It’s how golfers everywhere hang on to hope. That feeling your game is one good swing away from turning a corner, or that the latest tip is going to be the one that changes everything, whether you’re a 25-handicapper or a touring pro.
Mark McCormick was searching. Digging deep, really, as the 60-year-old Middletown resident made his way around Suburban Golf Club in Union, where he’s the head pro, on a Sunday night last month, two days before the local qualifier for the US Senior Open.
“I was playing really bad,” he said. “That night I played with (assistant pro) Paul (Lejuene) and for six holes I was six over, and I was just like I have to go play a few more holes. I have to find something.”
He came up with buried treasure.
McCormick will be in this week’s field at SentryWorld Golf Club in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, taking on the top 50-and-over players on the planet, after grabbing one of four spots up for grabs at Arcola Country Club in Paramus on May 23.
“I’ve been hitting it good ever since,” he said.
And if it is one of the final chapters in a career that has seen him compete in the 2012 US Open and the 2017 Senior Open, then McCormick, the 2008 NJ Open champ is making the most of it.
His son Ryan will be there early in the week before heading down to suburban Chicago for this week’s event on the PGA Tour’s Korn Ferry Tour, where he’s a regular, joining McCormick, his wife, Linda, son Mark, who works for the USGA, and caddy, Mike Schneider.
“It’s going to be really cool,” he said.
The 72-hole championship will be televised on Golf Channel (12-3 pm, 6-8 pm Thursday and Friday; 2-6 pm Saturday and Sunday).
Sudden tower
So what happened?
How did McCormick suddenly flip the switch, even though he admittedly isn’t playing or practicing nearly enough?
“I’ve worked a lot with Chris O’Connell, who is Matt Kuchar’s teacher,” McCormick said. “One of our members got a lesson from him way back in 2016 at Friar’s Head, which is where Chris is during the summer, and I videoed part of the lesson. So I always watch it every once in a while, but I could never wrap my head around it. Watched it a thousand times.
“That Sunday night I was reaching for anything. I was like, ‘This thing has got to work. This guy is one of the best teachers in the world, he’s teaching it to one of my members. It’s got to work.’ And I just started giving it a whirl and it just clicked all of a sudden. I was like ‘Oh my God, I know what this guy is trying to say. I understand it’
Clearly, McCormick’s competitive fire still burns bright.
Part of that stems from watching Ryan grind it out on a weekly basis, with the 31-year-old, a former NJ Amateur winner who was a Big East champion at St. John’s, having spent the better part of the last decade traveling the globe in his quest to reach the PGA Tour.
“He stays on top of me, which is good. It keeps me working on my game,” Mark McCormick said. “I still try to in my own little way inspire him a little bit by still competing. It’s something we can share. He’s competing, I’m competing, so we can talk about all that stuff. So it’s still fun for me.
“Once in a while he’ll come home if he has a week off or a friend is getting married, and maybe we’ll play nine holes at Suburban or something like that, so we only get to play together once in a while, But I recently put a simulator in our family room so when he comes home sometimes we work with that little bit.”
Strong finish
Not with McCormick this week is long-time caddy Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez, the original E Street Band drummer who had been toting McCormick’s bag since his days as a young assistant pro at Hollywood in Ocean Township.
“He really wants to do it, and he’s willing, but the body isn’t listening anymore,” McCormick said.
While McCormick will clearly be soaking in the experience this week – he’s the only New Jersey-based club pro in the field of 156 – he wouldn’t mind playing well.
He did not make the cut at the 2012 US Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, or at the 2017 US Senior Open at Salem Country Club in Peabody, Massachusetts. But that’s always the goal.
“These are special moments for players,” he added. “I have always kind of held the USGA events in higher regard, for whatever reason. And so yeah, I think it’s just going to be special. And I’m like ‘damn, I’m 60 and still competing.’ That is kind of cool.”
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Middletown NJ golf pro takes on world’s best at US Senior Open