Thank You Wally U (cont.)

...come by. 

On top of the need to find a place to practice and play we had to furnish our own equipment and pay the entry fees the mini-tours required. Add to this living and travel expenses and one discovers that trying to become a playing professional the mini-tour route is a hard way to go. There are no guarantees. You are playing for your own money. Now that’s pressure, standing over a 6 ft. slider to make last money.

Every once in a while though a blessing came through. And those blessings are the point of this story.

In 1980 I was playing in a North Florida Winter Tour Event at Spruce Creek GC in New Smyrna Beach Florida. I was paired with Scott DeCandia, the newly-crowned national long-drive champion (in those days the long-drive was brand new). Somehow we just hit it off personally and we both played pretty well that day so a bond formed for us. Scott was beginning to experience the fun of being paid for doing outings and exhibitions capitalizing on his status as long-drive champ. Sometimes life can be good.

Noticing my standard black golf-bag which I had purchased on close-out before moving to Florida, Scott asked me from whom I was getting equipment. I told him “from whatever pro shop has close-outs”. Scott then did something for me that meant a LOT to someone trying to believe in himself as a developing professional golfer. He told me he could get me a bag and some balls from his sponsor; Titleist.

I couldn’t believe it. Someone actually could help me out. That hadn’t happened before for me in golf. My parents did not support my efforts in golf. My wife did support the effort but she was in Columbus Ohio with the kids. I had been having to pay for everything before this. And since I was down there with my own money Scott’s offer was just what I needed. 

So he gave me a name. And that name was Wally Uihlein.

I got my first staff bag from the now President and CEO of Titleist!

Now Wally was not the president of Titleist back then. I don’t really know what his position was at that time. And my call to him was “out of the blue”. He didn’t know me or what I was capable of. On the basis of Scott’s recommendation and with exceptional graciousness Wally sent me a full-size Titleist staff bag, a travel cover and 6 dozen low-trajectory Titleist 100's. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. INSTANT STATUS had been given to me. I was on top of the world.

Now when I showed up at a mini-tour event guys would look at me much the same way as I had looked at others who had staff bags. We thought “wow, that guy must be good, he’s got a staff bag”. Back then most people who bought their own staff bags had their names painted on locally to make it seem like they had a staff bag. The “real” staff bags usually had vinyl letters pressed into their bags with heat. You could tell the difference. Now I had the real thing.

And the balls. Wow, the balls. Can you imagine how great it was having new balls that I didn’t have to pay for? It meant being able play practice rounds with new balls. It meant there was something for which I didn’t have to pay full-price. I finally got some help.

So I want to take opportunity to send this very belated THANK YOU to Wally Uihlein.

Thank you for helping a struggling mini-tour pro to find some confidence and self-esteem. Thank you for making me feel like I belonged in some measure. Thank you for giving me the equipment I needed to continue my effort at making the Tour.

In the end I was not able to make a living at professional golf. I made some checks but there wasn’t enough money in mini-tour golf to keep going unless you were finishing in the top-3 (especially if you have a wife and two kids). There still isn’t. But for 14 months I can say I tried. I tried to make a living as a professional golfer and it was both a dream-come-true and a valuable life-experience. Better to have ventured and lost than never to have ventured at all. I didn’t want to be an old man saying “I coulda’ been something”. At least I can say I tried.

So thanks Wally for being a significant part of one of the best times of my life even though you never knew it.

Jeff Guimont
ProGolfTalk.com
Copyright 2-10-01

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