was 21 and in the early ald, stages of my obsession with golf, I enzie, Ross, bought a book called “100 Greatest Ti l l i n g h a st , Golf Courses – And Then Some” published G e o r g e by Golf Digest. I spent hours looking at Thomas and the photos of courses I could only dream Robert Huntabout playing. One picture in particular er, Maxwell stood out – a photo of the 9th hole at Prairie never wrote golf Dunes. The rumpled fairway was enthrall- about aring and far more like St. Andrews - the course one and only links course I had played at c h i t e c t u r e . the time – than anything I had seen in the The absence U.S. The book gave partial design credit to of published the Perry Maxwell, along with his son Press. works, I noticed that he was also credited with predominant The ninth hole at Prairie Southern Hills too. But one solo design media of the Perry Maxwell's work. and shared credit for another didn’t sug- time, meant gest that Maxwell deserved a spot in the that Maxwell’s name recognition was nevpantheon of all-time great golf architects. er as high as some of his contemporaries. Dick Wilson would have been the better His low Q rating during his lifetime cerbet, with nine solo efforts in the top 100 tainly didn’t set him up for recognition after his death. and three co-designs. However, not long after Fast forward to today, as publication of that book we eagerly await the return from my youth, the prevailof major championship golf ing wisdom of what constito Southern Hills, and it’s tutes great golf course archia different story. Multiple tecture transitioned from Maxwell designed courses the heavy use of bunkers now routinely appear in and water hazards emblemeach of the major golf course atic of the heroic style of derankings. The quality of his sign championed by Robert work is widely lauded by Trent Jones, Dick Wilson both golf architecture geeks and others who dominated and the public at large. And Perry Maxwell the post-WWII golf archiMaxwell is generally considered to be one of the greatest and most tectural landscape to the less-manufacinfluential “golden age” golf architects. Per- tured minimalist style of a new breed of haps not quite in the rarified air of MacK- architects who drew inspiration from and enzie, Ross, Tillinghast and the Macdon- were more inspired by the design philosophies of pre-WWII architects. Tom Doak, ald/Raynor combo, but not far behind. So how did we get from there to here? Bill Coore and other disciples of Pete Dye Until recently, Perry Maxwell was arguably brought renewed appreciation to MacKenthe least appreciated golden age architect. zie, Macdonald, Raynor, Ross and TillingOne reason is likely that, unlike Macdon- hast in the 1990s. Doak’s “The Anatomy 56

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

Dunes inspired Ed Oden to fall in love with Photo from 100 Greatest Golf Courses – And Then Some

of a Golf Course” and “Confidential Guide to Golf Courses” amounted to a siren call for the “Back to the Future” movement. Courses like Crystal Downs, a MacKenzie and Maxwell collaboration, and Old Town, a Maxwell solo effort, were rediscovered. The renaissance started by the modern minimalist architects coincided with the emergence of the internet. Suddenly, anyone interested in golf design had access to more information than ever before and could connect with others who shared their passion. Of particular note, GolfClubAtlas. com became the leading forum for golf architectural discussion and a breeding ground for the minimalist concepts espoused by the new golden age architects. By the late early 2000s, there was a merger of minds between the professional golf design world and golf architectural enthusiasts coalescing around golden age concepts. The end result was a renewed interest in the work of pre-WWII golf course architects. Initially, the focus was on MacKenzie, Ross and Macdonald/Raynor. But other golden age architects soon started to receive more attention, including W W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG

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ARCHITECT SPOTLIGHT

Crystal Downs in Michigan is one of Maxwell's greatest Perry Maxwell. Chris Clouser’s 2006 book, “The Midwest Associate,” took that interest to a new level as the first comprehensive look at Maxwell and his work. More recently, golf architect and Maxwell devotee Colton Craig formed the Perry Maxwell Society in 2019 to provide a forum for interested individuals to gather both virtually and in person in appreciation of Maxwell. About the same time, I launched PerryMaxwellArchive.com, which is a factually based online archive of documentation and information about Maxwell, including a detailed timeline with linked source materials. While the Society and the Archive serve different purposes, they share a common goal of

raising awareness about Perry Maxwell and his life and work. The final piece of the Maxwell resurgence puzzle is the restoration of several of his most important designs by some of the most acclaimed golf architects of current times. The PGA Championship at Southern Hills will be played on a course that Gil Hanse took back to its roots, with bunkers, greens and hole corridors that closely resemble Maxwell’s original 1935 design. A few hours down the road in Ardmore, Tom Doak has restored Maxwell’s first course, Dornick Hills, as close as possible to what Maxwell built. And in Winston-Salem, NC, Bill Coore, whose love of Maxwell has its genesis in frequent play at

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

Old Town Club while on the Wake Forest golf team, painstakingly restored the course to the full glory of Maxwell’s original design. Hanse, Doak and Coore have all been publicly open about their reverence for Maxwell. Their desire to help restore some of Maxwell’s best designs serves as a testament to their view of his architectural bona fides and has elevated Maxwell’s stature among golf architecture enthusiasts. When you add it all up, Maxwell’s reputation as a generational talent was always well deserved, although only recently recognized. So, if you have an opportunity to play one of his designs, whether it be Southern Hills or an off the radar course, take it. If you’d like to learn more about Maxwell, grab Chris Clouser’s book. If you want to gather with other golfers interested in Maxwell, consider joining the Perry Maxwell Society. And if you want a deep dive into the history of Maxwell’s life and work, go down the rabbit hole of the PerryMaxwellArchive.com. You won’t regret it.

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Volunteers make this crazy week work course and contestant shuttles. Under Contestant Services, led by former he volunteer force it takes to run University of Oklahoma golfer Josh Walker, the 2022 PGA Championship there are caddie services, evacuation plans, is over 3,000 strong, larger than registration, contestant transportation, dayfour out of every five incorporated towns care, tee refreshments and the work done by the South Central Section professionals, who and cities in Oklahoma. Volunteers range from highly trained spe- man the driving range and practice areas. Each contestant gets the use of a courtesy cialists who go from major championship to major championship, sometimes work- Cadillac for the week and those have to be matched up with the airport where ing the PGA Championship, U.S. the contestant is arriving and then Open and Open Championship in gathered up when he is leaving. the same summer, to the guys in Sometimes they have been collectmy Wednesday night golf league ed from some strange places. at LaFortune Park (Hole 9 marWalker said the caddies this year shals, thank you very much). will like the caddie building being Kenny Martin, a 29-year-old constructed just south of the main graduate of the University of entrance not far from the first tee. Louisville with a masters in busiKenny Martin The air-conditioned building inness administration, is working his first PGA Championship as Manager of cludes refreshments, televisions, a kitchen Volunteer Operations. His job is to recruit, and other amenities. He compared it to the train, coordinate and manage those 3,000 1994 PGA Championship where the swelvolunteers in areas that affect every aspect tering caddies, unable to wear shorts at that time, had to purchase their food from a food of tournament play. Under the Championship Services um- truck and had nowhere to cool off. Martin said one of the more interesting brella for example, there are marshals, media center services, staffing the massive merchan- volunteer committees to serve on is the ladise center, roping and staking of the entire ser operators, about 200 of whom are posiby ken macleod

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tioned on the fairways and greens to measure a contestant’s shot from the tee and distances to the hole on and around the greens. The information is then transmitted to PGA Tour scoring, where it shows up on the website and app if you’re tracking a player. “The PGA Tour has a couple of producers who are verifying the information coming in,” Martin said. “But these are veterans who have done it before. They are usually low handicap golfers and really understand the game.” A volunteer who signs up pays a fee but is only asked to work four four-hour shifts during tournament week and for that gets two polo shirts, a hat, jacket and access to the full tournament when not working as a spectator. For Martin, tournament week will be a whirlwind of 20-hour days coordinating and making sure all goes off smoothly, or at least gives the appearance of having done so. Probably the worst-case scenario is an Oklahoma spring storm that forces evacuation of all 45,000 souls on the course, but there is a plan for that if needed. “It’s a lot of coffee and a lot of adrenaline,” Martin said. “Fortunately we have a team who loves it and embraces the craziness.”

2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

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PGA

Traden looks forward to helping others by ken macleod

ens of thousands are eagerly anticipating the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills. None more so than Traden Karch. The senior at Broken Arrow High School loves it anytime he can visit with the pros, particularly Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler and others, who helped him so much in his recovery from a tragic auto accident six years ago that shattered his skull and left him with brain damage and in a coma. Karch, 19, will be a standard bearer during this event, just as he was in 2018 at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis. He was the PGA of America’s guest of honor at the 2016 championship at Baltusrol. Nurses, doctors and EMTs were skeptical Karch would survive the night of his accident. He was suffering massive seizures at the scene when emergency personnel arrived and was told he stopped breathing three times on the seven-minute ambulance ride to the hospital. The surgery to piece his shattered skull back together took six hours. No one knew if he would survive or, if so, to what extent he would be able to recover. The driver who rushed him to the hospital was Billy Wilkinson, now a 22-year veteran on the Broken Arrow Fire Department. Imagine his surprise and delight recently when, in his second job as clinicals director in Tulsa Tech’s EMT program, he realized Traden was now one of his students. “I’m tickled to death that Traden is pursuing this field,” Wilkinson said. Traden now 19 and fin“My first day to ishing up high school at meet him was not Broken Arrow. 62

The Broken Arrow Fire Department first responders who helped save Traden, from left, Michael Whinery, Noel Golden, Billy Wilkinson, Trent Harris and Travis England. a good day for him. In my 22 years he is a spot on the golf team, though not a golf right at the top of those that suffered a hor- scholarship initially. As mentioned, he is rible tragedy yet survived. Now he’s gone studying at Tulsa Tech to earn his Emerfrom we weren’t sure he would survive to gency Medical Technician certification and an amazing recovery. He’s got a lot of inner plans to study nursing in college with the strength. A lot of people would not have goal of helping others like Wilkinson and his crew who helped save his life. made it.” “I just want to be there for the parents of Buoyed by the prayers of thousands, someone who Traden survived, had an experibut lost most With Rory McIlroy at the ence like mine of his child2016 PGA Championship. and tell them hood memories. it’s going to be The injuries to okay,” Traden his brain were said. mostly to the Traden will not areas that affect be the only walkspeech, memory ing miracle at the and language PGA Championarts and his reship. Another covery in those special guest of areas has been the PGA will the most diffibe young golfer cult. But while Jhett Skaggs of he didn’t rememLexington, Okla., ber his childwho has had two hood whatsoever, he somehow never forgot how to swing heart replacements in his 13 years. Whether due to the accident or just golf, a golf club. McIlroy was among the pros particularly Traden says his biggest hurdle these days is touched by Traden’s story and narrated a concentrating for all 18 holes and not losing focus and hitting an unwise shot or two. Golf Channel video that told his story. “Physically I’m perfectly fine,” he said. “The PGA helped me out tremendously,” Traden said. “Everything they did helped “Just a normal 19-year-old teenager. What me to have a normal life as a 13-to-14-year- I struggle with is the mental game. I always lose focus for a few holes, then snap old boy.” Traden will attend Rogers State Univer- out of it. But golf is just a hard game, I will sity in Claremore in the fall and will have say that.”

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

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PGA NOTES

concerts benefit four tulsa organizations Four local charities will likely receive a donation of close to $250,000 each from a pair of benefit concerts scheduled for the week of the PGA Championship. The concerts are private affairs for corporate donors. One, featuring a popular country music star, will be held May 18 at Southern Hills, and the second, featuring entertainer Pitbull, will be May 20 at the Philbrook Museum. The “Tulsa Gives Back” concerts will equally benefit PGA Reach, First Tee of Tulsa, The Tulsa Dream Center and The Tulsa Day Center for the Homeless. Southern Hills President Scott Mabrey, who has helped spearhead the organizing of the concerts, said the generosity of the Tulsa business community, particularly title sponsor ONEOK, paved the way to make this happen. “This has been a unique opportunity to showcase Tulsa, entertain many of our out-of-town guests all while raising money for charity and providing a significant impact on our community,” Mabrey said. PGA Reach is the charitable foundation of the PGA of America and has a local branch within the PGA South Central Section (Oklahoma, Arkansas and southern Kansas). The First Tee of Tulsa has been teaching golf and life skills free of charge to youth since 2000 from its base at Mohawk Park and its outreach program throughout the area. The Tulsa Dream Center is a faith-based community center offering programs through strategic partners to break the cycle of poverty. The Tulsa Day Center for the Homeless treats both the symptoms and the causes of homelessness, working toward the day when every Tulsan has a home. Entertainer Pitbull W W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG

Here's your chance to play Southern Hills! After watching the 2022 PGA Championship at beautiful Southern Hills Country Club, you’ll have a chance to play this historic venue, now the site of eight major championships, and match your skills against those of Tiger, Rory, Justin, Dustin and the rest. The Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame Classic will be held Oct. 24 at Southern Hills. The format is a friendly pro-am, with PGA professionals throughout the state encouraged to bring a team of four amateurs. Teams of five amateurs will also be welcome. Cost is $4,000 per team of four amateurs and a professional or $5,000 for a team of five amateurs. Cost includes breakfast, tee prizes, awards and a luncheon. Special sponsorships will also be available. All proceeds benefit the Oklahoma Golf

Hall of Fame. Founded in 2014, the OKGHOF awards two annual scholarships, the Everett Dobson Award to help graduating collegiate seniors begin their careers, and manages the bi-annual induction and awards banquet. The 2021 class included Scott Verplank, David Edwards, Danny Edwards, Art Proctor and Floyd Farley and they joined an illustrious list of previous inductees. All inductee bios, induction videos, acceptance speeches and much more can be viewed at www.oklahomagolfhof.org. So gather your friends and favorite pro and enjoy this rare opportunity to enjoy Southern Hills and support the incredible legacy of golf in Oklahoma. Entry forms and more information are available at www.oklahomagolfhof. org. Call 918-280-0787 with any questions.

Senior PGA hints at setup by john rohde

outhern Hills is about to host a PGA Championship for the second straight month of May. Last year featured the 2021 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. This year offers the 104th PGA Championship (May 19-22). Alex Cejka posted a four-shot victory at the 2021 Senior PGA with an 8-under-par 272. Truth be told, the degree of difficulty could have been far more intense from heralded set-up man Kerry Haigh, Chief Championship Officer of the PGA of Willie Wood America. Southern Hills’ par-70 layout never played more than 7,000 yards in last May’s tournament. In fact, the world’s finest 50-and-older golfers played from the men’s tee boxes rather than from the post-restoration championship tees which can reach over 7,550 yards. The speed of the greens registered on the Stimpmeter between 11.5-12.1, the same readings as a typical day for members. Shortly before the final round, which was played in nary a breath of wind, Haigh relocated three pin placements to guard against putts potentially gaining too much speed. Despite all of Haigh’s kindness, only seven players managed to finish under-par (280).

Willie Wood (1980-83) and Scott Verplank (1983-86) were each four-time AllAmericans at Oklahoma State and are longtime Oak Tree National touring pros from Edmond, but they also have experienced Southern Hills on multiple occasions and various conditions the past four decades. Both made the cut at last year’s Senior PGA with Wood tying for 34th and Verplank tying for 63rd. Verplank tied for ninth at the 2007 PGA Championship staged there and Wood missed the cut at the 2001 U.S. Open. Scott Verplank Wood and Verplank, noticed a kinder course set-up than anticipated. “I thought they would test more pin placements on us. I didn’t think the greens were all that fast. They were very nice to us,” said Wood, who still finished at 8-over, two strokes ahead of Champions Tour uber-winner Bernhard Langer. “Southern Hills has always been a great, iconic golf course and it still is,” Verplank said. “It’s a second-shot golf course in my opinion just because the greens are so severely sloped. You’ve got to have good distance control and you’ve got to be below the hole. Even if you’re pin-high, and even though the pins weren’t very fast when we played (in the 2021 Senior PGA), they’re still so sloped.”

2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

MARK FELDER

FROM THE OGA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

OGA Executive Director

OGA expands with new junior series As golf continues to grow and thrive in the state, so does the OGA. This will be the second year for our Women’s Stroke Play Championship, to be held at Meadowbrook Country Club on Aug. 15-16 in conjunction with the men’s Senior Stroke Play Championship. Already many of the best college players in the state are telling us they are planning their summer schedules around it to make sure they can play. Brand new this summer is a series of six junior events to be held in conjunction with the Texas Junior Golf Tour. These events are going to add to the OJGT events already held in the spring and fall, giving our Oklahoma juniors even more quality events. Golfers can enter at www.okgolf.org or www.tjgt.com – the schedule is below. We’re very excited about our 2022 OGA calendar as well. Our flagship event, the State Amateur Championship, is July 25-29 at Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club. The pros play one Perry Maxwell gem in May at Southern Hills,

2022 OGA SCHEDULE

Visit www.okgolf.org for more information

Date

Event

Location

May 9-10

Four Ball and Senior Four Ball

Cedar Ridge CC, Broken Arrow

June 6-9

Junior Boys and Girls Championship

Lincoln Park GC, OKC

June 14-17

Senior State Amateur

The Trails GC, Norman

June 20-22

Stroke Play Championship

Dornick Hills CC, Ardmore

July 12

State Amateur Qualifier

Lincoln Park GC, OKC

July 14

State Amateur Qualifier

Bailey Ranch GC, Owasso

July 18-19

Mid-Amateur

Hillcrest CC, Bartlesville

July 25-27

State Amateur Championship

Oklahoma City G&CC, OKC

Aug. 15-16

Senior Stroke Play Championship

Meadowbrook CC, Tulsa

Aug. 15-16

Women's Stroke Play Championship

Meadowbrook CC, Tulsa

Aug. 18

Oklahoma Open qualifier

Oak Tree CC West, Edmond

Aug. 25-27

Oklahoma Open

Oak Tree CC, Edmond

the amateurs will 2022 Red River Series Visit www.okgolf.org fight it out on anDate Location other Maxwell masterpiece. The May 31-June 1 Bailey Ranch Golf Course, Owasso restoration by June 14-15 Earlywine North Golf Course, Oklahoma City Tripp Davis and June 27-28 Muskogee Golf Club the turfgrass conditions presented July 27-28 Battle Creek Golf Course, Broken Arrow by superintendent Aug 1-2 Dornick Hills Golf Club, Ardmore Nathan Neumann are superb. Aug 8-9 Lake Hefner North Golf Course, Oklahoma City Other tournaments of note: The State Stroke Play is help these four deserving youngsters June 20-22 at historic Dornick Hills in with their college educations. The recipients are: Ardmore. Maxwell’s first course was re• The Bill Barrett Scholcently restored by arship: Conner Cryer of Tom Doak and Tipton, who plans to atwe’re looking fortend the University of Sciward to seeing the ence and Arts in Oklahoma finished product. City. The Boys and • The Roy Oxford ScholGirls State Junior arship: Buddy Wehrli of Championship Connor Cryer Buddy Wehrli Tulsa, college plans undehas moved to Lincided. coln Park West • The Corky Billen ScholCourse in Oklahoarship: Sutton McMillan ma City for 2022, of Choctaw, who plans to as its usual home attend Southwestern Oklaat Kickingbird homa State University in GC in Edmond is Weatherford closed for renovaRamsey Gunter Sutton McMillan • The Gene Mortensen tions. The OGA would also like to announce Scholarship: Ramsey Gunter of Edmond, our four scholarship recipients for 2022. who plans to attend Oklahoma Baptist They were selected from a deep field of University in Shawnee. The OGA offers its congratulations to applicants this spring and we thank everyone for their entries. We are glad to all of these exemplary young students.

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

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LAURIE CAMPBELL

WOMEN’S OKLAHOMA GOLF ASSOCIATION

President WOGA

Kudos to Dills, Parker, Maxwell-Berning It’s spring and a new golf season is beginning with our first event, The Stableford Partnership, at Lincoln Park on April 25-26. A note on entries to the WOGA StrokePlay Championship June 27-28 at Cedar Ridge Country Club. WOGA will now accept non Oklahoma residents who are attending college in Oklahoma within a time period four months prior to the event. Entries open My 23.

I would like to take this opportunity to champion three of the many women who have been instrumental in helping WOGA achieve our mission of “growing the game of golf for women and girls in the State of Oklahoma.” We sadly say good-bye to longtime member, Jill Parker. Thanks to the generosity of her family and friends, WOGA will be able to award additional grants and scholarships to deserving junior

2022 WOGA SCHEDULE Date

Visit woga.golf.genius.com for more info Event Location

April 25-26

Stableford Partnership Lincoln Park West, OKC

May 23-24

Senior Championship Oakwood Country Club, Enid

June 27-28

Stroke Play/Mid-Am Championship Cedar Ridge CC, Broken Arrow

July 11

11th WOGA Fundraiser Stillwater CC, Stillwater

July 12-13

72nd Girls Junior State Stillwater CC, Stillwater

July 18-21

104th State Amateur Championship Gaillardia Country Club, OKC

Aug. 1-2

Fore State Championship Canyon Farms GC, Lenexa, KS

Aug. 15-16

Four Ball Partnership Shangri-La Resort, Monkey Island

Sept. 26-27

WOGA Cup Winter Creek, Blanchard

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girls in her honor. The 1963 Women’s Oklahoma State Amateur champion, Susie Maxwell Berning, was inducted into World Golf Hall of Fame’s 2022 class alongside Tiger Woods. Also a three-time Oklahoma state high school champion, she was the first Sheila Dills woman to State Representative receive a golf scholarship to Oklahoma City University, playing on the men’s golf team. Susie also had a lucrative LPGA career winning three U.S. Women’s Opens and was inducted in the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame in 2012.

See WOGA on page 66

2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

WOGA cont. from page 65 State Rep. Sheila Dills is a longtime champion and supporter of WOGA. She was the Oklahoma Girls Junior State champion in 1984 and went on to win the Women’s Oklahoma State Amateur Championship in 1989, 1994, 1995 and 1996. Sheila states that these events were very important to her because of the lack of opportunities for juniors to compete in Oklahoma and were instrumental in helping her to attain her college golf scholarship at Oklahoma State. She served on the WOGA Board for several years and led the organization as president for four years. She was instrumental in helping attain WOGA’s 501c3 tax status and helped to organize the LPGA Girls’ Golf Program as well as strengthening WOGA’s scholarship and grant program. As a small- town girl from Vinita, Sheila proves that anything is possible. If you would like to participate in a WOGA event or be updated on organization and tournament news, you can join at WOGA.golfgenius.com. Or contact us at wogagolfoffice @ gmail. com. I hope to see you at one of our upcoming events.

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H IGH SCHOOL PR EV I EW

Loaded again Roller, Sides top prep list by scott wright

igh school state golf championships are set to be held around Oklahoma in early May, but top junior golfers already have been making names for themselves locally and nationally. Here’s a look at the deep, talented group of young players, with the top-10 girls and boys golfers in the state for the 2022 season: GIRLS Jenni Roller, Sr., Regent Prep A two-time state champion in Class 2A, and moving up to 3A this year, Roller easily could have Jenni Roller been going for her fourth consecutive state championship this spring if not for the COVID-19 cancellation of the 2020 season. She also won the OGA Junior Amateur match play title and the OJGT Tour Championship, while posting a 72.0 stroke average in OJGT events last year. Bound for the University of Tulsa, Roller is on the fringe of the top 200 in the national rankings, according to Junior Golf Scoreboard. Raychel Nelke, Sr., Pocola You could make a strong case for Nelke ahead of Roller as the top girls player in the state. Nelke, who is headed to OU, has a higher Raychel Nelke national ranking according to Junior Golf Scoreboard (130) and AJGA (110), but when they’ve squared off in the state’s top events — in particular, the 2A state tournament and last year’s OGA Junior Amateur — Roller has come out on top. Olivia Coit, Sr., Edmond Memorial A top-300 player on Junior Golf Scoreboard, Coit is headed to Arkansas State. She had the top OJGT stroke average (71.2) Olivia Coit for 2021 among players with at least four rounds played, and fin68

ished third in Class 6A last year, to go with a pair of top-fives in AJGA events. Brooklyn Benn, Sr., Oklahoma Christian School Fired 68-64 at Westwood Park in Norman to post a 10-stroke victory in the 3A state tournament last year, Brooklyn Benn her seventh win of the season. Posted a 74.8 OJGT stroke average and tied for first at the Oklahoma Junior Masters, losing a playoff for the title. She has signed with Wichita State. Beans Factor, Fr., Ada Her real name is Peyton, but you can call her Beans. And you can call her one of Beans Factor the best young golfers in the state. Only a freshman at Ada, she will be a force in 4A for years to come. Peyton Coburn, So., Bishop Kelley Coburn tied for fourth Peyton Coburn in the 5A state tournament as a freshman last year and posted a 75.8 stroke average on the OJGT circuit. Jaiden Gregston, Jr., Duncan Among a talented group of contenders for the 5A tiJaiden Gregston tle after finishing sixth last year, along with a pair of top-16 finishes in AJGA events. Rylee Roberts, So., Edmond North As a freshman, Roberts took seventh in the 6A state tournament. She had an OJGT stroke average of 78.0, Rylee Roberts which included a win in the South Lakes Junior Shootout. Mimi Hoang, Jr., Westmoore Had the eighth-best stroke average on the OJGT circuit last year at 74.9 and a pair of top-25 AJGA finishes. Mimi Hoang

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS GIRLS May 1-2 6A: Lincoln Park West, Oklahoma City 5A: Chickasaw Point GC, Durant 4A: Buffalo Rock, Cushing 3A: Lake Murray GC, Plainview 2A: Aqua Canyon. Guthrie BOYS May 5-6 6A: Jimmie Austin OU GC, Norman 5A: Duncan G&TC, Duncan 4A: Boiling Springs GC, Woodward 3A: Lakeview GC, Ardmore 2A: Buffalo Rock, Cushing

Jaci Hartman, So., Turner As a freshman last year, Hartman was the 2A runner-up, seven strokes behind Roller and one stroke ahead of Nelke, while leading Turner to the team title. Others to watch: MaKayJaci Hartman lee Cowan, Jr., Yukon; Gracie Doke, Sr., Jenks; Aubrey House, Sr., McAlester; Mikayla Karanja, Sr., Durant; Lily Stanton, Jr., Jenks. BOYS William Sides, Sr., Cascia Hall A top-50 player in both major national ranking systems (19th in AJGA, 41st in Junior Golf Scoreboard), William Sides Sides was the Class 3A runner-up last spring and has four top-25 finishes in AJGA events, including a tie for second in the prestigious Western Junior last summer. Sides has signed with Southern Methodist. Ryder Cowan, Jr., Oklahoma Christian School Committed to Oklahoma, Cowan is 46th in the AJGA rankings and 74th Ryder Cowan on Junior Golf Scoreboard. Cowan was the Class 3A runner up last year behind current Sooner Drew Goodman. Cowan also has four top-10s and three more top-20s on the AJGA circuit, including a win at the Gateway First Bank Tulsa Junior last August. Ben Stoller, Sr., Owasso Last year’s Class 6A chamBen Stoller pion, Stoller is a top-200 W W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG

player on Junior Golf Scoreboard and was second in stroke average on the OJGT circuit last season at 68.7. Stoller has signed with Kansas State. Jake Hopper, Sr., Norman North The OU signee is ranked 115 by Junior Golf Scoreboard. He led the OJGT in stroke average last season at 68.5 and reached the OGA Jake Hopper Junior Amateur match play semifinals to go with four top-25s in AJGA competition. Bryant Polhill, Jr., Oklahoma Christian School Just on the edge of the top 200 in the AJGA rankings, Polhill was third in the highly competitive Bryant Polhill 3A state tournament last year and won the AJGA Preview at College Station, Texas. He also reached the finals of the OGA Junior Amateur match play championship. Parker Sands, So., Edmond North Sands had a strong close Parker Sands

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to the summer on the AJGA circuit, finishing third in his last two appearances, at the Gateway First Bank Tulsa Junior and the Accenture Northwest Arkansas Junior. That vaulted him into the top 150 in the AJGA rankings. He also posted the lowest OJGT round of the season with a 62 on his way to winning the Lake Hefner Shootout. William Hennessee, So., Bishop Kelley With back-to-back rounds of 69, Hennessee won the OJGT Tour Cham- Will Hennessee pionship by five strokes at Shawnee Country Club last fall. He was the 5A runner-up and holds a top-250 national ranking on Junior Golf Scoreboard. Mesa Falleur, Sr., Muskogee Last year’s fourth-place Mesa Falleur finisher at the 6A state tournament, Falleur had the third-best OJGT stroke average of the season at 69.0, including a win in the Muskogee Fall Classic. Grant Gudgel, So., Grant Gudgel Stillwater

Gudgel had a 70.0 stroke average on the OJGT circuit, including a win at the Battle of Broken Arrow. He finished in a tie for seventh at the 6A state tournament last spring and was 22nd or better in all four AJGA events he entered, with three top-10s. Josh Stuart, So., Norman North Yet another player in the state’s incredibly deep and talented sophomore class, Stuart is just outside the top 200 on Junior Golf Josh Stuart Scoreboard. He tied for seventh at the 6A state tournament last spring and posted an OJGT stroke average of 70.0. Others to watch: Conner Cryer, Sr., Tipton; Rhett Hughes, Jr., Edmond Santa Fe; Drew Mabrey, Sr., Holland Hall; Benton Manly, Fr., Regent Prep; Sam Morris, So., Jenks; Parker Payne, So., Noble.

Conner Cryer

Rhett Hughes

Drew Mabrey

2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

COL L EGE PR EV I EW OSU, OU hunt for nat iona l cha mpionsh ip

Broomstick has Chacarra flying when I go home over winter break, we will see what happens. I took it to Spain and pracombine boyhood tips from Seve, ticed at least two hours every day. “ Sure enough, Chacarra started to make weekly swing dissections with Sergio, broomstick lessons from Aaron putts. Then more putts. Then course records Wise, a broken wrist and 200 pairs of out- started to fall. After shooting some crazy low rounds in landish socks and what do you get? Meet Oklahoma State’s Eugenio Cha- Spain, he returned to school and promptly carra, a 21-year-old senior brimming with set a course record in the Cowboys’ first event, shooting a 62 in the confidence and enthusiasm final round of the Amer Ari and sporting a short list of Invitational on the Hapuna goals that begins with a Golf Course in Kamuela, second collegiate victory Hawaii. and ends with him topping Remarkably his younger the world golf rankings. sister Caroline, a freshman The sweet-swinging Spanat Wake Forest, matched his iard took boyhood lessons final-round score with a 62 from Seve Ballesteros’ brothof her own three days later er, Vincente as a beginner in the UCF Challenge to win which allowed him to meet her first event as a collegian. and get pointers from Seve, It wasn’t the first time they though he was already sick had struck gold within days with cancer. Later, he took of each other. When Eugenio lessons from Sergio Garcia’s won the under-18 champifather, Victor, and developed onship in Spain, Caroline a strong friendship with SerEugenior Chacarra responded by winning the gio that endures today, His wrist injury at age 15 derailed a prom- under-16 title the same week. Next up was the Gators Invitational in ising soccer career. Concentrating just on golf, Chacarra developed into a creative, versatile Gainesville, Fla. Using an unfamiliar driver ball striker, a throwback to a time when play- because his was cracked, Chacarra sprayed ers routinely worked the ball left, right, high his tee shots, but his putter led to an 8-birdie and low rather than overpowering courses final-round 65 and a tie for third. Since then he has finished ninth in the Cabo Collegiate, with towering dsdrives and wedges. “Eugenio is very unique among today’s 32nd in the General Hackler, then won the players in that regard,” said OSU coach N.I.T. at Omni, Tucson by five shots. “He’s a really good ballstriker,” said forAlan Bratton. “He’s very creative and can manufacture shots that others don’t even mer OSU All-American and now PGA Tour winner Talor Gooch. “He’s going to be a recontemplate.” There was just one problem. Chacarra ally good pro.” To say the change in putting style has uncould not putt, at least not well enough to win anything significant. It got to the point leashed him would be an understatement. “Now my mind thinks I can make everywhere he struggled to make a 2-footer, threeputting from short range twice down the thing,” Chacarra said. “It has completely stretch of a 19-hole loss to Oklahoma fresh- changed my game. I get on the green and man Jaxon Dowell in the 2021 finals of the have a 30-footer and think I can make it, where before I would have a 2-footer and be East Lake Cup. Poor putting led to him missing the cut by nervous. It’s been ridiculously good and I’m eight shots when he got an opportunity last excited for the future.” When Chacarra came to the U.S. after winfall to play in the PGA Tour’s World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba, ning over 100 junior tournaments, his intent Mexico. But it was where he met Wise, who was to enroll at Stanford, but his ACT scores uses a 47-inch Odyssey two-ball putter and were not quite there. He found a spot at Wake the broomstick method similar to ageless Forest and helped the Demon Deacons reach the match-play portion of the NCAA ChamGerman wonder Bernhard Langer. Desperate for something that would pionships in 2019, where they lost ironically to Stanford. He was the ACC Freshman of work, he gave it a try. “It felt strange, horrible,” Chacarra said. the Year and had six top-10 finishes. After the COVID-shortened 2019-20 sea“Just super weird. But I felt if I grind with it

by ken macleod

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

son, he entered the transfer portal and Bratton was happy to offer him a new home in Stillwater, having just lost Viktor Hovland, Matthew Wolfe, Zach Bauchou, Hayden Wood, Brendon Jelley, Sam Stevens and others from the teams that won the NCAA Championship in 2018 and the stroke-play portion of the same by 31 shots in 2019. Now with Austin Eckroat on to the pro ranks, it’s a vastly different squad, 12 deep with stars from across the globe, including Germany (2), China, Japan, Spain, Dubai, Denmark, India and the U.S., including Oklahoman Jordan Wilson. “We’ve got 12 really good players and the lineup could change every event,” Chacarra said. “If we can keep getting tougher, keep listening to the coaches and what they tell us, I think we have a good chance to win the national championship.” That would only increase Chacarra’s popularity on campus. He already is a familiar face to athletes from all the programs, making it a point to attend their events and offer his enthusiastic support. His trademark attire is shorts and one of his 200 pairs of often zany socks featuring cartoon characters or logos. “They all represent the brand, the school and the logo and they deserve our support,” Chacarra said. “It’s a great way to meet them and to make new friends.” In his phone are a short list of goals, starting with winning two or more times in college, followed by a top-five finish in PGA Tour University, first team All-American, winning the NCAA Championship, achieving a GPA over 3.0 and playing well in the starts he is afforded on the PGA Tour. Longer term goals include winning on the PGA Tour and eventually being ranked No. 1 in the world. Chacarra figures his ball striking already is the equal of most in the game. If the broomstick is a long-term solution to his putting, watch out. One obstacle to one of his immediate goals – winning the national championship – is just 70 miles away in the form of the currently top-ranked OU Sooners. Chacarra is friends with many of their top players, competes against them both in tournaments and in friendly games at Oak Tree National, and welcomes a potential Bedlam match in the NCAA Championships. “I like the rivalry,” he said. “I like all their players and coaches, but we’re competitive. I know they’re working hard. I tell my team, these guys want to beat us, but we’re better than them. We’ve got to trust ourselves, keep working hard, and things will work out.” W W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG

Gotterup: "The piece we needed" years with the Scarlet Knights, hoping for a chance to play for an NCAA Championship. t was expected that it would take a “I fulfilled my four-year commitment at few months for coach Ryan Hybl’s Rutgers, and saw an opportunity University of Oklahoma that was better for me at Oklagolf team to rebuild after losing homa,” Gotterup said. “Everyfuture pros Quade Cummins, thing aligned properly.” Garett Reband and Jonathan Hybl rushed back from the Brightwell from the squad that disappointing final in the NCAA lost to Pepperdine in the NCAA Championship to meet GotterChampionship finals last spring. up at the airport, not wanting to OU, however, with Allbe late for their first date. American returnee Logan What he found was a young McAllister, has won four of the man who was determined to first six events in 2021-22, leads earn his spot, embrace Hybl’s both polls and looks like the navaunted work ethic and prove tion’s best and deepest team. to his new teammates that he Going into the season there belonged. was the hope that Patrick Welch “I told Chris from the start would regain his form after gothat if he was looking for a ing through some physical and guaranteed spot, he was at the mental woes with his putting Chris Gotterup has Sooners primed for NCAA Championship. wrong place,” Hybl said. “And stroke last spring. And there he embraced that. He wanted to be chalwas great young talent in fabulous fresh- was looking for in the transfer portal. Chris Gotterup, former Big Ten Confer- lenged and compete every day. man Drew Goodman and second-year “He comes out in our first qualifier and players Ben Lorenz, Stephen Campbell Jr. ence Player of the Year at Rutgers, had put his name in the portal after finishing four gets to 30-under par and beats everyone and Jaxon Dowell. by sam humphreys

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If anything was missing, it was one more steely veteran to replace the gritty play OU received last year from Brightwell. And once again, Hybl found exactly what he

2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

COL L EGE PR EV I EW by seven or eight and that immediately set the tone. There was no questioning at all after that. They saw how he was working on the course and in the training room. From a coach’s perspective, it was a dream scenario.” McAllister says flatly that Gotterup was “the extra piece we needed. We all got along instantly, and everyone was super positive after the transfer. Last year, Jonathan Brightwell transferred in and put us in a better spot to compete for a national championship. This year, Chris has done the same.” Gotterup says that the team chemistry at Oklahoma has made it easy to fit in and it’s hard to argue with the results. In its first six events, OU won four, and finished second and third in the other two. Gotterup tied for 14th in his first event, then placed third and made the winning putt at the Maridoe Collegiate. He tied for third again at Colonial, was co-medalist in the East Lake Cup and delivered the winning point in a Bedlam match-play final against the Oklahoma State Cowboys, then blazed his way to a record-shattering 20-under performance to win the Puerto Rico Classic at Grand Reserve Golf Club. After a tie for 50th while his teammates were taking care of business in the South-

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Assuming the top-ranked Sooners make ern Highlands Collegiate in Las Vegas, Gotterup returned to Grand Preserve on an it through regionals, this will be Gotterup’s exemption into the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico first NCAA National Championship. “I haven’t thought about it yet, but it will Open. Once again, he put on a show, finbe exciting and exactly what we signed up for,” Gotterup said. Gotterup ranked 14th in the PGA Tour University rankings in mid-March, but with a chance to move up as the Sooners head into the postseason. “It’s important to let everything fall into place, and if I think about it too much, bad things will probably happen,” Gotterup said. While Gotterup’s transition to the team was seamless, he does have moments where he misses the “chaos” of the Northeast, and you can hear much more from him on his OU coach Ryan Hybl with transfer Chris background and personal life on the 73rd Gotterup. Hole Podcast from March 8. Notes: The emergence of Gotterup ishing tied for seventh. Gotterup became the first amateur in alongside McAllister, Welch and freshfive years to finish in a PGA Tour event’s man Drew Goodman would seem to lock top 10. When asked if he wishes he could up four of the five spots for the postseahave kept the paycheck from his finish, son, with Ben Lorenz, Stephen Campbell Gotterup with a rye smile said, “I could’ve Jr. and Jaxon Dowell battling for the final used $100,000, but that experience was spot. Lorenz started and played well in the postseason a year ago. But all three worth more than money to me.” He has since added another top-10 finish, could start for most teams and it could be tying for ninth in the N.I.T. at Omni Tucson. whoever has the hot hand in May.

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No. 1 OCU hosts NAIA Nationals by ken macleod

he PGA Championship is not the only national event taking place in Oklahoma in May. The NAIA Women’s National Golf Championship will be held May 24-27 at Lincoln Park Golf Course in Oklahoma. Host school Oklahoma City University will be the heavy favorite, having beaten most of the other top schools it has faced throughout the season decisively. All it took for coach Marty McCauley’s team to advance from contenders to favorites was the addition of his best recruiting class in his 11 years at the school, which include winning national titles in 2013, 2014 and 2017. Maddi Kamas and Reagan Chaney both could have signed to play Division I golf but chose OCU, mainly since McCauley had been recruiting them from their junior days. Add Texan Page Wood to holdovers Natalie Gough, Morgan Palermo, Lauren Behnken and Rachel Eckert, and you have a team that had won six of nine events through early April while not losing to any NAIA

teams. Chaney, a powerful player and great athlete, won her first event and then set a school record in the third event, shooting 11-under to win the Rose Creek Invitational. Kamas nearly equaled that with a 10-under showing at the Sydney Cox Invitational, notching her first win while Chaney took second. Gough and Wood won the next two events. Chaney and Kamas both finished in the top five in a largely Division I tournament at South Dakota State, then Kamas and Chaney finished 1-3 in the Kyle Blaser Invitational at Gaillardia. “I don’t think there’s much Left to right, Paige Wood, Maddi Kamas, Rachel chance of a letdown with this Eckert, Reagan Chaney; back row, from left, Natalie group,” McCauley said. “As Gough, Lauren Behnken, Morgan Palermo, Meghan good as Reagan and Maddi have Charles, Jamie Welsh. been, their best golf is in front of them. They are all working hard.” to the public at no charge. Spectators will The national championship will be open not be allowed to rent carts.

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COURSE CONSTRUCTION ROUNDUP

Battlefield takes shape

The Battlefield par-3 course at Shangri-La Resort has architect Tom Clark raving about its potential

hen a veteran of more than 40 years in the golf course architecture and design business says the new par-3 course at Shangri-La Resort will be unlike anything he’s been involved in, that gets your attention. The Battlefield, Monkey Island The Battlefield is currently under construction by United Golf and designed by Tom Clark and associate Kevin Atkinson. After being sodded this spring and summer, The Battlefield will hopefully open in the fall. It will be the latest in a long string of improvements financed by Shangri-La owner Eddie Gibbs that includes the 27 holes and clubhouse at the main course, a new hotel and conference center, the incredible indoor-outdoor recreation area called The Anchor and the rebuilt bar and marina. The Battlefield is just one of several highprofile projects going on in the state which we’ll take a look at here. Clark, who worked extensively on the rebuild of the 27 holes at Shangri-La., said the 18-hole Battlefield par3 will rival any short course in the country, including some famous neighbors in Branson such as Top of the Rock and The Mountain Course. “It’s unlike anything we’ve ever done,” Clark said. “Obviously par3 courses are getting bigger and better with what’s been done at places like Bandon Dunes or Big Cedar. They become bigboy par-3s. But every time I go out there 76

by ken macleod

I’m more impressed. We’ve uncovered rock outcroppings, we have a stream, we’ve added lakes. But it all has to do with the elevation change.” Built on rolling terrain close to the Shangri-La airport, the course is being built so each hole will have three sets of tees. The tips will be very challenging, the middle tees a more moderate challenge and the front tees will have no significant carries and be ideal for beginners or those just wanting to carry a wedge and a putter. Dale Forrest, owner of United Golf, and Justin May, superintendent at Shangri-La, have gone above and beyond to make sure the final result is spectacular, Clark said. The course will be sodded with Tahoma 31 Bermuda and the greens will be seeded with 007 bent grass, with a variety of native grasses framing the holes. “It’s a really cool site,” Forrest said. “There’s a ravine running through the middle of the course and the elevation change from top to bottom is almost 100 feet. It

John Conrad Regional Golf Course will have a big water feature and a stream with cascading falls and ponds. It will have three timber bridges, the bunkers will

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

have ragged edges and there are some rock outcroppings we’ve uncovered. “I think everyone will love it and it will get a lot of play. It’s going to be fun for beginners, old men and everyone in between.” “It’s really going to be a game changer,” said Mike Williams, Shangri-La director of communications and government affairs. “The Anchor was a game changer, but this is going to be one as well. It will be one of the top five par-3s in the country right from the start.” Opening date is contingent on getting the bent grass greens established in May and June before the heat of summer bears down. If weather or circumstances prevent that, the greens will be seeded in the fall and the opening will be in the spring of 2023. John Conrad, Midwest City The grand reopening of John Conrad Golf Course in Midwest City has been set for July 1. All rerouting, tree removal, tee and fairway work and new greens have been completed and just waiting on a solid spring growing season. Design associate Conor Cummings of Heckenkemper Golf is pleased with how everything went in construction and grow-in under superintendent Daniel Mills, who left prior to reopening to take a position in private business. “He’s really sharp and did a great job,” Cummings said. “A lot of this renovation will depend on how much the superintendent and his staff are willing to mow. There are a lot of areas around the greens that can be mowed short to open up a lot of playW W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG

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COURSE CONSTRUCTION ROUNDUP and verticutting. You’ve got to do it right or the grain will creep back in.” OTN will likely be announcing a new event to begin preparations for later this spring. The Club at Indian Springs is converting the River Course to Champion ultradwarf after converting The Lakes course in 2013. The course will close after hosting an All Pro tournament the final week of June and hopes to reopen in October. The decision was made to convert even though Indian Springs lost over 10,000 square feet of turf on its Bermuda greens in the hard freeze in February 2021. Superintendent David Jones said maintaining both surfaces was a challenge and that the members will appreciate having firmer, faster greens in June, July and August. “They just do way better than bent in the Bermuda green conversions Two courses that will no longer be fight- transition zone,” he said. ing to keep bent grass alive in Oklahoma summers are Oak Tree National in Edmond Kickingbird GC Kickingbird Golf Course in Edmond is and the River Course at The Club at Indian closed until at least the fall as part of an Springs in Broken Arrow. Oak Tree National, which has hosted the $18 million project that includes a new PGA Championship, Senior PGA Champi- clubhouse, driving range, indoor teaching onship and most recently the U.S. Senior facility, outdoor range pavilion, new irrigaOpen, closed on March 28 to work on its tion, and work on greens, bunkers and tee bunkers and cart paths and this summer boxes. Much more to come. will regrass its greens with Tiff-Eagle ultradwarf Bermuda. “Basically we’ve been studying this for four years,” said Tom Jones, COO and president of OTN. “We’ve been asking a lot of the young and old tour players here, `What is the best surface you’ve ever putted on?’ Except for The Memorial, almost every place they named had Bermuda greens. It was surprising.” Jones played top level amateur golf and briefly professional golf across the country and in the 1970s and 1980s dreaded playing Bermuda greens. Before the ultradwarf varieties, putting on Bermuda was as much about reading grain as it was slope. “It’s totally different now,” Jones said. “We’ve had these on our practice greens for four years and it’s just great. They just should have called it something else. For guys of my generation, it’s still the stigma that pops in your head when you say Bermuda greens.” Jones remembers asking the USGA’s Tom O’Toole, who lives in St. Louis and was in Edmond for the 2014 U.S. Senior Open, what was the best surface he had ever putted on. ORDER YOURS TODAY AT: We accept all major credit cards “He said Seminole,” Jones said. “And that’s Bermuda. It’s certainly come a long ways. Now it’s still down to the superinCall 918.357.3332 for bulk pricing or to tendent and the program of top dressing ing options, rather than just left as rough. In a lot of ways it’s similar to what they did at Southern Hills. Classic architecture shouldn’t be exclusive to high-end private clubs, you can take aspects of that and apply it to municipal courses.” Cummings said like at Southern Hills, the focus of the renovation was around the green complexes. “We reimagined the green complexes and none of them are as they were,” he said. “Some are now big, some are small, a lot of movement but I wouldn’t call any of them severe. We wanted a wide variety and we wanted them to flow naturally into the surrounds.” The greens were seeded last fall with 007 bentgrass.

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Hot Springs Village an ideal getaway

ot Springs Village, North America’s largest gated community and nestled within the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas, is home to nine beautiful golf courses. Visitors can play a different course every day of the week; no two courses or holes are the same, and Arkansas’ temperate climate offers yearround fun. The private community also offers 11 different lakes, 30 plus miles of nature trails, two beaches, 13 tennis courts, two full-service marinas, 14 fenced pickleball courts, a dog park, RV park, performing arts center, pocket parks, bocce ball, lawn bowling, basketball, croquet, mini golf, archery, and a country club and private golf course. There is truly something fun for everyone. For those looking for a beautiful spot for retirement or work from home joy, Hot Springs Village offers a cost of living below the national average, according to realtor RE/MAX of Hot Springs Village. According to the website BestPlaces.net, Hot

Springs Village residents enjoy a lower cost for housing, healthcare, food, and transportation. So, if you are looking to relocate Nine courses, a wide range of amenities at Hot Springs Village. or retire far from the expense, hustle, and bustle of urban property zoning, and animal control. And approximately 25 percent of the 26,000living, Hot Springs Village is ideal. Hot Springs Village real estate spans acre landmass is dedicated to common from very affordable to affluent, with property or green-belt. The environment is homes priced from $100,000 to over $1 mil- the foundation of the entire community. In lion. The variety of homes available across Hot Springs Village, residents take pride in the gated community range from golf-front their commitment towards conservation. This philosophy enhances Village life and to lake-front, mountain-view, or wooded. Property lots are also available to build contributes to the enjoyment and value reyour dream home or simply use the prop- alized by property owners. erty for membership. As a property owner To visit Hot Springs Village, call RE/MAX of you can play all the Hot Springs Village Hot Springs Village at 501-204-4598 to schedgolf courses at member rates. The village was set up to provide a full- ule discounted lodging, tee times, and provide a service community to 14,500-plus resi- map, area coupons, community tour, and the latdents including police, fire, and ambulance est edition of their area magazine, Escape to the service, as well as wastewater, sanitation, Ouachitas.

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Hitting that perfect shot keeps golfers like me coming back for more. But did you know that during a golf swing, the lower back sustains a compressive force of about 1370 pounds for amateur golfers? That number increases to 1700 pounds if you are a professional.1 This explains why we can have a sore back after a game of golf. When you swing a golf club, that incredible amount of force involves just one side of the body, which can place uneven pressure on the spine. Many golfers develop lower back issues from repeatedly swinging a golf club through 18 holes or at the driving range. Here’s a few tips to help you protect your spine while enjoying your sport. Warm up: When you warm up your muscles and joints, they are less prone to injury. Perform some light stretches and range of motion exercises for your spine, hip, and shoulders. Balance counts: Keeping your spine and hips properly balanced over your legs as you play a shot will help ensure there are no uneven forces compressing or pulling on the spine. Adjust your swing: Keep your spine erect when executing your golf swing. Try shortening your backswing to limit the twisting of the spine or stand closer to the ball so you aren’t bending forward too much. Condition your muscles: Your core muscles are key support to your spine. Work on strengthening the lower back muscles, your abdominals, and side abdominals. Rest and recover: Muscles and joints need rest after physical exertion to repair. Depending on the number of holes played and swings made, give your body adequate time to recover before your next game. Listen to your body and take a break when needed. Golf has taken off in popularity especially as people have sought outdoor activities. The National Golf Foundation reported 24.8 million golfers in the U.S. in 2020, an increase of 500,000 over 2019. It is the largest net increase in 17 years.2 If you are new to the game or an old pro, these tips can help you protect your spine from injury while you enjoy your sport and chase that perfect shot. 1

https://www.spine-health.com/conditions/sports-and-spine-injuries/golf-and-low-back-pain

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/national-golf-foundation-reports-numbers-for-2020-were-record-se

Author: Dr. Brett Braly is a board-certified fellowship-trained orthopedic surgeon specializing in spinal surgery. Dr. Braly is a leading advocate for minimally invasive techniques in spine surgery. Dr. Braly is named in the top “20 under 40” best spine surgeons by the North American Spine Society.

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2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

CHIP SHOTS

James Reid passes at 63 James Reid, 63, of Edmond, a 10-time Oklahoma Golf Association champion and significant figure in the state’s golf community, died March 28 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Reid was a long-time member of the Oklahoma City Golf Commission and also ran Golf Inc. in Oklahoma City, which raised money for scholarships for young golfers through a series of amateur events. A lawyer who competed in top amateur events throughout the country, Reid was known for having a mastery of chipping and putting as well as accurate driving and iron play. Reid won the OGA Four-Ball Championship with Mike Hughett in 2000, ‘04 and ‘06 and the two remained friends through the years, with Hughett visiting Reid recently. “He was 100 percent convinced he had the cancer beat, but took a turn for the worse last fall,” Hughett said. “I was excited for him, but unfortunately with cancer it can be gone one day and then come back relentlessly the next. He was helpful to me in my

son’s battle with brain cancer. “ Former Oklahoma City mayor Mick Cornett, who appointed Reid to the golf commission, said he appreciated his work on behalf of the courses and the golfers in OKC. “James was also a really good player and you could see when you watched him play why he could take his game to any course in the country,” Cornett said. “His ball went perfectly straight and had a really good short game. He was not a long hitter and had and one of the slower club head speeds of any of the top players in the state, but he could hit it straight.” Reid won the OGA MidAmateur twice, the OGA Senior Four-Ball three times with Jon Valuck of Oklahoma City and won the OGA Senior Stroke Play Championship in 2013 at Dornick Hills CC in Ardmore and 2014 at The Trails Golf Club in Norman. “When you think about James, you think about his incredible short game,” said OGA Executive Director Mark Felder. “He was just a great chipper and putter. He could save more shots around the green than just about anyone I’ve seen.”

Tour Quality to open The Sheridan Club Tour Quality, the custom fitting specialists that have been building a loyal following among golfers in Broken Arrow for years, is moving up. Owner Ross MacDonald is shifting his operation to the former Edwin Watts store at 6006 S. Sheridan Road in Tulsa. The new operation will include five Trackman bays offering swing analysis and simulator games, and golfers who become members will have 24-hour access to what is being called The Sheridan Club at Tour Quality Golf. Normal business hours for those seeking the expertise of McDonald and his staff are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. MacDonald started Tour Quality out of his parents’ three-car garage and has been working hard for 10 years to build a clientele based on his passion for all things concerning golf equipment. He sells clubs from the major manufacturers, plus a variety of shafts and specializes in custom club fitting and refinishing. The new store will have a 650-square foot practice area and a putting green. “If you have to be at work at 6 in the morning and you’re up early and want to play 18 holes, come on in,” MacDonald said. “It will be just like an indoor country club with memberships that have 24-hour access.”

Jeremy Dobson honored At least 400 friends, family, co-workers, club members and fellow superintendents and industry leaders gathered at The Patriot Golf Club in Owasso to celebrate the life of Jeremy Dobson, the club’s director of agronomy who lost his life in an auto accident Feb. 21 near Jacksonville, Fla., while returning from watching the Daytona 500 auto race. 82

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Moving remembrances were delivered by Patriot General Manager Ali Sezgin, club president Willie Barron, former top assistant Bryan Brinkman, Southern Hills superintendent Russ Myers, The Patriot cofounder Lt. Col. Dan Rooney and by Dobson’s younger sister Jean, father Michael and mother Nancy. Rooney announced that the club would found a scholarship in Dobson’s name at his alma mater Kansas State. Most of the attendees wore purple in honor of his love for the Wildcats. Barron told hilarious tales of a golf trip to Las Vegas. Myers, who worked with Dobson at Southern Hills before he accepted the job at The Patriot in 2008, told about his pride at becoming the Southern Hills superintendent before he realized that he wasn’t even the best superintendent on his own staff. All speakers came back to the theme of Dobson as a man of few words but a fountain of great mirth which flowed forth at times, as well as his incredible integrity, knowledge and dedication to his craft. “I never had to worry about his department,” Sezgin said. “He was one of the most dedicated people I’ve ever known. The golf course was his baby. Someone once said, being successful is not doing extraordinary

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2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

CHIP SHOTS things, but doing the ordinary things very well. He embodied that every day.” “Jeremy was a patriot and a warrior in that same spirit with the best people I’ve ever gone into combat with,” said Rooney, a fighter jet pilot with multiple tours of combat duty and the founder of the Folds of Honor Foundation. “He always put service before himself." Dobson kept the Patriot moving forward during build-in from the beginning of construction in 2008 to its 2010 opening despite the impacts of the Great Recession, a 100year flood, droughts and other calamities. “Being a superintendent at one of the top clubs in the country, if not the world, you start to think you’re pretty special," Myers said. "When I showed up here in 2006 I thought I must be one of the top superintendents in the country. It’s pretty humbling when you realize you’re not the best and it’s even worse when you realize you’re not even the best on your own staff. It was very clear to me early on that I was going to learn a lot more from Jeremy than I was ever going to teach him. “And that never changed to this day. I don’t have to tell a Patriot member or a Southern Hills member that the greens he put out up here were better than anything I

ever put out. He was the first call for many of us in here whether we wanted help or just to get a beer.” Brinkman said that while Dobson was fine with all the duties of being a superintendent, his first love and genius was for growing turf, whether greens, fairways or rough. That was reflected in Myers’ comments and most experts in the area would agree that The Patriot was always among the finest conditioned courses in the region.

The Race to Shangri-La A new opportunity for golfers of all skill levels to compete in a series of tournaments begins in June, with an expenses-paid weekend playing in The Tour Championship at Shangri-La Resort up for the top-10 finishers in two skill divisions. The Race to Shangri-La is a series of four qualifying events using the Stableford scoring system. There will be a handicap and a scratch division with the top 10 in each qualifying for The Tour Championship on Oct. 15-16 at Shangri-La, free entry and hotel room included. There is a $125 entry fee to join the tour, otherwise each event just costs the green fee and cart fee at the participating courses. The tournaments will be capped at 100 players.

GOLF OKL AHOMA • 2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

Events are: June 17, The Kickoff Forest Ridge Golf Club, Broken Arrow July 17, The Battle Bailey Ranch, Owasso August 22, The Birdie Fest Meadowbrook CC, Tulsa Sept. 25, The Showdown Sand Springs, Canyons at Blackjack Ridge The final event will be a pro-am featuring individual and team competition. Birdies and Bogeys Tour founder Martin Maritz said proceeds from the tour will be used to help create playing opportunities for young professionals from Oklahoma as well as fund the extravaganza at Shangri-La. The events are open to men and women. Men over 60 will play a forward set of tees while ladies will play tees as designated by the home course. Golfers must compete in a minimum of three events to qualify for Shangri-La. There are also sponsorships available to purchase spots in the final pro-am. At the pro-am, one player will have a shot from 165 yards for $1 million, while eight others will shoot for $100,000. Other prizes will also be available. Go to www.racetoshangrila.com to enter.

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2022 SCH E DU L E S OKLAHOMA GOLF ASSOCIATION May 9-10: 4-Ball and Senior 4-Ball, Cedar Ridge CC, Broken Arrow June 6-9: Junior Boys and Girls, Lincoln Park GC West, Okla. City June 14-17: Senior State Amateur, The Trails GC, Norman June 20-22: Stroke Play, Dornick Hills CC, Ardmore July 12: State Amateur qualifier, Lincoln Park GC West, Okla. City July 14: State Amateur qualifier, Bailey Ranch GC, Owasso July 18-19: Mid-Amateur, Hillcrest CC, Bartlesville July 25-29: State Amateur, Okla. City G&CC, Okla. City Aug. 15-16: Senior Stroke Play, Meadowbrook CC, Tulsa Aug. 15-16: Women’s Stroke Play, Meadowbrook CC, Tulsa Aug. 18: Oklahoma Open qualifier, Oak Tree CC West, Edmond Aug. 25-27: Oklahoma Open, Oak Tree CC, Edmond USGA QUALIFIERS April 26: U.S. Open, Jimmie Austin OU GC, Edmond June 2: Junior Amateur, Belmar GC, Norman June 30: Women’s Senior Amateur, Belmar GC, Norman July 11: Men’s Amateur, Oak Tree CC East, Edmond Aug. 3: Senior Amateur, Twin Hills CC, Okla. City Aug. 8: Men’s and Women’s Mid-Amateurs, Dornick Hills CC, Ardmore Oct. 10: Men’s and Women’s 4-Ball Amateurs, Winter Creek Golf & Social Club, Blanchard OKLAHOMA JUNIOR GOLF TOUR March 14-15: Muskogee Spring Break Classic, Muskogee CC, Muskogee March 26-27: Trosper Park Spring Championship, Trosper Park GC, Okla. City April 2-3: Lincoln Park Spring Fling East, Lincoln Park GC East, Okla. City April 9-10: Bailey Ranch Spring Championship, Bailey Ranch GC, Owasso May 25-26: Spring Championship, Shawnee CC, Shawnee Sept. 3-4: John Conrad Labor Day Challenge, John Conrad GC, Midwest City Sept. 10-11: Bailey Ranch Bash, Bailey Ranch GC, Owasso Sept. 17-18: Beast of the East, Lincoln Park GC East, Okla. City Sept. 24-25: Earlywine Park Fall Challenge, Earlywine Park GC North, Okla. City Oct. 1-2: Lake Hefner Fall Roundup, Lake Hefner GC North, Okla. City Oct. 8-9: Best of the West, Lincoln Park GC West, Okla. City Oct. 15-16: Fall Finale, Shawnee CC, Shawnee Oct. 29-30: OJGT/TJGT Red River Challenge, Dornick Hills CC, Ardmore SOUTH CENTRAL SECTION PGA Feb. 27-March 1: Spring Meeting, Stoney Creek Hotel and Conference Center, Broken Arrow March 7: WOK Pro-Pro, The Trails GC, Norman March 28-29: Justice Shangri-La Shoot Out, Shangri-La, Monkey Island April 25-27: Titleist Assistant Match Play, Meadowbrook CC, Tulsa May 1-Nov. 1: WOK 2-Man Match Play, Lincoln Park GC West, Okla. City May 9: Senior/Junior Championship, Shangri-La, Monkey Island June 6-7: Srixon HOF Championship, Quail Ridge GC, Winfield, Kansas June 13: Korn Ferry Tour Wichita Open Monday qualifiers, Sand Creek Station GC, Newton, Kansas, and Auburn Hills Municipal, Wichita June 13: WOK Chapter Pro-Scratch, Winter Creek GC, Blanchard June 20: Yamaha Team/Senior Team, Bailey Ranch GC, Owasso June 27-29: Yamaha Match Play, Quail Creek G&CC, Okla. City W W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG

July 11: Justice Stroke Play, Forest Ridge GC, Broken Arrow July 18-19: Senior PGA Professional Championship, Dornick Hills G&CC, Ardmore July 18-19: Senior/Super Senior Section, Dornick Hills G&CC, Ardmore July 25: WOK Medalist, Oakwood CC, Enid Aug. 1: National Car Rental Assistant, Muskogee CC, Muskogee Aug. 8: Justice Stroke Play Series WOK, Gaillardia CC, Okla. City Aug, 15-16: SCPGA Professional Championship, Jimmie Austin OU GC, Norman Aug. 22-24: Wildhorse Canyon Farms Match Play, South Lakes GC, Jenks Aug. 29-30: WCF Super Senior Match Play, South Lakes GC, Jenks Sept. 6: Justice Pro-Assistant, Oak Tree CC, Edmond Sept. 12: Yamaha Pro-Scratch, Hillcrest GC, Bartlesville Sept. 19: Yamaha Stroke Play Series, Ponce De Leon GC, Hot Springs Village Arkansas Sept. 20: WOK Fall Meeting and Championship, Gaillardia CC, Okla. City Oct 3-4: Yamaha Section, Maumelle CC, Maumelle, Arkansas Nov. 14-15: WOK Chapter Cup Matches, Dornick Hills G&CC, Ardmore TULSA GOLF ASSOCIATION April 2-3: 2-Man Challenge, South Lakes GC April 9: 3-Man Team Two Best Ball Shamble Net Individual Stroke Play, Hillcrest CC April 26-27: Senior Stroke Play (also Senior division), South Lakes GC May 14-15: 4-Ball Stroke Play, Battle Creek GC May 24: 3-Man Team Two Best Ball Shamble Net Individual Stroke Play, Forest Ridge GC June 25-26: Stroke Play (also Senior division), LaFortune Park GC July 12: 3-Man Team Two Best Ball Shamble Net Individual Stroke Play, Cherokee Hills GC Aug. 6-7: 2-Man Best Ball Net Handicap event, Bailey Ranch GC Sept. 1: 3-Man Team Two Best Ball Shamble Net Individual Stroke Play, Meadowbrook CC Sept. 18: One Day Individual Low Gross/Low Net Handicap Event, The Canyons at Blackjack Ridge Oct. 7: Par-3 Four-Man Team Shamble Member/ Guests or Member/Member, LaFortune Park GC WOMEN’S OKLAHOMA GOLF ASSOCIATION April 25-26: Stableford Partnership, Lincoln Park West, Okla. City May 23-24: Senior Championship, Oakwood CC, Enid June 27-28: Stroke Play/Mid-Am, Cedar Ridge CC, Broken Arrow July 11: WOGA Fundraiser, Stillwater CC, Stillwater July 12-13: Girls Junior State, Stillwater CC, Stillwater July 18-21: State Amateur, Gaillardia CC, Okla. City Aug. 1-2: Fore State Championship, TBA Aug. 15-16: Four Ball Partnership, Shangri-La Resort, Grand Lake, Monkey Island Sept. 26-27: WOGA Cup, Winter Creek, Blanchard COLLEGIATE EVENTS IN OKLAHOMA BOYS Feb. 28-March 1: UCO Broncho Invitational, Gaillardia CC, Okla. City March 13-15: Oak Tree Invitational, Oak Tree CC East, Edmond March 14-15: Ron Streck Invitational, Meadowbrook CC, Tulsa March 28-29: Shawnee Shootout, Shawnee CC April 25-26: SAC Championship, The Territory G&CC, Duncan May 15-18: NCAA Stillwater Regional, Karsten Creek GC, Stillwater May 27-June 1: NCAA Championship, Grayhawk GC, Scottsdale, Arizona GIRLS March 7-8: Diffee Ford Lincoln Invitational, Kickingbird GC, Edmond March 13-15: RSU Hillcat Classic, Bailey Ranch

GC, Owasso March 14-15: Ron Streck Invitational, Meadowbrook CC, Tulsa March 28-29 Kyle Blaser Invitational, Gaillardia CC, Okla. City April 4-5: Eagle Women’s Classic, Hillcrest GC, Bartlesville April 5: OCAC Championship, Firelake GC, Shawnee April 11-12: Susie Maxwell Berning Classic, Lincoln Park GC, Okla. City April 11-12: The Bruzzy, WInStar GC, Thackerville April 12: ORU Spring Invitational, The Club at Indian Springs, Broken Arrow April 25-26: SAC Championship, The Territory G&CC, Duncan May 20-26: NCAA Championship, Grayhawk GC, Scottsdale, Arizona May 24-27: NAIA Women’s Championship, Lincoln Park GC West, Okla. City APT TOUR Grand Casino Open May 4-7: Shawnee Country Club Real Okie Championship May 11-14: Muskogee Golf Club Bella Vista Charity Classic May 25-28: Bella Vista CC, Highlands CC, Ark. United Way Charity Golf Classic June 8-11: Hardscrabble CC, Ft. Smith, Ark. Supreme Lending Happy Hands Classic June 2225: The Club at Indian Springs, Broken Arrow WOMEN’S ALL-PRO TOUR FCA Women’s Championship April 19-22: The Club at Indian Springs, Broken Arrow PROFESSIONAL April 13-16: Korn Ferry Tour’s Veritex Bank Championship, Texas Rangers GC, Arlington, Texas May 19-22: PGA Championship, Southern Hills CC, Tulsa OTHER July 25-28: Gateway First Bank Tulsa Junior hosted by Bo Van Pelt, Oaks CC, Tulsa

2022 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW • GOLF OKL AHOMA

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