By request, I’m not just randomly starting (another) a brag thread.

First, my background in USGA events is brutal. I missed the US Junior by a hole once, that’s right, a hole. I was a few under through 16 and easily in when I hit a shot that came to rest about 2 feet short and right of a tiny little tree on 17 at Brookhaven CC in Dallas. I decided to completely commit to hitting the ball full with an 8 iron and not worry about the post impact, impact. When the 8 iron hit the tree it insta-snapped and the bottom foot of the club pinched off and flew a few feet. Ball on green, one hole to go and really can’t mess this up. Well, the way the club broke it turned the shaft into a dagger of some sort. I was sour it broke and as I was walking by it with my bag on my left shoulder I just bent over and hastily picked it up. I caught my right ankle with the shaft and it ripped me open a few inches. It hurt, but there was no chance I was quitting with one hole left. As I was over my putt on 17 the blood was flowing pretty good and there just happened to be a USGA official behind the green who insisted I head to the hospital. I told him I was a few under and going to finish 18 and then go. He exercised his right to disagree….he told me finishing wasn’t an option, period. I don’t really remember if I yelled and screamed or just accepted my fate and left…8 stitches. Fast forward a year and I found myself in a playoff to get in the US Am with my next door neighbor (literally next door), loser. Fast forward one more year…same qualifier, same playoff, same guy, same hole, same result.

Now it’s 1999 and I am a couple years into a decent mini-tour career. I did first stage of qualifying at Sherrill Park in Dallas. I believe I shot 70 and was in an 8 for 2 playoff to move on to regional qualifying. They split us into 2 groups and I was in the first one. I made par and one guy in my group made birdie. We then watched as all 4 in the group behind us hit it between 6 and 10 feet….all missed! The next hole is a par 5 and I hit a great drive and then (I think) a career 2 iron to 6 feet and made it for eagle. Next up was regional’s at Bear Lakes in West Palm Beach as I was playing the Golden Bear Tour that summer. The 36 hole qualifier was held on the day before the GBT was to start its first event so there weren’t many options if there was any rain since half the field or more were GBT players. IT DUMPED RAIN ALL DAY. The round was completely unplayable from the first hole on but they left us out there for 36 holes with no delays. My shirt was completely destroyed from the leather on the bag strap soaking through and staining every inch. I don’t remember what I shot, I think it was 70-68, but I do remember birdieing the last 3 holes to 100% lock it up. It’s a tough call for the best feeling of my career between that day, shooting a final round 65 to win my first Hooters event when I was on my last nickel, or driving out of the parking lot at second stage in 2008 after making it to Final’s. Those are my 3 career highlight rounds for sure.

1999 US Open at Pinehurst – I drove up to Pinehurst from West Palm Beach (much longer drive than expected) on Sunday. Monday morning I headed to the course and registered which takes forever for this event. You have to go through a line to get your free stuff, a line to sign about 10 different pictures, a line for media (they didn’t have too many questions for me!) and a line to sign up for your tee times for practice rounds. I had the chance and somehow didn’t sign up with Tiger. He, O’Meara and Cook were playing on Wednesday at 7 am and I didn’t want to go that early. I thought that it would wear me out too much because I wouldn’t know what to do the rest of the day but practice. I was an over-worker then and I would not have had the ability (or money) to just leave after the round and go to a movie or chill.

The practice rounds are really fun. As lame as this is but true, you sign thousands of autographs during the course of the practice rounds and it is really fun. It was like for that week you really belong on Tour and everyone thinks you are Tiger. I can assure you 50% of autographs I signed I could hear the kid turn to dad after and say “now who was that?” and the other 50% obviously didn’t know who I was or care to ask dad.

The course was brutal. The rough for a US Open was actually tame. However, with the way the greens are on Pinehurst #2 the 4-5 inch (I think) deep Bermuda rough is basically unplayable. You can’t control the ball at all and the greens are designed to effectively not be hit. Mike Nicklaus (Jack’s son) was on the Golden Bear Tour that year and Nick Malinowski was fishing buddies with him. Nick went to their house to fish the weekend before the Open and came home with a report straight from Jack’s mouth…“this is the first time ever that I am going to hit it in the middle of every green. I am not aiming at a SINGLE pin all week.” Well, if that’s Jack’s plan, it’s now my plan. I actually think I could almost hole by hole recall the tourney right now 11 years later but it would be unexciting describing back to back 79’s…actually, if you just reread my round 3 recap from the Q School thread you would just about have it. I will however give you the first 2 holes. First hole, stripe a 3 wood down middle and hit a 7 iron 12 feet and lip it out. I took that ball and went to the second tee and signed it with “Happy Father’s Day, Thanks for everything!” and handed it to my dad on the second tee. Pretty cool moment. I then pushed a drive on #2 and had a 5 iron from a flier lie to a pin tucked on the right behind a bunker. I thought of Jack’s words “middle of green” as I was behind the ball and was happily committed to that. Just left of bunker, land it on the upslope to the green, 2 putt from 40 feet and get out of here. As I addressed my ball the club was sitting behind it so perfectly that I knew I could take it right at it and make birdie….so I did. I landed it 2 feet from the hole! But, by the time my walking rules official had helped me with my drop from the grandstands that were 30 yards over the green I realized that maybe, just maybe, Jack knows something about US Opens. Well done, I dismissed the advice from the greatest major champion ever in under 30 minutes in my first major. Hard to argue against that mental game.

The rest of the week was pretty brutal. I had 36 putts each day and finished dead last in putting, by 4 total putts! One other funny thing to show how bad my chipping and putting was…immediately after my first round 79 I was talking to Nick on the phone to laugh about my second shot on #2. He tells me, “well you hit one green more than Tiger.” Me “really, what did he shoot?” 68. I hit more greens than him and he beat me by 11.

As I have mentioned before I was a lunatic on the course back in the day. I was pretty frustrated and after pushing a 3 wood right on #10 I buried my 3 wood in the tee box like an idiot. The rules official with my group walked with me for a second after that and asked me questions like “you’re a mini-tour guy right?” I felt like he was kind of bagging on me for not playing well and being out of my league which was pissing me off. That’s when he said “just so you know if anybody else buried a club in the tee it would be $10,000 and your next one will be too.” To which I replied with, smiling, “if the USGA makes me file for bankruptcy it won’t look good for you.” He responded with his own wry smile “all that mud on your shirt doesn’t make you look good.” Fair enough.

Great read! Please post tour stories whenever you feel like it.

Thanks.

-FatLoser

solid brag sir.

Good read!
Hopefully you'll have another US Open in your future.

I've failed app. 8 times in qualifying for the US Open.
In '96, I needed 37 on the last 9 to go to Oakland Hills, shot 39
I was completely exhausted (mentally more than physicaly) from the 36 hole day.

My Jack moment came at the '85 US Amateur, where Gary was the youngest participant.
I'm playing a practice round behind him, and Jack is walking along with Gary (and chain smoking).
On the 18th, with the pin in the front, they move to the back of the green for some extra putting practice, and wave us up.
I flair one long and right, only 20 feet or so from where Jack is standing

When I get to the ball, Jack is standing in the right fringe, very near where I'd need to land the pitch to have any chance at holding the severely sloping green.
So I'm not gonna take another chance of hitting the GOAT, and take a straighter line to the hole.
My pithch is sorta duffed, lands in the fringe, barely trickles on the green, begins to roll, takes a slope, misses the hole by an inch going at a trickling pace. Continues down the hill, off the front of the green, and 10 yards back down the fairway.
I can feel my face flushing as I see Jack has turned and watched this.
Being the class act that he is, he not only relieves my embarrassment, but makes my week with a statement to me,
"That's as good as you could've hit it."

I just finished reading "Payne at Pinehurst"...an excellent book, and it included alot of history and background information about Pinehurst and how it came to be.

Very cool to know you were actually in that tournament...as after reading it, and knowing some of the information behind it, it could down as one of the greatest Opens in history.

Your description of the course being "brutal" lines up exactly with that the quoted players were saying. Heck, even the Europeans thought the course was too tough.

Awesome story man. I intend to play in the local qualifying next year if I can keep my handicap where it is or lower (at a 1.4 now, which I believe is right on the button for the limit). At this point odds of even making it to regional qualifying are about 1000-1, but I enjoy playing in tournaments.

Anybody with USGA experience knows the above actions are right in line with each and every official. They are brutal, and at times borderline unfair. LOL at all that mud on your shirt doesn't look good.

Excellent read. I assume you were paired with two other qualifiers? What kind of free crap did you get? And when did you get your $1k payment?

BO

Funny you mention the payment. One more story from Pinehurst...I was putting bad and I knew that the putter wasn't going to make a difference. Meaning the actual putter in my hands. As stated I was dead broke so I literally went from manufacturer to manufacturer around the green checking out putters and then casually dropping “so what’s your tee money?” knowing I was purely going with the high bidder. I came to Never Compromise which if memory serves was a newish company. I found a putter that resembles a Ping Anser and when he said it was $3500 for the week, well, ship it. Do you think paying the guy with the highest putt total $3500 is what got them on the map?

I played with Shaun Micheel and Tim Loustalot. I didn’t know it at the time but having played with Shaun is what wound up changing my life. Back to the testosterone discussion, Shaun is how I figured it out. I worked 100 hour weeks from 2002-2005 and then when the hurricanes messed up all energy pricing in 2005 I took about 6 months off from (Oct 2005-March 2006). I tried getting back into work but just couldn’t get any motivation and found myself bored and depressed. Then my little sister died from complications with a surgery in July 2006 and that is why I decided F it I’m going to go play the Main Event…who cares let’s try to have some fun with life. I didn’t do much the rest of the year and the day I decided I was miserable and needed to see a shrink I was reading a Men’s Health magazine. I came across an article on low testosterone and was skipping it until I saw a picture of Shaun Micheel in it. So I turned back and read it and as I was reading it the light bulb went off that was my problem. I went to my general practitioner the next day to get a T test and he told me I was wrong and he was just going to put me on Zoloft. I said why don’t we just run the test and he said no I’m putting you on an antidepressant. I told him to F off and run the test so he finally relented and my results came back that I had the T level of a 65 year old man…meaning I basically felt like a 65 year old man. I then went to an endocrinologist and got my treatment started. If it weren’t for randomly being paired with Shaun at the US Open I would have skipped that article and for sure been misdiagnosed and be on antidepressants instead of the correct medication. I’m not saying antidepressants are bad, it’s just that I get better results (remember I had to try the antidepressant route last year) and no side effects by correctly treating my symptoms. It really is the main reason I am so comfortable discussing it because I don’t want any of my friends to be misdiagnosed and mistreated. I really do think the percentage of men on antidepressants that really just have low T is very high. I also think that within the next 10 years hormone replacement therapy will be extremely common.

Hey Ship - Really enjoying the stories. Can you expand on what other types of things players get paid for using and how they get paid? I never realized that aside from a main equipment sponsor, there was money in all the other stuff (putters in the above story) as well. Fascinating stuff from a golf lover that will never be inside the ropes...

Zach

Ship...quick question...when you qualify for the open...do they charge any additional fees or is it simply the $200 or so you put up for the initial registration for the local, which is as far as I've ever gotten, lol.

I'm really not sure what the pay is now, I know it has gone down a ton in the last few years with the economy. I think a rookie a couple years ago would get 300k approx for all endorsements and now it might be 150k.
I really don't remember to be honest but I don't think the Open charges more. I know if you Monday for a Nationwide event it usually is another $100.

How difficult was it to obtain lodging at that late date and how did you go about it? Through the USGA?

BO

Great read, thanks.

The USGA’s suggestion list was over the top to say the least. The cheapest suggestion was the Microtel for I believe $400 a night. I was very lucky that an assistant at Gleneagles (home course) had just been transferred from Pinehurst #2…both are owned by ClubCorp. I called to see if he wanted to caddy because I knew he was going home for the Open. He said yes and was very excited. He called me later that day and told me that a condo his dad owned and had rented out was now available, the person cancelled last second. FREE. It was less than a mile from the course so obviously I took it.

Another great story from that week…tons of them keep coming back to me. I had me, girlfriend, mom & stepdad, dad, and Greg Gregory staying in the 3 bedroom condo. Well, 1999 was the year the Stars won the Stanley Cup (sorry Devils, thank you goals in the crease) and when we got to the condo the first time there was NO cable. No nothing. Obviously I wasn’t going to call my buddy and complain so I was planning on going without. I went to take a shower and when I came back the TV was on so I asked what happened. Greg says, laughing “I crawled under the house and spliced into the neighbors cable.” Ha ha…seriously what happened? Mom “Seriously, Greg crawled under the house and spliced into the neighbors cable.”

Another story about the condo…after the first round I was pretty disappointed/upset/verge of tears/verge of breaking something but I still went into the clubhouse to try and eat with the family and my mom came over and tried to console me. It put me on the edge of a solid frustration cry so I said I’ll see everyone at the condo and took off to walk home. If you’ve been there before I walked out the backdoor behind 18 green and took a right where you can cut across the other course (I think, it was hospitality and corporate tents) to a road. As I am walking down the road in full golf gear still (shoes, hat, logo shirt, pants, glove in back pocket) a car whizzes by and the people yell out “hey Arnold Palmer are you lost?!?!” I reply quickly with the finger and go F yourself and they slammed on the brakes in the road. Now I am thinking I am about to get my ass kicked to top the day off, sweet. They sat for a second and then kept going. Pfft, p*ssies.

This thread is even better than the q-school thread, imo. MOAR mini-tour stories!

A few questions: Did you not sign up for practice round with Tiger, et al. because you were intimidated? (Not saying that's not totally natural.) Do you think if you tried to sign up for that you would've been allowed to and do you think they would've let you join and been friendly or tried to push you to another group? (sorry for asking for total speculation but you know how golf fans are with anything to do with Tiger.)

What was the 1k that ntnbo was talking about?

Thanks for the reply. I didn't do a great job explaining the question...

What do you actually get paid for? Just having a putter in the bag? Are all clubs paid like that? e.g. Cleveland wedges get paid, Cameron putter gets paid, TM driver etc...?I just assumed whatever manufacturer was on the bag was the only one paying, and you were obligated to using most of their clubs (I think i read where you have to use 10 clubs). Are balls/shoes/gloves etc... all the same get paid to play for everyone, or are some players actually using what they like?

Thanks for the info, you are able to provide a level of insight most will never have...

Zach

I have played with him before, it has nothing to do with intimidation. It purely was a decision based on what I felt was best for my performance that week. The sign up sheet for the Open is different than a PGA Tour practice round. At the Open there is a tee sheet just like your home course. When I went through registration there was a blank spot with Tiger, O'Meara and Cook....had I put my name down I would have played with them for sure. Instead I passed and my buddy from the Golden Bear Tour, David Lebeck, took the spot. I played that day with Chad Campbell and Grant Masson instead...Chad and I traveled the Hooters Tour together at the time so we were both a little shell shocked and Grant and i grew up at the same course. Our dads caddied and it was a great day.

Great practice round story from an old roommate...he(Collin Stoops) was playing with Faldo at Shinnecock. On about the tenth hole he realized something odd going on. On every hole to that point he had missed the fairway and had kicked his ball into the fairway to practice from there...Faldo had hit every fairway and kicked his ball into the rough to practice. On the next hole he finally hit the fairway and kicked it into the rough. Faldo looked at him and said "now you're figuring it out".

There are a million combinations of ways to get paid. Titleist is usually a ball shoe glove deal and clubs are a separate deal. Nike is usually full line clubs and head to toe..they don't want a ton of logos on their guys. Taylor Made and addidas go hand in hand. It would be virtually impossible to answer the question without knowing what player we are talking about.

The 1k is a stipend from usga to all players. Really helps Tiger make the week work.

Well now we obviously need the "playing with tiger" story.

I have probably played 30-40 tournament rounds in USGA events over the last ten years and I have come to the conclusion that most of the USGA officials are a complete joke. There are some good ones, but for the most part they are arrogant as hell and they are all volunteers that will work one or two big amateur events each year so this is not what they do week in and week out. My point is they don't have as much experience as you would think but they act like they know everything and are never wrong if you question them. Their pace of play policies that they instituted over the last couple of years that they use for everything except the actual US Open tournament is ridiculous and unfair to say the least. At the last PubLinx I played at, our group was literally sprinting between shots the last couple of holes to avoid a penalty because we had to search for a lost ball on the 15th hole and we had been waiting on every shot up until that point. That being said there is nothing cooler for an amateur golfer than playing in USGA events.

The 29 that SHIP shot at the US Mid-Am at Milwaukee Country Club was freakish to say the least. That course was brutally tough in my opinion and I did not see anybody shooting that score on either nine in a million years.

Not to derail this thread but here's a quick Hogan story.
I played college golf at a small school in Fort Worth and we would often play Shady Oaks in our qualifying rounds. When you make the turn, you would walk by the grill room and Hogan would sometimes be sitting at his corner table having a cocktail or three. Well, our team carried Hogan golf bags at the time, and this caught his attention one day I guess. As our group got ready to tee off on ten I looked back and noticed Hogan walking toward the tee. He didn't say a word and stood behind the tee box waiting for us to hit. I was the first up and nervous as hell, not wanting to disappoint this legend while using his equipment. I hit the biggest motherfu***n low smotherhook you could ever imagine that went 30 yds OB into the driving range. Hogan promptly turned around and went back to his drink.

Oaklag,
Awesome Hogan story.

Ship,
Tiger story please.

Well that makes sense that he would promptly turn around... He's probably hit that same exact shot many times!

so many tiger fanboys in this thread.

Another awesome Ship this thread.

The guy that I just played with in the Pepsi event said he was sponsored by titleist and got 1200 per event (nationwide tour) from them. I'm not sure how it worked either, club ball shoes, although he basically had everything titleist...

**** Tiger, never tell that story unless he was a complete ******* who murdered puppies while ****ing gay hookers on the course