Tom Sovay, the PGA Director of Instruction at The Golf Club at Redmond Ridge, has been a busy man as of late — but also a very happy one.
In between a completely booked schedule of teaching golf lessons and playing weekend tournaments to sharpen his game, he took a shot at the big time back on June 29, attempting to earn one of just two spots for the U.S. Senior Open in a one-round sectional qualifier at Woodinville’s Bear Creek Country Club.
Sovay, who recently celebrated his 50th birthday on July 10 – the minimum age to play in the Open – made it by the slimmest of margins.
Shooting an even-par round of 72, he tied with Jim McNelis of Gig Harbor, and punched his ticket to the Open, which will be held at the historic Inverness Golf Club in Sovay’s hometown of Toledo, Ohio from July 28-31.
Sovay said he is thrilled about his accomplishment, but he said he did it with a little help from above.
GETTING HOOKED
Sovay got his start in golf at age 12, following his brother-in-law around as he hit up the local links around south Seattle, having moved there from Toledo at a young age.
“He let me hit one shot, and I hit it right in the middle of the clubface, it felt good,” Sovay recalled. “That got me hooked. I couldn’t play because I didn’t have any money, and I didn’t want to burden my parents with that, so I took it up more seriously right out of high school.”
A natural athlete, Sovay played tennis and swam for Evergreen High School in Burien, but after graduating, he traded his swimsuit and racket for golf gear and has never looked back.
Working long nights on the driving range hitting balls and giving lessons at Seattle’s Jefferson Park, the course Fred Couples called home, Sovay became a PGA member in 1987 and soon became recognized as one of the region’s top golf instructors.
He has been named the Western Washington PGA Teacher of the Year seven times, and was also honored by Golf Digest as one of the state’s top 10 teachers.
As many accolades as he has garnered helping others, however, it was time for Sovay, who has been teaching at Redmond Ridge for five years, to prove his own worth on the links.
GUARDIAN ANGEL
Last winter was a difficult time for Sovay as his father, Jim, passed away in December at the age of 97.
“The tournament’s in Toledo, Ohio, and I was born in Toledo,” said Sovay. “Both my brothers told him during his operation, ‘Get some energy and try fight through this, because we want to take you back to Ohio for the tournament.'”
Coming down the stretch in the qualifier, Sovay was even par through 15 holes, and after one glance at the leaderboard, knew that even par would get him in the door.
After getting up and down for par saves on both 16 and 17, he was facing Bear Creek’s long, difficult par-5 18th hole, needing a par to realize his dream of playing in one of golf’s major championships.
He drove it perfectly, but slightly overcooked his layup into the rough in the pressure of the moment.
From 65 yards out, he fluffed his wedge approach, then hit a bad chip that rolled 15 feet past the hole.
All of a sudden, Sovay was in the pressure cooker, but in the back of his mind he knew that he had someone special looking down on him that day.
“I’m on the 18th hole and I was looking at this putt… and I said, “You know Dad, I know you and Jesus are watching, so I’m going to get this to the hole, and you pull it in,” Sovay recollected. “It went up to the hole, and it fell in. I had this eerie feeling all day that there was an angel on my shoulder.”
HOMETOWN HERO
When he returns home next weekend for the Senior Open, Sovay will have quite the cheering section in the gallery.
“I have at least 70 or 80 extended family in Toledo,” he said. “What are the odds that when I turn 50, the tournament is where I was born?”
He added that he played Inverness once before in his life, 25 years ago, before he even became a PGA member.
“Back then, I wasn’t nearly the golfer I am now,” Sovay noted. “I thought it was tough. The greens were elevated… half your shots are hit into upside-down cereal bowls, at least it seemed like that.”
The 2009 Western Washington Chapter PGA Player of the Year says that he’s not worried too much about his physical game, but rather the mental aspect of playing alongside true legends of the game.
“It’s just getting over there and calming your nerves,” said Sovay on his mindset heading into the event. “All these guys you watched on TV growing up, and now you’re playing with them, but the course is the course. If you figure ‘par’ is about 74 on that golf course, and you go from there, you can do okay. If you think you’re going to be firing at flags and making five, six birdies a round, you’re kidding yourself.”
In order to make the cut and possibly contend for the title, Sovay knows he will have to rely on his sound short game and make some putts on the lightning-fast greens of Inverness.
But as he proved with his clutch 15-footer on the 18th hole at Bear Creek, with patience, hard work and a little help from the heavens, anything is possible.
The U.S. Senior Open gets underway on July 28, with a field of 156 players vying for the winner’s share of $470,000 of the $2.6 million-dollar purse. The event will be televised on ESPN from noon-4 p.m. on July 28 and 29, with weekend coverage on NBC from noon-3 p.m.
