Author: Head Nut

By John Barba, My Golf Spy

Ben Hogan has closed. And this time it looks as though it’s for good.

The Fort Worth-based descendant of the original company Ben Hogan himself started in 1953 let its entire workforce go last Friday and has ceased operations.

“I don’t know if it’s permanent,” Hogan CEO Scott White tells MyGolfSpy, “but I suspect it is.”

This latest twist in the Hogan story certainly looks like the final one. And the irony is that it has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the performance of the Ben Hogan Golf Equipment Co.

BEN HOGAN IS CLOSING: WHY?

“It really boils down to the fact that our majority shareholder, ExWorks Capital of Chicago, filed for bankruptcy in March,” says White. “So we weren’t getting any funding at all.”

ExWorks specialized in high-risk-high-reward investments but its portfolio took a major hit in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID.

“They funneled a lot of money into other areas of their portfolio,” says White, “but by March, the whole thing came crashing down.”

White spent much of the past four months searching for new investors. That proved difficult because Hogan didn’t actually own the brand. Perry Ellis owns it and licensed the name to the Hogan company in order to sell equipment.

As a result, Ellis pulled the licensee agreement two weeks ago. Once that happened, Hogan’s fate was pretty much sealed.

“Without a license, you can’t sell anything branded ‘Ben Hogan’,” says White.

THE BUMPY HOGAN HISTORY

As mentioned, the Ben Hogan Co. dates back to 1953 when Hogan declared he was going to make the finest golf clubs in the world. After false starts, scrapped inventory that wasn’t up to standards and an investor buyout, Hogan sold his company to AMF in 1960.

In the mid-1980s, the Hogan company changed hands twice in less than three years and was sold again in the early ’90s before winding up as part of the Spalding Golf stable in 1998. Callaway acquired the Hogan brand, along with Top-Flite, out of bankruptcy in 2003. Callaway sold Hogan-branded equipment for five years before mothballing the brand in 2008.

In 2012, Callaway sold the Hogan brand name to Perry Ellis.

Two years later, former Hogan executive Terry Koehler announced plans to resurrect Hogan-branded equipment as a licensee. That endeavor ended in bankruptcy by early 2017. Within a few months, however, Hogan came back again, this time as a direct-to-consumer brand.

According to White, this latest Hogan iteration had been growing annually at a 50-percent clip ever since and enjoyed its best year ever in 2021. The company still relied on ExWorks for investments in R&D, marketing and inventory.

“We had seasonality to deal with,” says White. “Our wallets would be fat and happy during the summer but, in the fall and winter when we needed to buy components for the following season, we’d need funding to get us through that period.”

Because of ExWorks’s struggles, Hogan hadn’t seen any of that money since 2020.

NO WHITE KNIGHTS

ExWorks, along with White, did try to find a new owner for Hogan to no avail. Since Hogan was a licensee and didn’t own the brand name, there was little to interest a new investor. That problem only became worse over the past two weeks once Perry Ellis pulled the license.

“Yeah, it’s their (Perry Ellis’) ball and bat,” says White. “They’ve done a nice job on the apparel side but the apparel world and golf equipment world are very different. They’ll have to figure out what, if anything, they want to do with the brand on the equipment side.”

White does insist if ExWorks had remained solvent, Hogan would still be going strong.

“If they had been able to invest at the levels they had planned, we’d be two or three times the size. But we were always on a really tight budget. We weren’t able to get Tour players like we wanted. We weren’t able to invest in golf balls and in other initiatives we had in our strategic plan.”

IS HOGAN DOWN FOR THE COUNT?

Is Ben Hogan closing down for good?

It would appear so.

For a company that has gotten up off the mat more times than Rocky Balboa, this has the look and feel of a TKO. As it stands now, Perry Ellis still owns the brand name. But, as we’ve seen twice now, it’s very difficult to make a go of it in the golf equipment game as a licensee.

“It would have to be a group of investors who see the value of the Ben Hogan brand in premium golf equipment,” says White. “They’d have to be ready to invest and ready to be patient. And those are two words that don’t usually go together in the same sentence.”

For many consumers, the news of Hogan’s demise will most likely register barely above the “who cares?” level on the Big Deal Meter. It was, after all, a small direct-to-consumer brand and hadn’t been a major factor in market share for nearly 20 years.

But it’s a sad coincidence that news of the Hogan shutdown came 25 years to the day that Mr. Hogan himself passed away on July 25, 1997, at the age of 84.

And for golfers who do care about the history of the game, the existence of the Ben Hogan Company was a connection to the game’s roots and to its soul.

This golf nut, for one, is saddened by the news as the man, the company, and the clubs are yet another important part of my golfing life which has now faded into the background. Hogan’s early struggles as a child and then as a young pro, followed by the tragic auto accident just when he reached the pinnacle of his profession are seared into my memory. I’ve read every book written about this great man, and for me, he embodies a golfer’s never-ending search for The Secret. He even sold a story to LIFE Magazine about having discovered The Secret, making Hogan – at least for me – the ultimate golf nut.

For added perspective about the history of the Ben Hogan Golf Equipment Company, click HERE to read a story written in 2018.

And for a special treat, check out this wonderful video of the Ben Hogan Golf Equipment commercials from the early nineties.

The Head Nut

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The split is widening between golf’s preeminent tour and the Saudi-backed startup, and the game is poorer for it. Bob Harig proposes how they could live together.

Bob Harig, Sports Illustrated

The acrimony continues, with peace seemingly a fleeting thought. The idea of any kind of common ground when it comes to the PGA Tour and LIV Golf seems impossible to imagine. Now.

But it’s clear that LIV Golf is not going away, as many expected. And as the LIV Golf Invitational gears up for its third event this week at Trump Bedminster in New Jersey, the rhetoric only will seemingly get worse, as the prospect exists for more players to defect.

Remember the Patrick Cantlay-Bryson DeChambeau duel at last year’s BMW Championship in the FedEx Cup playoffs? The six-hole sudden-death playoff won by Cantlay that helped propel him to the FedEx Cup title? Something like that can’t happen outside of the major championships now.

DeChambeau, just two years removed from his U.S. Open win at Winged Foot, made the move to LIV Golf and is no longer allowed to play in PGA Tour events. His choice. But the fact remains the sport is headed toward a fracture that those who are taking part in the new venture are willing to endure.

For some, that’s fine. Good riddance, they say. But the overall picture does not appear bright for the game. And the idea of coming together, however abhorrent that might seem to the PGA Tour leadership, might be necessary.

Rory McIlroy a few weeks ago wondered if it might be time for PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan to take a call from LIV commissioner Greg Norman. Jon Rahm said at the British Open he’s upset there might not be a way forward to LIV players to compete for Europe in the Ryder Cup. A prominent sports agent in Europe, Chubby Chandler, told INews in the UK that “they all have to get around a table and talk. They will have a massive problem otherwise.’’

With that in mind, how could some sort of meeting of the minds between the PGA Tour (and thus the DP World Tour) and LIV Golf work? There are no easy answers here. But it doesn’t take long to come up with an outline of ideas that could be the basis for something that sticks. Here goes:

1. Allow PGA Tour players (and DP World Tour) to compete in LIV events

Compromise is key and without it there is no chance for any of this to work. But for there to be a way forward between the two entities, there can’t be suspensions of PGA Tour players. They need to be able to compete on both circuits. The question: how?

Norman has said he believes that LIV Golf is “additive.’’ He continually has stated he’s not looking to replace the PGA Tour or even thwart players from players doing both. But if you are going to play 14 LIV events – the League concept going forward – it’s impossible to meet the PGA Tour’s minimum of 15 events for membership.

So here’s the compromise: LIV reduces its number of events to 10, and the PGA Tour lowers its minimum for those competing in LIV events to 10. That’s 20 events total, including the major championships, with obviously the ability to play more on the PGA Tour if desired.

2. LIV Golf would help subsidize PGA Tour purses

If you pass that first hurdle, those who compete in LIV events could still be PGA Tour members. And in exchange for the rights to get any PGA Tour member to sign on, LIV in turn could subsidize purses for the events played opposite LIV events. Let’s say $5 million per event, or a total of $50 million if there are 10 LIV events. If Saudi’s Public Investment Fund can afford huge signing bonuses to players, it can afford this rather paltry sum when the end game will help make LIV money in the long run. So this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, in theory, would get a $5 million boost, which would go a long way toward helping the rest of the membership not able to play in LIV events.

3. There would have to be some sort of TV agreement

This could obviously be a sticking point. And where compromise again would need to be in play. Would the 10 LIV events come under the PGA Tour’s television rights agreement? That is a complicated issue, and would likely mean the whole thing would need to be renegotiated. Not a simple task. If so, how would revenue be split? Most likely, LIV would want to make its own TV/streaming deal and cash in. But the way the Tour’s rules are written, it would require a fee for its own players to play on another circuit at the same time as its own events. The Tour owns a player’s media rights. In exchange for allowing players to compete in LIV events, the Tour would most certainly want some sort of financial return.

4. How is the PGA Tour helped by this arrangement?

It beats seeing a slow trickle of players – which is bound to happen the longer this plays out – head to LIV. And while you’d possibly be losing a majority of the top 50 players in the world to 10 LIV events, at least you’d have them for 10 of your own with the possibility of more. No matter what you think of this concept, it’s not great that Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka, among others, won’t be playing in the Players Championship in March.

5. The Schedule

The way LIV is set up now, five of its eight events this year are scheduled for after the FedEx Cup playoffs. That was not done randomly. LIV saw September and October as a good time to play a majority of its tournaments. There’s nothing to keep that from happening with a PGA Tour collaboration.

Let’s say they go with this hypothetical 10-and-10 model. LIV could potentially play once a month starting in February through July – a total of six events – and then leave four for September and October. Norman has said he is not interested in playing tournaments against legacy PGA Tour events, so a LIV player could still compete in the four majors, the Players, the Genesis, Arnold Palmer and Memorial. He’d need two more, which could consist of playoff events or others if not eligible. And if he falls behind in points, he’s got tournaments after the Open to try and earn a place in the playoffs.

6. The World Rankings

Ranking points would no longer be imperative for LIV events. With access to the PGA Tour, LIV players would benefit from earning points in those events. It would actually incentivize them to compete in more PGA Tour events if points are necessary. The LIV events, with their big purses and season-ending team championship would, in theory, be compelling enough.

7. A chance for success

If you are of the mindset that you don’t want LIV to succeed at all, that you hate the Saudi funding source, that you prefer the PGA Tour as it is now structured with no outside competition, then these ideas are not for you. And if the PGA Tour is of the same mindset, it can continue to do what it is doing by suspending all PGA Tour members and not allowing access to its tournament. And that is what could happen. But it would also face the risk of continually losing top players to the big money.

With some common ground, LIV’s 48-player fields with a good number of top players and the added team component might gain some traction among golf fans. It wouldn’t be every week, but a diversion from the regular PGA Tour grind for six months. And then something else to perhaps embrace after the FedEx playoffs. The majors would still be king, as would the Players and a majority of the favorite PGA Tour stops.

Those events that go up against LIV events would get enhanced purses and players competing in them an opportunity to gain ground on the LIV players, who would not be earning FedEx points. And perhaps those tournaments could be rotated.

It would also be helpful if the LIV events ended on Saturdays, thus giving the PGA Tour event opposite it a stage to itself on Sunday.

8. Last thing

If all of this happens, something for LIV to consider: drop the shotgun starts. Go to a two-tee start with eight groups of 3 each of the first two rounds, then go to twosomes of both tees on the final day. It’s still a condensed window of golf, which is one of the objectives. And far easier to follow.

Jim McCabe, Power Fades

When you earned the right to tee it up in a U.S. Open where the eventual champion was Jack Nicklaus; when you got picked up hitchhiking by none other than Byron Nelson who capped off the journey by offering a range session (true as it is, it’s a story for another day); and when you turned pro at the age of 57 not to play but to teach . . . well, you’re in possession of true golf soul and have the privilege to share perspective.

Bruce Chalas has felt the spirit of golf for more than 50 years — or at least he thought he had. Then he met Jordan Thomas and a host of other adaptive golfers.

Which is why Bruce Chalas’ text served as a reminder to the magic of golf.

“This tournament has people who will do anything to be able to play golf,” wrote the man whose passionate career in golf includes 14 appearances in U.S Golf Association tournaments and more than 20 years coaching collegians.

“It’s a fantastic sight to see. All these players love golf.”

Deep breath, wide smile, warm torrents.

The inaugural U.S. Adaptive Open in Chalas’ adopted home of Pinehurst, N.C., overwhelmed him and when he extended an invitation to speak with a participant, Jordan Thomas, the timing could not have been more perfect.

If ever we needed to hear the story of a man whose foundation boasts this simple mission – “Every kid deserves access to what they need to be a kid.” – it is at this moment in golf time.

The victim of a boating accident at age 16 in which both his legs were amputated below the knees, Jordan Thomas figures he never spent a minute feeling sorry for himself because barely out of surgery he was consumed with another train of thought.

“It never occurred to me as even a possibility that I’d never play golf again. I knew I was going to have access.”

Feeling blessed to be the son of doctors – Liz and Vic Thomas are neonatal physicians in Nashville – “I knew I had the luxury and access to (prostheses),” said Jordan. “I figured I’d go to the store and pick out a pair.”

Eventually, he did, but as he recovered in a Miami hospital back in 2005, Thomas discovered that his legs would cost about $20,000. Bit of a shock, but then came the outrage. He learned that prostheses are deemed “not medically necessary” by insurance companies in many states.

“So, many children who need the prostheses (for different functions like running or golf or swimming) cannot get them. I was furious. It was unacceptable to me. It didn’t make sense. What can be more ‘medically necessary’ than a kid being able to play games?”

The genesis of the Jordan Thomas Foundation (jordanthomasfoundation.org) was hatched while he was still in that Miami hospital. When he was missing two legs! And he was just 16!

Digest that, folks, then appreciate with total awe.

The fact that 17 years later Jordan Thomas is still an advocate for children and families living with limb losses and for insurance fairness. The Jason Thomas Foundation currently sponsors 83 children in 20 states and three countries and his goal remains unchanged from the days when he sat in that hospital room. “I want to do something long-lasting and impactful.”

A berth in the inaugural U.S. Adaptive Open was never in his crystal ball, but when the USGA unveiled plans for this unique event, Thomas was like so many others who love golf and play it despite disabilities that make it incredibly challenging.

“I’m just so thrilled and proud of what the USGA has done,” said Thomas, who is competing as one of seven men in the multiple limb amputee flight. “I never envisioned I’d ever be in a USGA championship.”

He’s in the field at Pinehurst first and foremost because of a relentless spirit. He’s there because of great parents, wonderful doctors, and a supporting cast of friends and foundation supporters. But Jordan Thomas is also there because a huge majority of people in the golf community are intensely committed to widening the playing fields, opening up avenues for diversity and inclusion, and avidly pushing agendas proclaiming that the game belongs to all.

“We get hung up watching the greatest players in the world,” said Thomas. “But it’s such a broad, vast universe and I salute the USGA for (doing this).”

In advance of his trip to Pinehurst, a mutual friend suggested Thomas look up Bruce Chalas, explaining that he’s one of those golfers who walks the walk; he loves golf and has a passion to bring more people into the game. Spot on, Thomas has learned, and they’ve hit it off beautifully.

But as much as Thomas has enjoyed the pressure of competitive golf (with rounds of 76-74 he is well in front in his flight) for the first time since junior golf, Chalas has reveled in the sights, the sounds, the emotions of these inspiring group of golfers.

“I spoke with Ken Green for a while (Monday),” said Chalas, referring to the five-time PGA Tour player from Connecticut who lost his right leg in an RV accident in 2009 that also killed his brother, his girlfriend, and his dog.

“He just wants to play golf every day.”

If Chalas sounds inspired, he is. But guess what, so is Thomas, who concedes that he looks around the range and sees the vision impaired, the intellectual impaired, the seated players “and I watch them in awe,” he said. “They have to have so much resiliency, so much perseverance.”

They also have a love of the game that is equal to, or possibly surpasses, yours and mine. That is the greatest aspect to this U.S. Adaptive Open and it is the takeaway that Thomas will embrace. “I’m not competing for money and I won’t be able to,” he said. “But I compete because of the relationships created. It’s why I love the game.”

Many thanks to fellow Golf Nut Jan Beljan for sharing this story with us. – HN

By Jim Whittemore, Certified Golf Nut #1746

Greg Norman’s efforts are vengeful and disruptive. His attempt to start a world tour in 1993 was summarily dismissed by Tim Finchem, then Commissioner of the PGA TOUR. However, the TOUR later created the World Golf Championships.  Norman saw this as kidnapping his concept.  A World Tour/Championships was his idea.   He was livid that Finchem was now, conceptually, doing what he had originally proposed. 

In 1993 – 30 years ago, Norman was at the top of the heap.  The guy was ranked number one in the world for 330 weeks in the 80’s and 90’s.  In 1986 he was leading all four majors after 54 holes.  He won one of them – The Open.  He won the Vardon Trophy three times, was number one on the money list three times and was inducted into the WGHOF in 2001.  Through the ‘80’s and early ‘90’s it was all Greg Norman.   He could do no wrong.  The problem is he believed it.  And he continued to be worshipped in Australia with numerous awards and accolades.  His ego grew as big as his shadow in the setting sun.

I believe he has been simmering for years searching for a way to get back at the TOUR.  He feels wronged.  And he wants to get even.  He found a way to do it with the Saudi’s. This is all about evening the score and he will not stop until the professional game is completely disrupted.  One former PGA TOUR player described it to me as a hijacking.  In his mind he is on a roll and nothing will stop him.  Public opinion and reputation be damned.  I am bullet proof.

The problem is – he’s not.  I do not foresee his 54-hole events earning OWGR points. His fields are too small.  OWGR requires a minimum of 75 players.  The Team concept might work in soccer or cricket but not in golf.  Golf is a singular sport.  The only team golf event of any consequence is the Ryder Cup.  The Presidents Cup (created to include non-UK and Asian/Australian players, etc.) runs a distant second in public interest and ratings.  Speaking of which, without a broadcast package – cable or network – LIV golf will not gain any traction.  Period.  I have sold broadcast and cable golf events for 30 years.  It won’t happen.  How many people in the 18-34 demo even know who Greg Norman is?  And the internet is hardly the answer.  The metrics and demos are not there.  Nothing to sell.

If Greg wants LIV golf to be a viable professional golf tour with a worldwide presence, he needs to drop his sword and his shield and sit down with Monahan and Pelley and hammer out a deal. But he doesn’t think he has to.  He has called and they haven’t picked up.  So, his attitude is – screw ‘em.  I tried.   The more LIV entices players away from the PGA and DP World Tours – the deeper the wounds will grow and the harder it will be to form any alliance. So until that time in some far off world, players will continue to follow the money and leave their honor, their conscience and their reputations on the side of the road in shreds.  Worldwide alliance?  That’s a pipe dream.  Greg Norman has never been in a business venture where he does not have control.  And Monahan and Pelley will relinquish nothing.

So here we are.  Standoff.

And to think there have only been two LIV tournaments thus far.  Buckle up.

Thanks, #1746, for an insider’s view of the LIV Golf controversy and its long-term ramifications. – The Head Nut

Here you go…

Click HERE for the details…

And here’s a fun story about someone who did just that…

I’m incredibly jealous…

The Head Nut

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Golf Nuts,

A short video message to all LIV Golf Tour players. This is why the greats play the game. It has nothing at all to do with money…

And here is the accompanying story…Tiger Woods Understood That Friday’s British Open Ovation Could Mark an End

The Head Nut

#0001

By Dave Wells (#2803), Our Reigning Golf Nut of the Year

The Old Course at St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland, is the special place where the wonderful game of golf got started in the early 1400s….. this is the golf trip of all golf trips. When you land in Scotland, you have reached your ultimate dream of golfing with the history of the game, plus I might add that the Scottish people are some of the nicest, friendliest folks on earth.

Nancy and I actually planned our Scottish golf trip around the 1994 British Open which was at the Turnberry Ailsa Championship Golf Course that year with the Winner of the Open Championship being Nick Price.

And then we had the opportunity to play several Scottish golf courses including Nairn, Royal Dornoch, Carnoustie, and the Old and New St. Andrews Golf Links, so as this special golf trip began, Nairn Golf Course was the first stop…the Walker Cup and Curtis Cup have been played at Nairn in northeast Scotland, and to this day, some 20 years later, we still exchange Christmas Cards with our caddy and good friend, Mr. Walter Frazier of Nairn, Scotland….golf is such a special game of bringing friends together not for a round or two, but for a lifetime. Walter still reminds me of the excitement created by my Albatross on the Par 5 Number 10 hole at Nairn…that would be a 2 on the Par 5…a memory forever.

Then on to Royal Dornoch in northern Scotland, and again with Walter and his son…WOW, what a  great links golf course, as good as it gets…Donald Ross was the club’s head greenskeeper and Golf Pro before he immigrated to the United States as one of the greatest golf architects. Many of his designs, most notably Pinehurst # 2, bear the hallmark of Royal Dornoch’s greens.

Royal Dornoch is the third oldest golf course behind St. Andrews and Leith and is always considered to be in the Top 100 Golf Courses in the world…some golfers hit their Driver on all 18 holes at Royal Dornoch.

When you tee it up at Royal Dornoch, it is an experience of a life time….some 4 hours north of Glasgow, and well worth the trip.

Next up, Carnoustie Golf Course, the home of many British Opens and by the seashore in Angus, Scotland…..the history of Carnoustie is one of the best, and the Par  4 6th hole at Carnoustie is still referred to as ‘Hogan’s Alley’ with Ben Hogan winning the British Open there in 1953.

From Carnoustie to St. Andrews and ‘The Old Course’ where the game of golf started….when you tee it up on Number 1, your nerves just might get the best of you. Nancy and I were playing with a couple from Austin, Texas…nice folks, good golfers named Sharon & Travis….when Travis worked his way to the first tee, his swing took his golf ball left through the famous 18th fairway to the souvenir shops across the street…..he said, “What do I do now?” I said, ”I think you’re OB….Hit another ball quickly”, which he did, and away we went on # 1 at the St. Andrews Old Course…our golfing history in the making.

I hit a Driver and then a 6 Iron in the middle of the green on the Par 4 First Hole, and Nancy hit a nice drive, then laid up on the burn (creek) in front of the green….chipped over the burn and knocked in a 30 foot putt for a par….and I three putted for a bogey. Isn’t golf a great game? And the putter can certainly be the winner as Nancy went on to par #1 & #2 on The Old Course. What a beautiful day as we progressed around that famous golf course, putting sometimes from 20 yards off the green.

Several holes share the same green (7 double greens) and the players on the highest numbered golf hole have the right to complete the hole first…for example 7 & 11 with golfers on # 11 completing the hole first…also, notice that all shared greens, and there are several, add up to ’18’ as in 18 holes……and some sand traps where you absolutely have to go sideways to get out….you cannot elevate the ball going toward the hole… what a challenging golf course, and then, when you get to the road hole, # 17, stay left, stay left, and stay left some more.

Then, for the famous 18th hole, and after you hit your tee shot and cross the Swilcan Bridge, your round at St. Andrews will go into your memory bank as one of the best golfing experiences in your life….and then on into the Niblick Restaurant & Bar for refreshments and relive those beautiful golfing adventures in Scotland, a golfing place like no other.

Golf at St. Andrews is the best, and the Cadets or Caddies as Mary, Queen of Scots named them in the 16th century, will be leading the best golfers in the world around this links course at the 2022 ‘Open Championship’ in July, the final major of the year.

Jack Nicklaus said on finishing his career at St. Andrews in 2005, “I’m very sentimental, and the place gets to me every time I go there. St. Andrews was always where I wanted to finish my career.”

OK, Golf Nuts, can you name the golfer who owns this perfect swing…?

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I see no good reason to give this guy any swing advice. His swing reminds me a lot of Jack’s solid upright action that delivered 18 majors for the Golden Bear.

The Head Nut

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Mary Bea Porter-King is a much-needed reminder that golf has heroes

Jim McCabe, Power Fades

Should selflessness and golf be two cherished components to the world in which you live, then these are turbulent times. Depressing, perhaps. Definitely sad. Greed is running rampant, which stinks, but we can handle that. It’s the disingenuity that sickens us.

What to do? A few deep breaths are highly recommended. Then wrap your emotions around a role model who embodies all that is wonderful about living life to help others and having a pure passion for golf that has never been corrupted.

May I suggest Mary Bea Porter-King. Her life story, her continued dignity, her sense of proper life structure. All of it inspires, but any mention of this marvelous woman begs for a flashback to that March day in 1988 when Mary Bea reacted to a badly-played golf shot in a way that still captivates our attention.

She ignored her ball, which was well off the fairway, and instead went rushing when she saw a 3-year-old boy floating in a swimming pool on property abutting Moon Valley CC in Phoenix. With help from her caddie, Porter was up and over a 6-foot fence and within seconds was helping revive a young boy by the name of Jonathan Smucker.

Stop the story there and Mary Bea Porter-King is a hero. She saved another person’s life, an overwhelmingly impactful reality when you consider it was a 3-year-old child who would have died had it not been for her selflessness.

But there is much more to her story, including what in tarnation Porter-King was even doing at Moon Valley that day. At 38 she was no longer exempt on the LPGA, but the passion for competition led her to that qualifier for the Samaritan Turquoise Classic in Phoenix, where she lived. (A year later she moved to Hawaii and Kaua‘i has been home ever since.)

“She was trying to balance playing and being a mom to a young son on the road,” said Dottie Pepper, who was a 23-year-old rookie on the LPGA in 1988. “She had the motor home, child, dogs – all of it.”

Pepper remembers being in the locker room that day when the incredible life-saving incident took place. She had already been befriended by Porter-King and clearly Pepper was in awe of what her fellow professional had done.

But there is so much more as to why Pepper looks at Porter-King as “a role model in so many ways.”

There have been all those years of looking at the big picture and creating ways for others to enjoy golf, the incomparable manner in which she helped build an impressive junior golf program in Hawaii, no easy feat when you consider that you’re navigating four islands for “state-wide” tournaments. Her volunteer work with the U.S. Golf Association, being a board member with the PGA of America, running national tournaments like the upcoming Ladies National Golf Association Amateur Championship in St. Louis, and serving as one of two officials overseeing Team USA’s participation in the hugely popular Palmer Cup, a team tournament that just concluded in Geneva, Switzerland.

Substantial and quantitative, all of her contributions back to golf, and at 72, Mary Bea Porter-King is more passionate, more influential, and more needed than ever. She truly is helping to “grow the game,” which is why her thoughts matter when it comes to what is going on in this LIV business.

No surprise, she is saddened.

“I read something about how these players will promote the game,” said Porter-King. “Are you kidding? How is this better for the game? They are brain-washing them, giving them talking points.”

They are also giving them gobs and gobs of money, which would be fine and good if players conceded they were in it for the money. They don’t. They hide behind this silliness about “growing the game” and Porter-King, speaking for herself and for so many colleagues who truly pour efforts into golf at the grassroots level, is offended.

To Porter-King, who lives on Kaua‘i with her husband, Charlie, the rewards for her efforts have always been gained by the way in which Hawaii junior golfers have used the game to great benefit. Michelle Wie is well known, of course, and Kimberly Kim won a U.S. Women’s Amateur, but Porter-King is equally proud of Allisen Corpuz, a rookie on the LPGA, and Dr. Miki Ueoka, who attended Kaua‘i High School, then starred at the UCal-Santa Barbara and is an internal medicine specialist in Honolulu.

“These girls loved to play, they got educations,” said Porter-King. “I’m always running into someone who learned to play in our program and it’s so rewarding to see their success.

“Golf is a gift that was given to me and it’s an honor to give it back.”

There is a “relentless resilience” within Porter-King, said Pepper. “She’s the standard for doing things the right way.”

Anyone who has had the pleasure to meet Porter-King would wholeheartedly agree.

Thirty-four years ago, Porter-King did things in a heroic way and while it was over-the-top inspirational the day she saved Smucker’s life, the story has only been enriched through the years by the special bond they share.

“He’s now 38 and has four children,” said Porter-King. “But in 2019, before COVID and when there were only three children, I flew Jonathan and his wife to Kaua‘i for a vacation. It was so much fun. He’s a wonderful young man.”

Porter-King laughs.

“Crazy story, I know. But it’s the best bad shot I ever hit.” Fortunately for golf, she has been on target ever since.

God Bless Mary Bea Porter-King. She has her priorities in order. – The Head Nut