Hurricane Sally leaves mark on Ted Scott’s family

You can count Pat Perez out of the kale-and-crunches revolution. The defending champion at this week’s OHL Classic at Mayakoba much prefers the comforts of his couch and the TV remote, and at 41 he’s not part of the PGA TOUR’s youth movement, either. Having made it to his first TOUR Championship at East Lake at the end of last season, when players in their 20s won a record 28 times, Perez was asked where he fits in. “I’m the old guy,â€� he said, drawing laughter. No one was laughing, though, when on Oct. 15 he won the CIMB Classic at TPC Kuala Lumpur, giving him two wins in a span of less than 12 months. The old guy had won by four strokes, and he’s not the only graybeard who is just now hitting his stride. Perhaps inspired by New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who’s yet to show any signs of a drop-off even after turning 40 this summer, the Fab 40s on the PGA TOUR are enjoying a mini-moment. Perez will enter his title defense at Mayakoba as the current FedExCup points leader. Charley Hoffman made his first Presidents Cup team at age 40 after being selected as a Captain’s Pick by U.S. Team Captain Steve Stricker. The other Captain’s Pick was 47-year-old Phil Mickelson, who extended his streak of having played in every Presidents Cup. Two weeks after Perez’ win, Ryan Armour — also 41 and the most accurate driver on TOUR last season (72.7 percent) — won for the first time in 105 starts at the Sanderson Farms Championship. That same day, 41-year-old Henrik Stenson – who won the 2016 Open Championship at age 40 – tied for second at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions. Meanwhile, Paul Casey, 40, is playing the most consistent golf of his career. In his last 11 starts, he’s finished inside the top 20 10 times, including three top-5s in the FedExCup Playoffs. Last week, Tiger Woods, 41, announced he will return to competition at the Hero World Challenge later this month. As for Perez, not only is he the defending champ this week at Mayakoba, he’s the current FedExCup points leader. Five other 40-somethings are inside the top 20 – Armour (9), Alex Cejka (13), Stenson (T-15), Mickelson (18) and Casey (20). As Casey joked this summer, “Apparently life begins at 40.â€� Not that any of this has come easily. In fact, you might say it’s been a long time coming. On a Talk of the TOUR podcast last week with host John Swantek, Armour noted that he had no place to play as recently as 2013. Then he made a few simple but crucial adjustments, starting with a healthy living pledge. “My wife was just like, ‘OK, listen, we’re going to go forward with this,’â€� Armour said. “‘We’re going to eat better, we’re going to exercise more, we’re just going to be healthy individuals, and no matter what happens with the golf, we’ll always have that.’â€� Armour also abandoned his misguided efforts to get longer. Instead, he changed shafts to bolster his brand of precision golf, then finished T4 at the Wyndham Championship in August, his first top-10 in more than a decade. (Incidentally, the tournament was won by the 41-year-old Stenson). A runner-up at the Web.com Tour’s Nationwide Children’s Hospitals Championship secured Armour’s TOUR card for this season, and at the Sanderson Farms, he became the eighth player since 1970 to get his first win at 41 or older. OLDEST FIRST-TIME WINNERS (SINCE 1970) Woods has won 79 TOUR titles, second-highest total of all time behind Sam Snead’s 82. Of course, none of those have been since he’s turned 40 (he’ll turn 42 on Dec. 30). Given his shaky health the last few years while undergoing a series of back surgeries, there’s no guarantee he’ll be able to add to that total. On the flip side, there is certainly hope he can continue his chase of not only Snead’s win total, but Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors. Nicklaus, Snead, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Lee Trevino all won major titles after turning 40 – Nicklaus and Hogan, in fact, won three majors each after 40. Since 2011, the Open Championship has been won by 40-somethings four times — Stenson in 2016, Mickelson in 2013, Els in 2012 and Darren Clarke in 2011. Asked last week about Woods, Els urged patience in light of the 14-time major winner’s back problems, but added, “If we can do it, he can certainly do it.â€� Legendary range rat Vijay Singh has the most wins by a player in his 40s since 1970, with 22. Kenny Perry is in second place with 11, and Steve Stricker won nine times. Perez, Armour and Woods would love to emulate any of them, and Perez is clearly off to the best start. Given truth serum, though, all three would probably take Fred Funk’s 40s. The likeable, straight-hitting Funk won five of his eight TOUR titles after turning 40, including THE PLAYERS Championship in 2005, when he was 48. He played in the Ryder Cup that year and made the 2003 and 2005 U.S. Presidents Cup teams at ages 47 and 49, respectively. “I got comfortable in my own skin,â€� says Funk, now 61 and the father of an aspiring TOUR pro, former Texas golfer Taylor Funk. “I was determined to work hard and see how good I could do.â€� Funk had good role models when it came to work. His mother, Ruby, ran a labor-intensive custom drape-making business. His older brother, Bernie, worked hard at jobs ranging from the fire department to the civil air patrol. Fred got his first job as a paper boy when he was 8. He later worked as a newspaper delivery driver and the University of Maryland golf coach. By the time he got out on TOUR, Funk was in his early 30s, and when he kept progressing into his 40s, he was keen to make up for lost time. “Whereas a lot of the guys my age, they’d come straight out on TOUR after college,â€� he said, “and they were maybe burnt out.â€� Not Funk. He kept at it. As for Perez, he’s a harder worker than he lets on. “I’m such a different person than I was 17 years ago, even like five years ago,â€� Perez said after winning the CIMB. “I’m learning how to play the game and learning how to play my own game and stay within myself and that kind of stuff. I’m a late bloomer.â€� Just as dogged persistence can fuel successful 40-somethings, so, too, can a change of heart. Jay Haas, who wanted to be active on TOUR upon the arrival of his son Bill, rededicated himself to the game and racked up eight top-10 finishes in 2003 at 49, when he made his second Presidents Cup team. With eight more top-10s in 2004, Haas made his fourth Ryder Cup team at age 50. “Jay is an example of a change of mindset,â€� Funk says. “Because when he reignited his drive, he went to a level that he was never at before and made those teams. He flipped a switch.â€� Kenny Perry also rededicated himself late, with the goal of making the 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup team that would face Europe at Valhalla, in Perry’s beloved home state of Kentucky. The results were astounding: Perry won three times on TOUR at age 47, getting to 14 victories so suddenly he began to talk about reaching 20. (He ended with 14.) “I guess 47 is now the new 30,â€� Perry said at the time. His turnaround spoke to his focused work but after winning the 2008 John Deere Classic, his third victory in seven weeks, he cited guile, too. Asked if a 27-year-old Perry would have won that day at TPC Deere Run, he gave an emphatic no. “I wouldn’t have had the nerves to handle all that,â€� Perry said. “Knowing my golf swing was out of sync and out of kilter. I knew my putter was so good. I knew if I get it on that green, I would have a chance to make a putt. I couldn’t have won like that 20 years ago.â€� Jack Nicklaus won the Masters at 46. Two months later Raymond Floyd, 43, won the U.S. Open, the last of his four majors. Mark O’Meara won the 2008 Masters and The Open at 41, going from a nice player (and a Pebble Beach specialist) to a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Last week Rod Pampling returned to the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas, where he was the defending champion after breaking through the year before at 47. Asked about winning during a season that was dominated by players in their 20s, Pampling called it the beauty of golf. “We might not feature as often as the young guys do,â€� he added, “but when we’re there, we have a chance. We know how to win, so the experience comes rushing back. So the key is just when it comes, you know, we’re prepared for that and we can, hopefully, take advantage of it — which we did last year.â€� This week’s stop at El Camaleon Golf Course, a roughly 7,000-yard par 71 Greg Norman design that wends through mangrove jungles, limestone canals and oceanfront stretches of sand, seems particularly 40s-friendly. It’s even 50s-friendly. Funk won there in 2007 when he was 51. Perez, whose second win ties him with Mickelson and Stenson for most victories by players 40 or older since 2013, won’t have to think back too far if he gets into contention. Neither will Armour, whose Sanderson Farms win was the 20th by players in their 40s in that time span. The two recent winners will both play Mayakoba. Hoffman will be in Mexico, too, as will D.A. Points, 40, who won the Puerto Rico Open last season. Take note, Tiger. Being “the old guyâ€� isn’t a bad business these days.

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It's been 17 years since Olympia Fields last hosted an event on the PGA TOUR schedule. The Chicago gem was the site of the 2003 U.S. Open won by Jim Furyk, and a small handful of players in that field that week — including Tiger Woods — will make a return visit at this week's BMW Championship. RELATED: FedExCup standings | The First Look Other players have more recent familiarity with the course, thanks to the 2015 U.S. Amateur won by Bryson DeChambeau, who entered the FedExCup Playoffs inside the top 10 in the FedExCup standings. So did Collin Morikawa and Jon Rahm, two others who played at Olympia Fields five years ago. In looking for one word to describe Olympia Fields, "big" likely would be the first choice. But maybe that word isn't strong enough. As golf historian Herbert Warren Wind once wrote, "Bigger and better went up all over the country. But Olympia Fields was the daddy of them all." To get you acquainted with Olympia Fields, here are nine things to know: 1. Four courses Olympia Fields founder Charles Beach had plenty of land on which to build his new private golf club. So much land - nearly 700 acres - that 18 holes would look lost on the property. As would 36 holes. And 54 holes. Thus, Beach decided to make Olympia Fields the first private club in America to offer its members 72 distinctive holes spread over four courses. The first course, designed by Tom Bendelow, opened in 1916. Two years later, another course opened, this one designed by William Watson. Bendelow and Watson collaborated on the third course, opened in 1920. Then came the big finish - a course along the northern edge of the property designed by famed Scottish golf architect Willie Park Jr. opened in 1922. It's Park's North Course that hosts this week's BMW Championship. "He was first hired in 1919 by the club to review and modify the first three courses, concentrating on No. 3," wrote Tim Cronin, author of "Golf Under the Clock Tower." "Park spent four days and came up with improvements for all three. The minutes aren't specific but the presumption is that the board like his work so much, they hired him for No. 4." Park, a two-time Open champion, eventually spent 40 days on property to oversee Olympia Fields' signature course. It was one of his last designs - and one of his best. "I am satisfied now that your Number IV Course is the equal of any golf course I have ever seen," Park once wrote, "and I know of none that is superior, either in beauty or natural terrain." The four courses not only offered members plenty of variety, it also created a unique challenge. On Sept. 27, 1938, J. Smith Ferebee reportedly played all four courses ... twice. No word on his score for the 144 holes that day. After World War II, Olympia Fields faced some economic hardships and sold off half of its land, keeping the No. 4 course intact while creating a composite South course from holes used on the other three courses. Despite the reduction to 36 holes, the clubhouse grill retains its original name: the 73rd Hole. 2. Huge clubhouse Chicago architect George Croll Nimmons excelled in big buildings. In 1904, he and partner William Fellows were selected to design a new warehouse and distribution center for Sears, Roebuck and Co. on the city's West Side. In just 12 months, the project was completed, with nearly a million square feet of floor space, along with an office building that extended half a block. It was considered the "largest mercantile plant in the world" as well as the biggest architectural project in Chicago to that point. So it's no surprise that when Nimmons received the commission to design the clubhouse to service Olympia Fields's four courses two decades later, he had big plans. The result? An 110,000 square foot clubhouse - the largest private golf clubhouse in the world (a more recent reference put the square footage closer to 200,000). A dining room that could seat 800; a café that could seat 600. A 22,000 square foot men's locker room. The clubhouse even had its own hospital and fire station. The cost? Approximately $1.3 million. Sounds quaint today, but a significant total back then. After two years of construction, the clubhouse officially opened with a dedication ceremony and banquet on May 16, 1925. Although a steady drizzle impacted the golfers that afternoon, it didn't dampen the festivities. Three dance bands played that night, with nearly 1,400 in attendance. "There was a dinner and guests made merry," wrote the Chicago Tribune's Morrow Krum, who described the clubhouse as "one of the most beautiful in the country." 3. The clock tower The signature element of Nimmons' clubhouse is the 80-foot clock tower. Thanks to its four faces, each golfer was assured of seeing the clock from the No. 1 tee box on each of the four courses. Erosion through the years eventually forced the club to commission a restoration project on the tower in 1994. The damaged stucco was removed and new stucco matching the original color of the tower was added. 4. Amos Alonzo Stagg Golf isn't the first sport that comes to mind when Amos Alonzo Stagg is mentioned. After all, he's in the College Football Hall of Fame - as both a player and coach. He's also in the Basketball Hall of Fame, among the first group of inductees in 1959. He played baseball while attending Yale; oh, and he also invented the batting cage. He was a charter member at Olympia Fields but was more likely to be seen on the tennis courts than the fairways. Still, he did make a significant impact at the club. He came up with the name. Stagg was the head football coach at the University of Chicago when Charles Beach began the process of developing his new club. Stagg was then unanimously voted as the club's first president. As for the club name, Stagg proposed "Olympia" (with "Fields" added later). In a written explanation for the name's origin, Stagg compared the idealism of ancient Olympia to the modern-day one in Chicago. "One represented noble ancient ideals," Stagg wrote, "the other represents modern ideas meeting physical ideas in a pleasurable way." 5. Tents to Cottages Early members at Olympia Fields certainly were fired up to play golf. One took it to the extreme - he camped out overnight in a tent among the oak trees at the club one weekend. Soon, others joined him and eventually, the canvas tents grew to 31. The club decided to offer more permanent structures. By 1925, all the tents were gone and 65 cottages became available for overnight stays. 6. First tournament program In the 1928 U.S. Open at Olympia Fields, Bobby Jones was seeking his third U.S. Open title but was denied by Johnny Farrell in a 36-hole playoff - the first year the organization had used that tiebreaker format. Evidently, USGA officials didn't leave with a favorable impression, as it took 75 years before Olympia Fields hosted another U.S. Open. Still, there was at least one lasting hook - the creation of the tournament program. Celebrated Chicago sportswriter Herb Graffis, who had launched two golf publications with his brother Joe earlier in the decade, developed and produce the first Open program for his hometown Open. According to Graffis' 1975 book, "The PGA," the Olympia Fields program was immensely popular, generating nearly as much money as the ticket sales. As for Graffis, he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, his biography referencing his approach toward golf literature: "The most important guy was the one reading it, not the guy who was being written about." 7. Western Open The BMW Championship was formerly known as the Western Open, the legendary tournament created by the Western Golf Association in 1899. Olympia Fields has hosted the tournament five times: • 1920, won by Jock Hutchinson. • 1927, won by Walter Hagen. • 1933, won by Macdonald Smith. • 1968, won by Jack Nicklaus. • 1971, won by Bruce Crampton. Nicklaus' win ended a 1968 drought that started with 16 consecutive starts without a victory - an eternity for the Golden Bear back then. "I was hoping I wasn't going to get through the year without a victory," Nicklaus said after his win. "And I'm glad it happened on such a nice golf course. A player likes to win any tournament, certainly, but you're prouder to win, I guess, on a real good course." 8. Major credentials Olympia Fields has hosted two U.S. Opens (1928, 2003) and two PGA Championships (1925 with match play; 1961 with stroke play). It's also hosted a U.S. Senior Open (1997) and an U.S. Amateur (2015). Less than 10 courses in the country have hosted all four of those events. In the week leading up to the 1925 PGA, Gene Sarazen inquired about buying Olympia Fields. Saying he represented a Wall Street syndicate that wanted to turn the club into a public course, Sarazen offered $3 million. When that was turned down, he offered $3.5 million. "During the last two months, Olympia Fields has turned down two offers of $4 million for the property and clubhouse," a club official told the Chicago Tribune. In the years after the 2003 U.S. Open, conditions on the North Course's greens deteriorated. When Sam MacKenzie arrived in 2006 as Director of Grounds, he immediately began to solve the issues. "I set about creating a maintenance regimen that emphasized sound turf management practices to repair the turf and restore the golf course," MacKenzie told Golf Course Magazine. "I think it is safe to say we restored more than turf that first summer — we restored confidence in the grounds department as well." Less than 10 years later - and on its 100th anniversary — Olympia Fields hosted the U.S. Amateur won by DeChambeau. Its most recent major was the 2017 Women's PGA Championship, won by Danielle Kang. 9. An all-timer from Tiger Tiger Woods has struck 5,453 shots in his U.S. Open career. Arguably, the most impressive of those shots came at Olympia Fields. It was the second round in 2003 at the par-5 sixth. Woods had pushed his drive right, leaving him approximately 250 yards from a pin that was blocked by trees. Instead of laying up, Woods opted to hit a cut 3-wood around the trees. With the ball in the air, TV analyst Roger Maltbie said, "That's not a cut. That's a slice." Either way, Woods had hit the perfect shot, his ball finishing 15 feet from the hole to set up a two-putt birdie. It didn't win him the tournament - he faded on the weekend, finishing T-20 - but it remains a testament to his incredible skills during his heyday. "It's the same shot I hit in practice," Woods explained afterwards. "I put the ball in the first cut of rough and I said, ‘Well, it's the same shot. Go ahead and do it. Go ahead and trust it.'" One of his playing partners that day, Ricky Barnes, said it was the greatest shot he had ever seen Woods hit. "It was unbelievable power," Barnes told Golf magazine, "and to cut it that much. We just nodded, ‘Great shot.' He looked like he'd just hit a home run."

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