Senior Open to feature "Party Crashers"
Story By: Jordan Mason
Source: KOAA
Rocco Mediate, ranked 158th in the world golf rankings, qualified for the U.S. Open through a sectional qualifier in June. And you know the rest. If not for a guy named Tiger Woods, Rocco would have completed the Cinderella story at Torrey Pines.
And that's just one example of what makes the U.S. Open special. In a sport where exclusivity reigns supreme, the non-VIP's can crash the party, and the same is true with the U.S. Senior Open.
“It makes opens unique, in that a nobody from small town USA can do some great things,” said John Olive.
The Colorado Springs resident and former Air Force basketball player, Olive, competed for a U.S. Senior Open spot a few weeks ago in Parker.
He qualified for the 2000 U.S. Senior Open and made the cut.
“That was a real highlight in my golf life for me, so it was a lot of fun,” said Olive.
The 62-year old Olive just missed the cut this time, but he did win a playoff to become the second alternate at the Broadmoor.
Fifty-year old Pueblo Country Club pro David Dame shot a 76, which was good enough to qualify early on.
“The waiting is worse than the playing,” said Dame.
But when more scores came in, he was knocked out of the field. He eventually played in that same playoff with Olive, but Dame didn't make the cut as an alternate.
“Most of my experience is in running these events, rather than playing in them,” said Dame.
The first-year senior, Dame, has plenty of sectional tourneys to play in before he catches up to Olive, who now can count 12 times qualifying. And he'll always remember what happened in 2000.
“When I was at the U.S. Open, they assign lockers alphabetically,” said Olive. “I didn't realize that and so when I showed up, in my alcove, the first locker was Jack Nicklaus, then my locker, the next locker was Arnold Palmer, and then the last locker in the alcove was Gary Player. You're just kind of pinching yourself to start with and then when you look around and see who you're rubbing shoulders with, it's a real honor.”
Former CC hockey player Dave Delich, who we featured last week, qualified for the U.S. Senior Open.
The U.S. Senior Open is July 31st through August 3rd on the historic Broadmoor East Course.
