Playing in the PGA Championship at 61, golf teacher’s biggest lesson is the power of perseverance
Associated PressLOUISVILLE, Ky. — At first glance, it’s easy to pick out the most unlikely entrant in golf’s second major of the year. “It got to the point where I just didn’t like the game at all,” Phillips said in explaining his long, winding road to a Thursday tee time at Valhalla, which included a 20-year break from competitive golf during what would have been his prime. “The next person I played with who was doing the same kind of stuff with a wedge in their hand was Seve” Ballesteros, said longtime PGA Tour veteran Scott Verplank, an OSU teammate of Phillips. Among those he credits are a friend named Billy Ray Young who “didn’t call himself a sports psychologist but really is;” and another Tulsa-area club pro, Vince Bizik, who got him involved in some friendly, high-level Monday games that helped Phillips rediscover the kind of player he could really be after some two decades in the wilderness. “As a teacher, I’m leery of saying, ‘This guy read this magazine article or this guy watches these videos and it helped him a lot,’” Phillips said.
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