Pro AMs

[Carl3]

I searched for "Pro Am" and nothing came up so I thought I would start one on pro am experiences. Last year I got to play a couple of holes with  Miguel Angel Jimenez at the CC at Muirfield (not to be confused with Muirfield Village GC across the street). While we warmed up he was sitting on the clubhouse patio smoking a cigar while his wife had a glass of wine. He put on a clinic for maybe 30 to 40 of us before heading out to the course. He then went on and made is way through the group playing two holes with each foursome. His wife drove his golf cart. He was entertaining and helped us read some putts. He had some amazing shoes, which you won't see on a shelf at Golf Galaxy or Dick's.

A month or so ago I played with Gary Hallberg who is on the Champions Tour in a Pro Am leading up to the Mitsubishi Classic. He had forgotten his driver head at the hotel as he took it off and put it in his suitcase before getting on the plane. He took 3W off the tees and it was great seeing a pro swing up close and see the ball flight. The tempo, the crisp crack of club meeting ball and the resultant flight was an awesome experience. He took some time afterwards in the clubhouse to chat with us. His son is trying to make a go of it. I did some research on Gary and he was a veritable HS superstar and went on to Wake Forest and was the Division 1 individual medalist in the 1979 NCAA championship. He was also rookie of the year on the PGA tour in 1980.

I am sure you all have some better stories than mine, so lets hear them.

[iacas]

FWIW three letter words aren’t indexed.

Thank you for the stories.

[umuddafadda]

I, for one, would like to inquire on a Pro-Am that might be inexpensive/fun to play in? I once asked /checked about the Pro-Am (sept I believe) on euro tour. It was 9K euro's *but* you got 3 days play in.

Olde Course/Kings Barns/Carnoustie courses, all within 45 min's of one another.  To me, that'd be memorable but I didn't get in, perhaps I'm a nobody & they want bigger fish to fry.

 

Any inputs?

[NoName]

Great story, Carl ! Thanks for sharing. Would love to hear some more myself. 

 

Will, hopefully, be attending a Pro Event here in the near future. Am curious to see just how good these guys are in person. Plus, I think It'd be a lot of fun. 

[beaureed445]

I've never played in a Pro-Am, but I got this story from a client of mine.....  He and a friend played in a Pro-Am at Kapalua in the early 2000's.  They were paired up with Singh and Weir.  On a par-3, the two amateurs hit, then the pros.  Vijay puts one to about 10' and Weir puts it to about 8'.  Vijay looks at Weir and asks to borrow his 9 iron, then proceeds to turn around and stick one inside of Weir.  He then tells them all "sometimes, when I'm bored, I practice left-handed."  

[bkuehn1952]

In 2002 I played in a Futures Tour event Pro-Am (essentially the LPGA's version of the Web.com Tour). To place it in time, the winner of the event was Lorena Ochoa.  Our pro was Miriam Nagl (I can hear the collective "who?").  Miriam actually made it to the LPGA and stuck around for a couple years.  Injuries have taken their toll on her career.  She played for Brazil in the 2016 Olympics (she holds Brazilian and German passports, I believe).

At the first par 5, I kidded her by saying "Long drive for a buck?" and she replied "We are on!".  We had our little competition on each par 5.  Going to the last par 5 I was down $3.00.  I hit my best drive of the round and gave her the needle.  Not wanting to let this old guy win back one of his dollars, she probably put a bit too much into her attempt and flared a relatively weak drive short of mine and in the rough.  Victory for the old guy!!  I had her sign the dollar she gave me and told her to go out and become famous so I could sell the souvenir and retire.  Sigh, I suspect the dollar is still worth just a dollar (less inflation).

Edited May 23, 2018 by bkuehn1952

[Friz]

@carl3

I don't want to highjack your topic but I'm curious how a PGA pro performed at the CC @ Muirfield?  As a kid I grew up living on this course, my house backed up to the 8th tee...I don't recall anyone famous playing there when I lived there although as a kid I may have just been oblivious, but am curious how it compared difficulty-wise for a professional compared to something like Muirfield Village

[Carl3]

4 hours ago, Friz said:

I'm curious how a PGA pro performed at the CC @ Muirfield?

Well I only played two par 4's with Miguel. He had a par and a bogey. He hit a drive into a lateral water hazard, dropped a ball, hit on and two putted. My sense is that he was just having fun, not concentrating too much, didn't know the course, but probably shot roughly par from the intermediate tees. He wasn't out to impress us with his score, but we all admired his 280 yard drives and his nice iron play. It would be interesting to see some pros play a money game in front of a small crowd on a 6,500 yard course with a 125 slope.

[RandyBobbitt]

I played in a mini-tour pro-am event in Florida back in the 1980s. This was before the PGA had its own mini-tour (then called the Hogan Tour); this was just a regional thing. Our pro was a rookie just out of college. I was a 6-handicap and shot 80. He only beat me by a shot, so I don't think his chances of making it on the tour were very good. But it was a fun round with a nice kid.