Brandt Jobe reinvigorates Oak Tree Gang

by sam humphreys

Oak 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 competing when the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship returns to the state May 27-30 at Southern Hills Country Club.

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

pain and numbness in his fingers. In 2009 he the Boeing Classic. In 2020, he notched three had surgery on his wrist and lost his PGA Tour top-10s before the season was cut short due to card and was forced to play 2010 on the Na- COVID-19. tionwide Tour, where he finished barely out of Jobe attributes a lot of his success the past the Nationwide Top 25, forcing him to go to few years to playing Oak Tree National on a Q school once again. In Q school regular basis. he finished sixth which gave him “I’ve never been more unstatus on the 2011 PGA Tour comfortable than at Oak Tree season. While Jobe didn’t win on off the tee, and that makes oththe PGA Tour, he did notch 13 er courses seem easier to score wins worldwide before joining on,” Jobe said. the Champions Tour. Of the other three who could

Jobe turned 50 in 2015 and compete, see the feature on Verfinished as the medalist in PGA plank on Page 36. Morgan is a Tour Champions Q School. Champions Tour legend with This led to a successful rookie 25 victories including finishing season, finishing 23rd on the fi- in the top 25 in 75 percent of his nal money list with seven top- 361 Champions Tour events. 10s and three top-5s in senior At age 74, if Morgan decides major championships. He con- to play at Southern Hills, it tinued his great play into 2017 could be the last time golf fans where he had his breakout year get to see him perform in peron the Champions Tour as he finished seventh on the money Willie Wood son at a major. Wood, 60, has been battling list with $1.4 million and a win at the Princi- for consistent status on the Champions Tour pal Charity Classic. for a decade, much as he did in his long PGA

In 2018 he finished in the top 20 for the Tour career. The former Oklahoma State third consecutive year, which led to more star said his game is in better shape than it sterling play in 2019 where he finished in the has been in a long time. While he still has a top 20 again and also gained his second win at house on the course at Oak Tree National, he has spent most of this winter playing and practicing in Scottsdale, Ariz., at Whisper Rock with his son Hayden Wood, who also played golf at Oklahoma State, and is also rising up the ranks in professional golf.

Wood is familiar with Southern Hills, but has not played there in competition since the 2001 U.S. Open and not at all since the recent restoration by architect Gil Hanse.

Wood said he would be thrilled to play in front of friends, family and local fans in Tulsa if he gets the opportunity.

“It’s wonderful to play up the turnpike,” Wood said. “We don’t get to play tournaments close to home very often, so that definitely makes it special, and especially with it being a major makes it that much better.”

Wood has won twice on the Champions Tour. His first came at the 2012 Dicks Sporting Goods Open, where he made a clutch 35foot birdie putt on the final hole of regulation to force a playoff, where he ultimately beat Michael Allen. Wood calls that putt his most memorable shot of his career, which is saying something considering he had one of the most illustrious junior and amateur careers of anyone. His second win came at the Pacific Links Hawaii Championship, where he came from five shots back in the final round.

by ken macleod

Cary Cozby has played in high-pressure events from the NCAA Championship to the U.S. Amateur and six Professional National Championships, the Super Bowl of tournaments for those pros who work at a golf course for a living.

So there was no panic when he found out he would soon be playing on one of the grandest stages of his life. In his inbox was a special invitation from PGA of America President Jim Richardson for the Southern Hills Director of Golf to compete in the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship when it is contested May 27-30 at his home course.

“I’m reading my email and of course at this time I’m getting a lot of emails from the PGA,” Cozby said. “I read that one from Jim and had to stop and read it again.”

The first thing he did was show it to his 12-year-old son Banks, whom he next enlisted as his caddy. Wife Staci and mother Karole were “over the moon,” when he let them know. He PGA Professional of the Year in 1985 and a member of the PGA of America Hall of Fame all were certainly good reasons for the PGA of America to extend this invitation. Cozby will join at least two other former Sooner greats in the field, as Glen Day, with informed younger brothers Craig and Chance, whom he was teammates for one year, and both of whom followed him to successful ca- Todd Hamilton, who was still playing and reers at the University of Oklahoma and into practicing in Norman after having just fingolf as a profession in various capacities. ished his career, when Cozby arrived in 1987,

And thoughts were immediately directed are both in the event. Day is still a mainstay to the one man who would on the Champions Tour while have been most proud and Hamilton has an exemption as thrilled to watch him compete winner of The Open Champiin a major championship, fa- onship in 2004. ther and fellow PGA Profes- Cozby said he would have sional of the Year Jerry Cozby, to find time between all his who passed away Aug. 23, regular duties and prepara2020. tions for the event to put

“I know one guy who some serious practice time in would have been really ex- over the next few months but cited about this,” Cary said. that his game was already in “This would have been really decent shape. special for him.” “I haven’t played much but

Cozby, 52, missed the I’ve been practicing some,” chance to qualify for this event Cozby said. “I figured I might last as it was scheduled shortly Cary Cozby be a marker for someone so after his father passed away. That, his long I was trying to get my game in shape and dedication to the PGA of America and the not embarrass myself. This makes it a little family history with Jerry having been the more urgent.”