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Following in the footsteps of his grandfather, a 1978 World Professional Putter's Association world champ, 20-year old Rusty Taylor participated in a national tournament held last weekend in Fredericksburg.
Daryl Freeman (above) shows the concentration it takes to be successful on the Professional Putters Association tour. Freeman |
Into the clown's mouth! Hurray!
Stuck in the windmill! Aw, shucks!
Hole in one on No. 18! Free game!
Uh or not?
To most people, a round of miniature golf is a chance to relax and goof off in a noncompetitive, family environment.
It's like that for professional putters, too--only take away the relaxation and family, then toss in a triple helping of stomach-churning, white-knuckle competition.
"We like to have fun as much as anybody, but we came here to play Putt-Putt first," said Randy Reeves, who drove from Montgomery, Ala., to Fredericksburg for last weekend's Professional Putters Association National Invitational.
He wasn't kidding. Nor was he alone.
Reeves is part of an established subculture within the Putt-Putt community, touring professionals who have taken what was once exclusively a kid's game--remember those catchy "Putt-Putt for the fun of it" commercials?--and turned it into something resembling serious business.
Not that there's much money in it. The total purse for Fredericksburg's two-day competition was $12,000, relatively high by PPA standards but still only enough to send the winner, Mike Brown, home to Pennsylvania with a nice trophy and check for $1,500.
"If you're in this for the money, you're in the wrong sport," said Rick Rybaczek, a good-natured fellow from Greensboro, N.C. "Very few people out here are ever going to make a profit."
While you may find it easy to scoff at the notion of somebody trying to make real Benjamins playing Putt-Putt, these guys don't seem to get the joke.
The Pro Putters Association has its own Web site (www.proputters.com), on which you can find tournament information, player biographies, news updates and messages concerning the Pros Players Committee and National Players Advisory Board.
The players also look the part of professionals, from the stylish golf shirts, slacks and PPA logo Strata golf balls to the shoes--soft spikes, of course--in which they stalk carpeted fairways from Virginia to Texas.
No, it isn't the PGA Tour. It is Putt-Putt.
But these guys are good.
Sometimes, ridiculously good.
"It's just like any other sport," said pro Andy Coradini, who hails from Loganville, Ga. "It's all about repetition. You have to put in the practice time to be sure about your shots."
Coradini, Reeves and most of the other pros arrived in Fredericksburg last Wednesday. They practiced six to eight hours Thursday and Friday, then played four rounds Saturday and four more Sunday.
And yet, they still couldn't touch Brown. The only player on tour who doesn't work a full-time job, Brown already had played six state-level tournaments and 10 practice rounds at the Fredericksburg facility prior to last weekend's event.
"It gives you a lot of confidence," Brown said of the extra preparation. "You know you can make the shots because you've made them before."
Every hole on a sanctioned Putt-Putt course plays to a par of 2. Par for 18 holes is 36; over an eight-round tournament like the one played last weekend in Fredericksburg, par is 288.
Brown was a little off his game on Saturday, when he shot "only" 37-under-par 107 over four rounds and was four strokes out of the lead. He turned it on Sunday, however, shooting rounds of 23-24-23-25 to finish the tournament with a total of 202 putts.
Brown's score of 86-under meant that he made nearly 11 holes-in-one per 18 holes played during the tournament. And he only won the event by four strokes over playing partner Lewis Burton.
"It's funny how momentum works out here," said Richmond's Vince Batten. "One minute you can't make anything, the next you're making everything in sight."
On the back nine during one of Sunday's rounds, Batten made eight consecutive aces and just missed a perfect score when his putt on No. 18 lipped out.
Rybaczek, playing with Batten, would later make eight holes-in-one in a 10-hole stretch--punctuating each with a spirited fist pump not quite reminiscent of Tiger Woods.
Watching Rybaczek's pure joy and genuine emotion, you could almost understand why someone would want to spend half the year traveling to different Putt-Putt tournaments. The pursuit of such preposterous perfection, however, comes with a price.
Rybaczek, who played well enough Saturday to earn a spot in Sunday's final threesome for the first time in his career, was so stressed out his hands were shaking 10 minutes before he played his first hole. Batten, another highly regarded tour veteran, admitted that he, too, was feeling the heat after leading at the halfway mark.
Judging by the disgusted scowls and muttered epithets coming from their fellow competitors out on the course, Rybaczek and Batten weren't alone in the Maalox moment.
"It's not about the money, it's the competition," Rybaczek said, when asked why grown men would subject themselves to such stress. "Everybody out here wants to win."
Alas, it was not meant to be. Rybaczek, who started the day in third place, wound up 14th. His share of the purse, roughly $250, would be barely enough to cover his expenses.
But as he slid out of his golf shoes and dumped his gear into the back of a white Chevy Astro van, he noted with satisfaction one reality by which every professional Putt-Putter lives:
There's always next week.
