Maury Wills "A Genuine Superstar"

In this day of mega-buck athletes who seem to forget about the fans who pay their salaries the newly crowned Masters Champion, Bubba Watson, is a breath of fresh air.  He is a sincere gentleman who would not mind being called a role model. Congratulations Bubba!

          Even before the huge salaries that have permeated all major sports many superstars were not approachable or were somewhat aloof in dealing with fans. While attending school in Yuma, Arizona I was fortunate to meet some of the baseball players/coaches who were in town for spring training. The baseball complex and the Desert Hills Golf Course were adjacent facilities so when not practicing many of the baseball players and coaches spent their time playing golf. One beautiful spring afternoon in 1976 I was teeing it up on the first hole with two of my team mates when a gentleman raced up in a golf cart so fast that it slid sideways as he stopped. “Mind if I join you?” said the gentleman who did look a little familiar. Before we could even reply he was out of the cart with driver in one hand and his other hand extended for a handshake. “Hi, I’m Maury Wills.” Having grown up watching the Dodgers on television (OK …more listening on radio than television) I was speechless to have him standing in front of me. He oohed and awed at our tee shots and hit a nice single up the middle himself.  Wills stole 586 bases in his career, was a 7 time All Star and MVP of the 62 All Star game but on the golf course he was just another golfer trying to figure out how to get the ball in the hole. He was interested in our games and asked for swing advice as we played. About five holes in Wills looked at his watch and announced that he had to leave. “Are you guys playing tomorrow?” We told him we had a 2:00 time and only had three players. He said, “I will be there, 2:00, thanks for today.”  As you might have guessed from the start of this story 2:00 came and went and we teed of without Maury Wills. Our thrill of meeting a superstar was totally dashed by a broken promise. We played in silence and were approaching the third tee box when racing over the hill at breakneck speed came the unmistakable visage of Maury Wills. He slid to a stop. “Guys, I am so sorry, practice went a little bit over today!” “Sorry, sorry, sorry!” We teed it up together on the third hole and finished the round and 36 years later I still appreciate a 7 time MLB All Star who kept his word and sincerely cared about three 20 year old college golfers.

Bruce's Infamous Six-Putt

I have talked a little bit about the strength of the Twin Falls High School Golf Team and I have another story that relates to that period of time. As I started my Junior year of High School I had yet to qualify to play in a match (remember Dave Warner shot 26 to “steal” the fifth man spot when I was a Sophomore).  I had a very good summer between my Sophomore and Junior year as I qualified as one of two players in the state of Idaho to play in the National Youth Insurance Classic at Crestview Country Club in Wichita, Kansas. Somehow I made the cut and got to play one round with PGA Tour player Charlie Sifford and another round with PGA Tour player Ken Still. I remember that Charlie Sifford hit a ball out of bounds on a long par 4, hit a poor tee shot with his third shot and then holed a 2 iron for par. Through a clenched cigar he said, “That’s how it’s done son.” I played with Ken Still in the final round and I was somewhat in the hunt at least for a top ten finish. Unfortunately for me Mr. Still decided to try a new putter that day. I am pretty sure it was called the Flim Flam putter and Ken Still actually birdied the first 8 holes of the day as every putt he hit dove in the hole. Of course this attracted a gallery and a local news crew for the back nine and seeing as I had never even played a High School match this was a bit overwhelming for me. I choked like a dog on a chicken bone the final nine holes of the event and Ken still missed every putt on the back nine to shoot something like 28-40 for a 68. I recall that I had a 74 and an 80 in the championship rounds and records show that Bob Rosburg won the professional division of the competition with a 9-under-par 135, while Johnny Elam, a 17year-old from Wake Forest, N.C., took a one-stroke win in the junior division. Elam shot an opening round 71 for the best round of the championship followed by a 77 for a one stroke win over several players. I was competing on a national level with greater success than I had with my Twin Falls Bruin High School Team.

I couldn’t wait for the first high school qualifying as I was going to really put up some good numbers. The day arrived and I was ready. Hole number one, Par 5. A solid drive, a good five wood and a pitch to 3 feet above the hole. A putt, a putt, a putt, a putt, a putt, a putt.  I turned to ask my playing partners how many putts I had taken only to find Sonius, Packard and Duncan rolling on the ground laughing so hard they were crying. I am pretty sure that it was Dave Sonius who finally was able to talk. Bruce that was a si, si, si, six pu, pu, pu putt!!  Hoping to be famous for a low scoring average and I am stuck with the legend of the six putt. The next hole was a par three and I hit a nice shot about fifteen feet away and you guessed it…I three putted. I did one putt the next seven holes and salvage a score of three or four over par for the day but the six putt in the spring of 1973 will never be forgotten. If you ever have the chance to play Twin Falls Municipal Golf Course be careful of that first green. It is brutal.

Bruce and Don Meet Deane Beman

I was fortunate enough to be involved with the second event ever held on the Ben Hogan Tour (now the Nationwide Tour). The Ben Hogan Yuma Open in February of 1990 was the second event of a bold experiment instigated by PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman. The first year each of these events had a $100,000 purse sponsored by the Ben Hogan Company.  The idea was that the players who did not earn their cards at the finals of PGA Tour Qualifying School plus the players just outside the top 125 of the money list would provide strong fields to play in some smaller markets around the country.  One of the requirements to host a Ben Hogan tour event was that the host site could not be within 50 miles of an existing PGA Tour event.  With PGA tour events in Tucson, Phoenix and Las Vegas there were not many sites in Arizona or Southern Nevada that met the criteria.  Originally the event was scheduled at a course under construction in Laughlin, Nevada. Sometime around the middle of November 1989 I received a call from our PGA Section asking whether we had enough support in Yuma to put together a tour event and Pro-Am in just over two months. I responded that we could do it and although my golf course, Yuma Golf & Country Club seemed like the obvious choice for the event, I had a feeling that the whole community would get behind the event if it was held at Desert Hills Municipal Golf Course. Desert Hills is an excellent city course with a Convention Center and abundant parking adjacent to the course. With the backing of the City of Yuma we committed to an event that should have taken a full year to plan and by accepting the event we committed to providing the excellence expected by the PGA Tour operation. The Head Professional at Desert Hills, Don King, and I were invited to attend a planning meeting in Ponte Vedra, Florida the first week in December. We showed up at PGA Tour headquarters and I believe the meetings were held in a nearby Marriot Hotel. Each of approximately 30 events sent a team of two to four people for these meetings and there was a great deal of excitement as PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman opened the meeting by introducing Bob Dickson as Director of the Ben Hogan Tour. Dickson and Beman started with a detailed description of event organization and spent the last half hour before our first break talking about how prior to the cut the field tees off utilizing a “double tee start”. A double tee start sends players off the first and tenth tee in a morning and afternoon wave.  Feeling that the meetings were a little bit too serious, Don and I decided to test the sense of humor of Beman and Dickson. During the break we introduced ourselves and noted our circumstance of being only two weeks into the planning stage in Yuma. Don started off, “Mr. Beman, about the double tee start?” Beman said, “Yes, you have a question?” I stepped in and said, “ Will a double tee start work if we have only a nine hole golf course?” Both Dickson and Beman looked at each other in absolute speechless horror until Don and I both started giggling like schoolgirls.  I think Dickson had a better sense of humor than Beman, as he would at least speak to us throughout the rest of the meetings. I remember at the end of the meetings we played the TPC Sawgrass in a scramble and I was paired with Hall of Fame basketball coach Pat Summit who was representing the event from Tennessee.

We did not win and she was not happy about that (she always wins). In just two days I had upset the Commissioner of the PGA Tour, The Director of the Ben Hogan Tour and the All-Time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history. Fortunately the actual event was an absolute hit with great community involvement, great money raised for charity and a perfect execution of a “double tee start”.