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Editor's Last Word
A Cup filled with memories
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Paul Ramsdell
Editor |
For Al Mengert, a legend in Northwest golf both as an amateur and a pro, getting a close-up view of the Ryder Cup this fall was
bittersweet.
Being a guest of the host course, Oakland Hills Country Club, where he spent 13 years as the head golf professional, and representing
the club on the first tee when the matches were introduced was truly an honor.
Meanwhile, watching the uninspired American team was disappointing for the member of the Pacific Northwest Golf Association's Hall of
Fame, whose crest he wore proudly on his blazer during the week.
"It was a wonderful time for me, bad for our team, but wonderful for me to see it," Mengert said from his home in Carefree, Ariz.
Mengert, 75, still well known for winning a dramatic 40-hole match in the 1950 PNGA Men's Amateur, says he might now have a spot in
the Ryder Cup history books, even though he's witnessed just the 1947 matches in Portland, and then the matches this year outside
Detroit.
"Ironically, it (1947) was Great Britain's worst defeat, and here I attend the next one and it's the U.S.'s worst defeat," Mengert
said of the 57-year gap. "I think I'll have that trivia record for a long time."
Mengert grew up an amateur golf sensation in Spokane. Later he was the head pro at Tacoma Country & Golf Club, and then at Oakland
Hills from 1974-87.
"After 18 years of not being back to the place, that the club would honor me in that way was kind of special," Mengert said.
"One other great honor I had was I got to represent the club on the first tee on Sunday for the singles matches," he said.
It gave him a first-hand look at the players, especially the Americans who were dealt an 18.5-9.5 defeat.
"They didn't have the fire in their eyes that you saw in the other team. I think for the other team it was like the World Series,
and if they go back as victors of the Ryder Cup it's something they can live with all winter," Mengert said.
"The U.S. team, as I saw it, they looked like it was just another week of golf," he said.
Ken Still, a member of the U.S. team in the 1969 Ryder Cup, remembered that his week of golf at Royal Birkdale, playing for captain
Sam Snead, was anything but another week of golf.
"When they played the national anthem, most of us were commenting later how our hearts were beating stronger than ever," said Still,
who clearly remembers how a poor club selection cost him a match.
Still, who played in an era when the matches didn't garner as much publicity, when the players weren't paid, and when travel wasn't
in private jets, didn't see the same sort of intensity displayed by the Americans this year as he did 35 years ago.
"They couldn't motivate themselves to the extent they had to to win the Ryder Cup," said Still, of Fircrest Golf Club.
"The most disappointing thing I had in the thing was Chris Riley saying he was too tired to play with Tiger Woods after they had just
won 4 & 3, that upset me," Still said.
Mengert said he wasn't thrilled with the pairing of Woods and Phil Mickelson.
"You never put two players with huge egos together, it just doesn't work."
Mengert's opinion on another matter was finally proven correct, some 25 years later.
"Twenty-five years ago, practically to the month, I hosted the PGA there in '79," said Mengert, also at Oakland Hills for a U.S. Open
and a U.S. Senior Open.
Mengert told of an idea he presented to the PGA of America 25 years ago.
"'Gentlemen, we can put corporate tents down on the driving range there and you could get substantial income from that.' They turned me
down," Mengert said. "It was interesting for me to go down to the driving range this time, and it was called Hogan's Village, and there
were 20 corporate tents there that rented for $200,000 for the week. I got a smile and a good feeling about it that my thoughts were
right on 25 years ago."
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