Tampa, Florida					Monday, September 06, 2010

IT’S NOT THE OPEN, BUT. . .
Thursday, June 17, 2004
TAMPA—The U.S. Open it wasn’t. Shinnecock Hills it wasn’t. Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson it wasn’t. But it was the nearest thing to Shinnecock Hills Tampa has. And it was a pleasant afternoon of 18 holes of match play among three good friends, three good, successful men at their primary purpose using that great equalizer in the great equalizing and humbling sport of golf, having a great time playing with each other’s game and mind on a tough links-type course. Moreover, the scorekeeper personal announcer was certainly not Johnny Miller, but me, who having the right kind of fun keeping that score and keeping up with the three players working their clubs and needles deftly. I’ve known them all well throughout the best times of their lives and reported on the deeds they have done worth reporting, generally by word of mouth or pen. Here’s what this is all about. With the news of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s great achievement with the unlikely claim of the Stanley Cup for the championship of the National Hockey League a few days history, I got a phone call from Steve Spurrier, the former player and coach in college and professional football, at the moment unemployed, he was congratulating Tampa on the hockey title, all involved, saying he was bringing high school football wideout son Scotty, raised in Tampa, for a football camp with Jim Leavitt at the University of South Florida here, and a golf game with pals Tom Shannon and Chris Sullivan. “Come ride around and watch, keep score, be the rules man if you want,’’ he said, as would Shannon and Sullivan later. I personally gave up the good game golf because of a leg problem, but remain admirer and student of it. Be there, I said to the onetime Heisman Trophy winner who returned to his Florida to coach the Gators to the national championship. Then, suddenly left the college game for the Washington Redskins, but left there too a year ago. That also was a surprise. He has remained quiet on his future plans. So, after the invitation off I went to the Old Memorial Golf Club in the northwest Tampa area. It is classically private, classically tough, classically appointed as a course and a club of the style of Pine Valley in New Jersey. May have the best men’s locker room anywhere. Best service, too. More traps on the course, too, than about anywhere. Has those long waste bunkers and high beach grass all about. It is also long and has water all about. Old Memorial Golf Club was a private project of two of the original Outbackers, Sullivan and Bob Basham. The third, Tim Gannon, is a horseman. Sullivan and Basham and pals (at $250,000 for the original 15 founders) bought the old farmland of Curtis Hixon (onetime Tampa mayor and it became Old Memorial. No, no homesites. None. Only the course, the clubhouse, so-called dormitories for overnight members and guests), and vast practice areas. The golf club is for golfers. Shannon is a founding member with the boss of Outback, Sullivan. Spurrier is their pal, and became the quarterback of the Gators following Shannon. Shannon has in his operation 57 Outback properties in California. He’s the biggest and a remarkably successful businessman, and has been, in all he and wife Kathy have tried. But, he’s a lefty, has a big sweeping swing, a decent handicap to which he loves to play, and is a master at scrambling. So there they were the cornerstones of the Outback Steakhouses, the wonderful coach in Spurrier, a competitor who loves nothing better than to be on the spot, or, in the spotlight. His only field goal at Florida in his Heisman year there at quarterback beat Auburn. He crouches when he plays the game of golf, but stays down effectively. Yet, his swing is not as admired nor effective	as his grit. Sullivan, a fine golfer who has learned from the best teachers. He’s a competitor, an admirer of the spirit of the game, the game itself, the great courses, the great players. You want, indeed, you’d like any of these three for a partner. So, these three S-Men, Sullivan, Shannon and Spurrier, began their threesome competition with caddies, walking and with me scoring and commenting. What next? I asked Spurrier. “Not sure. Taking a year off. Got Scottie in school here, and Stevie is out at Arizona. Moving into another rental home in Leesburg (Va.) for a year. Then, not sure.’’ The Spurriers have a home in Gainesville, FL., in Crescent Beach near Jacksonville, and other properties near Jacksonville Beach. The Spurriers are not wasteful. They have saved and invested well. They are not on welfare and are not prospects for that lineup. But, Spurrier has not set a course of professional action, yet. Sullivan noted everyone at the Kentucky Derby, where Outback has a suite, asked if he was working on Spurrier to head coach at Kentucky. He laughed. It still snows in Kentucky, doesn’t it? Back to the pros? No reply. Back to college” No reply. He really is taking time off, working on that elusive golf game. And when someone in the group thought North Carolina may be a next stop for him. He made no comment. All think nothing has happened yet. Spurrier is an honest man. Then asked, “oh, we have over a thousand stores,’’ Outback founder Sullivan said. “Imagine. If you had suggested that was going to happen when we started, I’d have said you were nuts.’’ We were halfway through the front nine. Shannon was having his Shannonistic game, strong at the tee, scrambling, getting up and down, and with strokes allotted. Spurrier’s game had not yet rounded into competitive condition. Topped a couple. Not like him. Sullivan’s was coming well. It is always solid. “Me, 57 stores, now in California. Not bad.’’ Said the proud Shannon, of the curly brown hair still and the engaging smile. He calls me “T.’’ Spurrier calls me “Thomas.’’ Sullivan whatever comes to mind. The caddies were having fun. They were working with fine players. generous players. They were good.’’ Shannon was ahead in the skins game, play hole by hole, two tie, all tie, with carryovers. But, on the par-4 eighth, Spurrier birdied with three fine shots. Until then Shannon had been up and down on three holes, up and down out of traps. On nine, it was the host’s time. Sullivan hit a 275 yard tee shot, a fine iron to 10 feet and holed it for a winning birdie. They were about even. Shannon had shot a neat 39, Spurrier and Sullivan 42s, I left, to see Brad Richards, the fine Lightning best of the playoffs scoring leader there after playing with Tom Thorn. Richards, who has a celebrated quick wrist shot in the ice, has an effective swing on the golf course. He’s a five handicapper, hitting the ball low and far, said Thorn, a good player, too. Richards had won. Back outside in the sunshine, the three S-Men played the back nine without a scorer. I called Shannon. He said he won money off Spurrier, before they headed north to Crystal River and tall tale telling there at the reunion of the Florida Gators Silver Sixties with Coach Ray Graves. He said his won money, his son said and that “was all that mattered,’’ said Shannon II. We all knew that. Except that Sullivan’s game got better before he, Shannon and another headed north for games on former U.S. Open courses in Chicago, Denver and California. Bet here is Shannon won the money, with handicap, of course. ##
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