Ricky Arnett, 52, has found time in his busy schedule at the Austin, Texas club to play in the 2017 U.S. Senior Open at Salem Country Club in Peabody, Mass., from June 29 – July 2. A report in the Austin Statesmen draws parallels between Arnett’s story and golf film “Tin Cup.”
Ricky Arnett, 52, head golf pro of Great Hills Country Club in Austin, Texas, is a very busy man. Between giving private lessons, working with the private club’s 318 members and their families, repairing golf clubs, running the pro shop and setting up tournaments, he finds precious little time to spruce up his own game as he’d like, the Austin Statesman reported.
The weekend of June 24-25, he was in charge of Great Hills’ two-day, nine-hole scramble event for 62 players. But on Monday morning, June 26, he fit in a personal getaway to head off to play in the U.S. Senior Open, held June 29 – July 2 at Salem Country Club in Peabody, Mass. Arnett is competing in the pinnacle event of the PGA Champions Tour as he squares off against 155 other players, the Statesman reported. He started the tournament with a five-over-par 75 in the first round on Thursday, June 29.
“It’ll be funny if somebody asks me for my autograph,” Arnett said before the tournament began. “I’ll have to make sure my Sharpie pen in my pocket isn’t leaking.”
After flying to Massachusetts on Monday, June 26, Arnett planned to to get in a little chipping and play a couple of practice rounds leading up to his Thursday tee time for the four-day event, the Statesman reported.
Some might think Arnett is the square peg among all these well-rounded competitors. After all, he never played collegiate golf, rarely took a formal lesson and has spent the past 18 years as a club pro. Arnett is one of about 1,500 club pros in Texas and 23,000 nationwide who work long, hard hours. Twelve-hour days are the norm. Arnett estimates he had four days off in April and May, the Statesman reported.
When Arnett spent five semesters at Texas after transferring from Stephen F. Austin, he had a part-time gig in the Onion Creek bag room and worked as a Sheetrocker between semesters. It’s highly unusual for a club pro to reach such a majestic event as the Senior Open, the Statesman reported.
“Oh, my gosh, yes,” said General Manager Larry Harper. “It doesn’t happen often playing in such a major event. How many aquatic directors qualify for the Olympics in swimming? You don’t see that.”
Arnett is kind of a modern-day “Tin Cup” and, in fact, qualified for this year’s Open by scoring five birdies and only two bogeys for a 69 earlier this month on the same Deerwood Golf Club in Kingwood where Kevin Costner sent five balls to their wet graves in the pond fronting the 18th green. There’s even a big plaque on the actual No. 4 Deerwood fairway where that scene was shot for the 1996 film about a West Texas driving-range pro down on his luck, the Statesman reported.
The symbolism isn’t lost on Arnett, who, like Roy McAvoy, will show up unheralded despite a very strong short game and a reliable driver. He even has “Tin Cup”-like backing with his Lone Star Paving endorsement patch on the TaylorMade bag he’s carried since 1999. “Kinda like Roy had Krispy Kreme and First State Bank of Salome,” he said.
Arnett, too, has the support of a good woman in wife Shannon, a former TCU golfer who worked five years as Texas’ assistant golf coach and now is at Great Hills. She and their two children, Eric and Caroline, will be at a TCU baseball camp this week and will miss Dad’s chance at immortality, but Great Hills will be there in spirit, the Statesman reported.
When Arnett made the field for Salem Country Club, members at Great Hills held a fund-raising scramble to help him defray the costs of the trip, a separate report in Morning Read reported.
“It was pretty overwhelming, all the support I got,” Arnett said. “It was emotional for my wife and I. It feels good to feel appreciated. I love those guys. Best members in town. Hope they keep me there for a long time.”
Arnett wasn’t expecting to shoot a record-shattering 62, like McAvoy did in the second round to make the cut. He probably won’t “try the ol’ ricochet off the Port-O-Let with a hooded 7-iron” either, Morning Read reported.
“I think I can shoot a decent score,” he said. “It’s just a matter of not getting too far ahead of myself.”
While Arnett was ruminating about finishing up the 40 hours he needed for his UT diploma, 78-year-old Great Hills member Harriette Farley poked her head in Arnett’s office and said, “You should ditch Johnny as your caddie and get Bones.”
Arnett laughed and said he’ll stick with Johnny Fisher instead of signing up Jim “Bones” Mackay, Phil Mickelson’s former caddie of 25 years. After all, Fisher is family—his father-in-law, no less. And he hauled around Arnett’s clubs at the 2012 National Club Pro event, in which Arnett finished 60th in a field of 312, the Statesman reported.
“Me and Rory McIlroy are about the same size,” Arnett joked. “That was the size of golfers when I was growing up. You’ve still got your monster athletes like Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka. Brooks hits his 2-iron where my driver goes. I swing it so slow, it’s easy to have a good short game.”
Of course, it gets a little more serious this week, the Statesman reported.
“Obviously you go up there with the idea you can compete against the guys who play full time,” Arnett said. “But this is my first USGA event.”
“He’s got a better chance of winning than getting a raise,” joked Harper.
“That’s good to know,” Arnett says, “because I’ve got a lesson appointment with Mrs. Smith at 9 a.m. next Tuesday.”
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