golfrewind.com

Roger Chapman is teeing up in his 600 th European Tour event,with winnings over $5 million.

When he was 14 , I told him to stop mucking about with golf and concentrate on his cricket as he had a lot of potential. He would have plenty of time to play golf when he was too old to play cricket .(To our Amercian readers ,cricket is English game like baseball)

Fortunately , he treated my advice with the contempt it deserved.

Anyone else remember giving advice to a current pro ,for which they are suitably ridiculed?

I told Mike Weir he wouldn't amount to anything as a lefty, and to switch

I told a guy named Earl Woods to get that tennis racket out of his 2 yr old son's hands. I told him golf was the future. Hmmm, I wonder what happened to that kid

I saw Ben Crenshaw as a freshman at the University of Texas, thought that his erratic driver would hurt him in the long run: NCAA champion, a couple of dozen tour wins, two Masters later... man, could he putt.

As a Sr in High School I watched Phil Mickleson beat me by about 8 shots in 9 holes, including a couple of chip-ins. He was about 3 under and was probably 5 over. Afterward I told him he should also take up Cricket or anything other than golf.

A high school classmate of mine recently won a Canadian Tour event. I was watching Golf Channel when I heard a familiar name. I knew he played Division I golf and played some Mini Tour events so I figured it was my classmate they were talking about. Kelly Tighlman had some good things to say about his game so that was interesting to hear.

I know a guy trying to make it on tour(playing some mini's right now), so hopefully I'll know someone when and if he makes it...Maybe jc could introduce me to some of his "Tour buddies..." Man, that guy is well connected!

I know I've mentioned this before, but I went to school and played a couple of times with Fred Funk. Never gave him any golf advice, he was a legend amongst the golfers in our school back then... there weren't many of us back in the early 70s. He was already regularly breaking par at this par 31 cow pasture where we used to play. He was also the "jumper" on my paper route and I did talk him into dropping my papers at my house instead of the corner a half block away.

http://www.pgatour.com/story/8396422

This is the same Roger Chapman I told to forget golf.

He was in the top 3 % at school and would have gone to any top university on academic ability. He beat Hal Sutton in the Walker Cup.

I have competed against a few players that have made the Masters, and a few that are now on the Nationwide Tour.

A few years ago, I was in the US Mid-Amateur qualifying, and Austin Eaton was in the group behind (he played in this year's Masters). I remember on a short par four, I hit a very good tee shot (for me), leaving me about 60 yards to the hole. As we were walking off the green, Eaton hits his drive pin high. He is scary long.