2021 KITCHENAID SENIOR PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
Brandt Jobe will represent Oak Tree National in the Senior PGA Championship.
Oak Tree Gang have mostly hung up their spurs by sam humphreys
O
ak Tree National in Edmond is famous for the Oak Tree Gang, comprised of the vast amount of tour players who have called Oak Tree home over the years. Thanks to the recent surge in young professionals calling the course home, we must clarify there are now really two gangs. The new gang is comprised of rising PGA Tour stars and NCAA collegiate stars such as Matthew Wolff, Viktor Hovland, Talor Gooch, Kevin Tway, Rhein Gibson, Michael Gellerman, Blake Trimble, Zach Bauchou, Taylor Moore, Charlie Saxon, Max McGreevy, Brad Dalke, Josh Creel, Hayden Wood, Austin Eckroat, Quade Cummins, Tyson Reeder, and Jordan Wilson. Much will be written about them in times to come. Today, we are focusing on the “Original Oak Tree Gang” and who you will see com28
GOLF OKL AHOMA • APRIL/MAY 2021
peting when the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship returns to the state May 27-30 at Southern Hills Country Club. Dr. Gil Morgan The “Original Oak Tree Gang” included Willie Wood, David Edwards, Danny Edwards, Scott Verplank, Bob Tway, Dr. Gil Morgan, Mark Hayes and Doug Tewell. Added over the years were Jim Woodward, Rocky Walcher, and Brandt Jobe. Many were still playing when the 2014 U.S. Senior Open was held at Oak Tree National. Time has whittled that participation to a few this spring. Verplank and Jobe are eligible and plan to compete. Wood would need to play his way in this spring through the Champions Tour or receive an exemption. Morgan has not played in any events over
the past year. Tway and Tewell are retired, Hayes is deceased and Woodward and Walcher rarely compete in tournaments. Jobe joined Oak Tree National in 2018 after moving to the Nicholls Hills area from Dallas. This decision was to support his son, Jackson, one of the top baseball prospects in the country. Jackson wanted to play high school ball with his teammates from his travel team, and those teammates play at Heritage Hall in OKC. This decision was also a blessing for Jobe, who says he has never felt more at home at a golf club than at Oak Tree National. “From (owner) Everett Dobson, (COO) Tom Jones, and (director of golf) Steve Kimmel to all of the guys who I play with out here, everybody welcomed me with open arms and made me feel at home from the beginning,” Jobe said. “I absolutely love Oklahoma and I can’t ever see myself moving back to Texas.” Jobe was born in Oklahoma City, before growing up in Denver and learning to play at Cherry Hills. His first love was baseball, and he is known as one of the best athletes on the Champions Tour. Both Wood and Verplank marveled at how strong Jobe is and how he can bomb the golf ball. “I guess part of it is the fact that growing up, baseball was my passion and I learned how to swing hard,” said Jobe, fifth on the Champions Tour in driving distance averaging 294.6 yards. When Jobe wasn’t caddying at Cherry Hills in the summertime, he would spend a month in OKC to visit family, where he would practice and play at Twin Hills. Jobe was a solid junior player, winning numerous events in and around Colorado. When it was time to pick a college, he chose UCLA and finished in the top 10 in his first event. In 1988, he helped lead the Bruins to the NCAA Championship by three shots over both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Jobe’s pro career started on the Canadian Tour, then he made it through Q school to get on the PGA Tour for the first time in 1991. After some struggles he found himself on the Japan Golf Tour, where he found his game again and won six times between 1995-1999. He earned a special temporary membership to the PGA Tour in 1999 and had his best year in 2006. In late 2006, everything changed. Jobe was sweeping leaves with his daughter, Brittan, and was using a giant square push broom, when all of the sudden the broom snapped and sliced his left thumb to the bone and cut off the tip of his index finger. After a healing process and many swing compensations, he tried to come back and compete in 2007, but in doing this he tore his left wrist from the bone compensating for the W W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG
