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Friday, April 21, 2023

Dear Harvey: WGC Dell Technologies Match Play (7 times and a wrap!)

Harvey on the range at ACC
Dear Harvey,

It has been some time since I posted a note your way. My apologies.

Let's start with the final playing of the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play. Austin Country Club hosted seven PGA Tour Match Play events over eight years.

Wherever I travel, people know Austin Country Club. They usually say, "Is that the one with the bridge?" Followed by a statement about how beautiful the course is and how they hope to visit Austin one day. Hosting a tournament of this magnitude is no small undertaking. I was proud of how well we represented ourselves to the world. 

True golf fans often acknowledge you and The Little Red Book and ask about Tom Kite and/or Ben Crenshaw. If they don't know about The Little Red Book, I will often gift them a copy, as all golfers should know! I always mention how much you did for the women's game, including teaching at least five LPGA Hall of Fame golfers!

You taught golf for seven decades and coached the University of Texas golf team for 33 years. Your best-known pupils were Betty Jameson, Morris Williams Jr., Betsy Rawls, Mickey Wright, Kathy Whitworth, Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, and Sandra Palmer. Those ladies won over 240 LPGA tour events, 2 U.S. Women’s Amateurs, and 10 U.S. Women’s Opens. The men account for 5 NCAA individual titles, 2 Masters, one U.S. Open, and over 35 PGA tour wins. 

It makes me proud, and I imagine you feel the same way.

Champions of the WGC Match Play events at Austin CC were as follows: 

  • 2023: Sam Burns
  • 2022: Scotty Scheffler
  • 2021: Billy Horschell
  • 2019: Kevin Kisner
  • 2018: Bubba Watson
  • 2017: Dustin Johnson
  • 2016: Jason Day

Cathy and I were in town this year for the Match Play, as it coincided with Emily's wedding. On Saturday, I had an incredibly memorable day. I went 'inside the ropes' with good friend and PGA Tour broadcaster Andres Gonzales. Super fun to be up close watching Andres perfect his new craft while taking in the sights and sounds of the tournament from a player's perspective, in this case, Scotty Scheffler vs. JT Poston.

When coming up tournament hole 15 and into the giant stadium created by the infrastructure, I couldn't help but think back to all the days I played the course with Emily when she was a junior. Could we ever have imagined this scene?

More updates coming soon,

gPage






Letters to Harvey from The Kingdom:

Other 'golfy' scribblings:
"Millions of people were charmed by the homespun golf advice dispensed in Harvey Penick's Little Red Book, a sports classic that became the best-selling sports book of all time. Yet, beyond the Texas golf courses where Penick happily toiled for the better part of eight decades, few people knew the self-made golf pro who coaxed the best out of countless greats -- Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Betsy Rawls, Mickey Wright -- all champions who considered Penick their coach and lifelong friend." - Kevin Robbins, author of Harvey Penick: The Life and Wisdom of the Man Who Wrote the Book on Golf.
"And if you play golf, you are my friend." - Harvey Penick

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