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SILVIS, ILL. – Before nearly beating the world’s best golfer at last year’s PGA Championship, Woody Austin was a master of intergalactic warfare.
In the mid-1980s, no one on the University of Miami golf team could navigate a spaceship and destroy alien invaders in the arcade game Galaga as well as Austin.
“He’d get crowds,” said former teammate Nathaniel Crosby, the 1981 U.S. Amateur champion. “People would gather because he could make a quarter last an hour. He was one of the best.”
The same could be said about pingpong, pool and just about anything involving a stick and ball. Austin was a Little League all-star in Tampa, Fla., his highlight a hard-hit single up the middle off future Cy Young Award winner Dwight Gooden. Austin still competes in softball and basketball leagues at home in Derby, Kan.
“He’s what we call in South Africa ‘an all-arounder,’ ” said former PGA Tour player Ronnie McCann, Austin’s college roommate. “He’s good at everything.”
His impressive hand-eye coordination has helped him become one of the world’s best ballstrikers. But substandard putting and career interruptions have left him dealing with the frustration of unfulfilled promise.
Last year’s PGA Championship, where he finished two shots behind Tiger Woods, gave Austin a taste of stardom. He was the only player to shoot par or better in all four rounds
at Southern Hills, earning him a seat in the interview room each day and a chance to reveal his refreshingly honest personality.
The finish also earned him the final automatic spot on the Presidents Cup team, setting the stage for the most high-profile moment of his career.
But he’s not going to hide his disappointment.
“I can’t help but think (the PGA) was a great tournament,” Austin said, “but it’s still not what I was hoping for. I feel I played well enough to win.”
It’s a feeling he’s used to. For players who make a living with their short games, each made par putt brings a sense of accomplishment. For a ballstriker such as Austin, many rounds are full of frustration as another birdie opportunity slides by the hole.
Austin made the most of his time in the spotlight at Southern Hills. While none of his 274 strokes may be remembered, the 7,500-plus words he spoke in front of the cameras and microphones are a different story.
Details of his rise from bank teller to Tour player. His desire to be known for more than unique shirt selection and a head-on collision with a putter. And, of course, the heavily criticized declaration that he outplayed Woods on a day the world No. 1 clipped him by seven shots.
Austin’s honesty gave his Q-rating a big boost. His endorsements have increased from two to eight during the past year.
“What you see now with Woody is what he’s always been,” said former Miami teammate Tom Hearn, who played the PGA Tour and is now a Nationwide Tour rules official. “He speaks his mind. He doesn’t hide his emotions.”
Austin, 44, returns to the PGA Championship Aug. 7-10 at Oakland Hills Country Club. The penal layout plays to his ballstriking prowess, but not to his putting. He held the first-round lead at the 1996 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills after a bogey-free 67, eventually tying for 23rd. This year, Austin is 19th on Tour in greens in regulation but is 166th in putts per GIR.
“That’s my style of course, where you’ve got to play really good,” Austin said. “I don’t really care for the diabolical greens, and that’s what eventually ran me (in ’96). I think I was tied for third with nine to play, then 21 putts the last nine holes and you’re down the road.”
The PGA also is the final week to earn points for the U.S. Ryder Cup team standings. Austin was 10th on the list after the British Open. His fans have created a Web site (woody4rydercup.com) to lobby for his inclusion on the team.
“(The Ryder Cup) would kind of put a cap on the career,” Austin said. “I can say I’m a multiple Tour winner; I’ve stayed out here a long time; I’ve played the Presidents Cup; I’ve been in the top 40 in the world rankings for a good part of this year. Not bad for a hacking bank teller.”
Austin has won three PGA Tour events, most recently at last year’s Stanford St. Jude Championship after a final-round 62. He won the 1995 Buick Open and beat out David Duval for that season’s Rookie of the Year honor.
But nothing will match the attention he received at last year’s Presidents Cup. He went 1-1-3, then became a YouTube sensation when he fell headfirst into a lake on the 14th hole of his four-ball match on the second day of competition.
Austin played along with the gag, sporting a snorkel mask during his singles match.
Forgotten is that he made birdie on the three holes after his plunge to help him and David Toms earn a halve against Trevor Immelman and Rory Sabbatini.
It’s another example of Austin striving to be taken seriously instead of being treated as
a sideshow.
“Is Woody an oddball?” his agent, Kevin Canning, said. “Absolutely not. He is the most sincere, honest, loyal guy I’ve ever met. The fact that he’s a really good dude is not portrayed.”
Austin isn’t afraid to share his opinion. After granting a 20-minute interview at the John Deere Classic, he turned to a reporter before entering TPC Deere Run’s clubhouse and said, “Don’t make me look too bad.”
He has been ridiculed for his colorful golf shirts. Video of him banging his head with a putter at Harbour Town in 1997 has gotten heavy rotation whenever he appears on the leaderboard.
But Austin is his own biggest critic. Earlier this year, he admitted to choking after blowing chances to win the Zurich Classic and Buick Open.
“We live in such an excuse-oriented society,” Austin said. “It’s OK to be politically correct, but it’s not OK to tell the truth. I tell the truth, and I get lambasted because, ‘You’re too hard on yourself.’ I’m the one who hits the shots. I’m the one who takes responsibility.”
He didn’t have a privileged childhood, learning the game on Babe Zaharias Golf Course, a short muni in Tampa where he once shot 57.
It took Austin eight years to make it to the Nationwide Tour after graduating from Miami in 1986. He finished 24th and 32nd on the money list in his first two years on Tour, but an improper eyeglass prescription sent his game into a downward spiral. He didn’t return to the top 50 in earnings until 2003. He had to play the Nationwide Tour in 1998 and make it through Q-School in 2002 to keep his PGA Tour card.
All that toil set the stage for one memorable week at Southern Hills. Even if it wasn’t up to his standards.
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Sean Martin is a Golfweek assistant editor. To reach him e-mail smartin@golfweek.com.
Posted: 8/4/2008
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