Cape Region Pro-Files
May 22, 2009
You should always seize the chance to play a round of golf with an accomplished professional golfer.
I acted on that bit of advice recently, when Jim Hutchins invited me to play with 2004 Senior British Open Chamption Pete Oakley in the Skee Reigel Pro-Am tournament, held May 13 at Cape May National Golf Club near Cape May, New Jersey.
I joined Oakley, his professional golfer son Zac, Dr. Lynn Walsh, Hutchins, and other friends of Oakley at the Lewes terminal of the Cape May-Lewes Ferry. We caught up a bit since our last face-to-face meeting, and also chatted for a while about his ongoing career on the European Senior Tour.
Oakley just returned from his most recent Tour event, the Son Gual Mallorca Senior Open. He finished 73-72-71-216, ten strokes back of winner Mark James, and in a tie for 25th place.
“That golf course was not designed for me,” Oakley laughed. “It was long as hell, and every green was mounded. If you were short, it would roll back, and if you were long there was no way it would stay on the green.”
Oakley used his most recent event to explain how a typical tournament week goes by. “You make your plane and hotel reservations a month and a half in advance. We stayed in a German hotel. The tournament people provide vans to bring you from the airport to the hotel, and then to the course.”
“We got there Monday, and spent most of the day resting to recover from jet lag. On Tuesday we play a practice round, and then we have pro-am rounds on Wednesday and Thursday. You make a commitment to play at least one pro-am. I played Wednesday. On Thursday I played nine holes, and rested,” Oakley said. “This tour is all walking—there are no carts.”
“On Friday I played my first round, with Sergio Garcia’s daddy.” For those who don’t know, Sergio is one of the most popular pros on the European and PGA Tours. However, Garcia’s play has been noticeably off lately.
Oakley said Daddy Garcia had an explanation. “His father was talking during the round, shaking his head, ‘Sergio no play good. He has girl problems.”
His father’s play wasn’t up to snuff either that day, as he shot an 81.
Oakley was pleased with his 73. “The weather was perfect, but the golf course was brutal. If the wind had blown there would have been a lot more scores in the 80s. The leader shot 68, so I kept it close.”
In the second round, Oakley played with Des Smyth and Peter Mitchell. Oakley continued his steady play, and finished the round in 72.
As he prepared for his final round, Oakley recalled the advice he’d been reading in “The Fifteenth Club,” a new book by Bob Rotella. “I was making sure I was applying what the book said, for example making sure you line up properly before each shot. I did, and got it to 5-under for the first twelve holes.”
Oakley continued, “I had a bogey on 17, and as I was making my approach shot to the 18th, I was distracted by the crowd a little bit. I should have stopped, and aimed a little more left than I did, but I didn’t. The ball landed on the fringe of the green, on the right. It backed up and rolled down into the water. I ended up with a 7, so I earned about $4,000 instead of the $9,000 I could have made if I had just re-set and started over.”
At the end of the round, Oakley gathered up his stuff, returned to the hotel, and left the next morning for Philadelphia and the Reigel event. The Tour folks wired his winnings to an account, and that was it.
Apparently Oakley learned from that recent experience. At Cape May National, he made his 18th hole-in-one of his professional career, with a dead-straight five-iron shot on the 184-yard par-3 seventh hole.
Nice lesson, eh?
In an upcoming column, we’ll discuss what it’s like to play Cape May National, only a short ferry ride from our Cape Region. It’s well worth the ride, if you’re good enough.