Saying goodbye to ‘The Monster'
As the PGA Tour Champions prepares to exit Firestone Country Club for California, Paul Stankowski plays through the heartache of losing his brother and celebrates the blessings of family.
AKRON, Ohio — Elton John was wrong about “Sorry seems to be the hardest word.”
A quick check of the current World’s Hardest Word Rankings shows No. 1 is still “goodbye.” (Don’t Google that. I made it up.)
Goodbyes are hard (except maybe in divorce court).
This week’s Kaulig Companies Championship, a designated major on the PGA Tour Champions, is noteworthy because it is the farewell to Tour golf for the legendary Firestone Country Club and its South Course. Pro golf has been played at Firestone every year since 1954.
This tournament gets a new sponsor and a new name next year, the Hoag Senior Players Championship, and moves to Newport Beach Country Club in California. The decades of Firestone history will not move with it.
AKRON, Ohio — Elton John was wrong about “Sorry seems to be the hardest word.”
A quick check of the current World’s Hardest Word Rankings shows No. 1 is still “goodbye.” (Don’t Google that. I made it up.)
Goodbyes are hard (except maybe in divorce court).
This week’s Kaulig Companies Championship, a designated major on the PGA Tour Champions, is noteworthy because it is the farewell to Tour golf for the legendary Firestone Country Club and its South Course. Pro golf has been played at Firestone every year since 1954.
This tournament gets a new sponsor and a new name next year, the Hoag Senior Players Championship, and moves to Newport Beach Country Club in California. The decades of Firestone history will not move with it.
The World Series of Golf. Arnold Palmer dubbing the par-5 16th hole “The Monster.” Ohioan Jack Nicklaus winning seven times here, including the 1975 PGA Championship, and playing in his first Tour event, the 1958 Rubber City Open.
The CBS Golf Classic. The World Golf Championships. Tiger Woods and all his exploits, which include eight wins in 14 years, a shot over the clubhouse onto a green, a famous shot in the dark on the final hole for one of his wins, and an unforgettable seven-hole playoff with gritty Jim Furyk.
John Daly fighting a club pro’s dad in the clubhouse parking lot. The trademark water tower painted to resemble a golf ball on a tee.
In Newport Beach, all of that may as well be Egyptian rap music. It won’t translate and it won’t travel.
The PGA Tour is moving out of Firestone because its contract with Kaulig Companies expired and was not renewed. There is no clear-cut blame in this he-said-she-said break. Ever since the PGA Tour left here in 2018, the annual arrival of the PGA Tour Champions tournament hasn’t been met with the same enthusiasm in a small-town market that always had a major-market response when Tiger and the Tour came to town.
The fact that the seniors lack a superstar is a problem in a market used to seeing superstars. Maybe if Phil Mickelson hadn’t gone to LIV Golf or Tiger Woods hadn’t wrecked another car, things would be different. Nothing personal, but Steven Alker and Dicky Pride don’t light up the marquee here.
A case in point was the 18th green Thursday afternoon. It was sunny, humid and warm in the mid-80s. But this is Firestone; this is a senior major. Two rows of folding chairs in front of a bright white banner were completely unoccupied as the threesome of Gregg Chalmers, Paul Stankowski and Matt Gogel reached the green. Fourteen spectators sat in their own folding chairs 10 yards short of the green in the left rough because there, they had the good shade.
A greenside announcer introduced each player as they arrived at the green. There was polite applause that was so weak it was sad. John Daly reportedly had the day’s biggest gallery, estimated at fewer than 50. Where are all the fans? It’s not as if much else happens in Akron all summer.
Maybe this event isn’t for Akron anymore, despite the history, the lore, the highlights and three-fourths of a century of tradition.
Dave Shedloski described it perfectly for Golf Digest: “Golf at Firestone has been about celebrating the game, embracing it, enjoying the sport’s greats marching through to leave their imprint, create a memory. It has marked the time as well as any golf course in America. Traditions die hard. But some just die.”
So this is goodbye. That is a shortened version of a 16th-century saying, “God be with ye,” a way to wish another person well at their departure. Goodbyes are hardest when they’re final, and with a new commissioner interested only in big cities and big money, Akron won’t be coming back.
Last week, the seniors played another major, the U.S. Senior Open, 126 miles to the southwest in Columbus, Ohio, at another storied course, Scioto Country Club. Fan turnout was considerably better despite heat index temperatures in the low 100s. Enthusiasm was way higher.
Paul Stankowski tied for fifth. You may remember him from his PGA Tour career when he was a free-swinging, free-spirited regular player. He won twice, first in the 1996 BellSouth Classic in Atlanta, where he defeated future TV icon Brandel Chamblee on the first playoff hole after Chamblee went for the par-5 green in two and rinsed it in the lake. Stankowski won in Hawaii the next year, beating Jim Furyk and Mike Reid in a playoff.
The Senior Open felt like a full-circle moment for Stankowski and his son, Josh, who caddied for him. Ten years earlier, Stankowski and Josh were at Scioto to watch Tommy Stankowski, Paul’s older brother, compete in the U.S. Senior Open.
“He missed the cut. He needed to birdie the last two holes on Friday to make the cut,” Paul recalled. “I was probably breaking the law, but I was videoing him and FaceTiming him live because I was so fired up for him. He was my big brother.”
Tommy died in April at 60 after a long, hard-fought battle against cancer.
“This week was special,” Stankowski said after the final round at Scioto. “I just thought about him a lot. I ... ”
He paused as his voice became choked with emotion. It was a silence that dared not be broken.
“I just thought about how much fun it was to watch him here,” Paul said after composing himself. “I was excited to get to come back and to…”
Another pause, another reverential moment. “Yeah,” Paul said quietly, “it was fun.”
Tommy was a pro who played all over the world with moderate lower-level success. His only Canadian Tour victory was a big one, the season-ending 2008 Canadian Tour Championship. He birdied the final hole at National Pines Golf Club in Ontario and won $37,600.
“The sad thing is, he shut it down the next year,” Paul said. “He had been away from Mom and Dad for a long time, and our uncle Joe died. I think he realized that there are more important things. So he moved from Palm Springs, where he was living and home-based, playing mini-tours, to Fort Myers, moved in with Mom and Dad and started taking care of them. We’re all grateful he did that.
“After Dad died, he was able to take care of Mom and be there for her. She eventually went into a home to be around people her own age. Tommy had an amazing heart.”
Tommy played in the 2018 U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor in Colorado. Paul caddied for him that week, but Tommy missed the cut. It was déjà vu last year when the Senior Open returned to The Broadmoor and Paul played in the event. “It was a treat for Josh and I,” Paul said.
Obviously, Paul knew his brother was seriously ill by then. At Scioto, Tommy was gone but his memory was still fresh as spring. It was a “God be with ye” moment for Paul.
“We just tried to play in his honor, knowing he would have given anything to do it again,” Paul said. He dabbed at his eyes and smiled lightly. “We fought hard. Proud of our effort. Anyway, it was special.”
Paul posted four photos of Tommy on Facebook in April after he passed. One was of Tommy posing with the massive trophy that came with the Canadian Tour Championship win. His message: “RIP Big Brother. I’m sure gonna miss ya. #my hero #barsetter”
An unbylined story on TheCompleatGolfer.com, a South African website, cast more light on Tommy Stankowski’s personality. The writer recalled how they grabbed dinner at Chipotle the evening before the writer tried a Web.com Tour qualifier. Tommy told him, “Don’t hit any warm-up shots tomorrow. Just look in the mirror before you tee off and tell yourself what to do.”
The writer said he’d never spoken to himself in a mirror before, but after missing some cuts, he was willing to try anything. So he followed instructions. Four and a half hours later, he holed an eagle putt on the final hole to shoot 63 and qualify. He called Tommy, who “couldn’t stop laughing at how thankful and excited I was.”
Fourteen years later, the writer got a Facebook message from Tommy, then 54, that he was coaching and picking up range balls at a local practice range in Florida and, oh yeah, had just been diagnosed with cancer and was going to play in theU.S. Senior Open qualifying. Tommy provided frequent Facebook updates about his progress, made it into the tournament, and sent thanks to his many well-wishers, and posted evening selfies from his range cart seat.
The Compleat Golfer added this: “His Senior Open posts were incredible. He made his way up to all the golfing greats and had photos taken with each of them. At the end of it all, there was one comment on a picture that jumped out and hit me right in the throat. It read: ‘Thank you for being our fairy tale, Tommy.’”
Fairy tales conclude with happy endings. Real life is seldom so neat and tidy.
Paul Stankowski scrambled to a 1-over-par 71 Friday, a good result for hitting only four fairways at tree-lined Firestone. Josh caddies for him full-time. “If I keep playing like I did last year,” Paul said with a grin, “he’ll do all right.” He is off the pace, but there are more rounds this week and an undetermined number in his future.
“You’ve got a limited time on this tour,” Stankowski said. “I’m 56. I know my time is up soon. But it’s pretty darn cool to be in this position and have my son out here caddying. I’m still blown away. I’ve played almost 120 events out here. I am beyond grateful. I look at my career and I see these little moments, I call them a little sweetness of God. They’re blessings that you know are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but they’re amazing for me, a guy who didn’t have the most talent and grew up with a lot of players in California who were better than me who never got out here.”
A pair of Stankowskis on the senior circuit is one of those blessings for Paul. Memories of a third, Tommy, are never far off.
Romantic novelist Nicholas Sparks (“The Notebook”; “The Best of Me”) penned this line somewhere: “This is not goodbye, my darling. This is, thank you.”
For Firestone’s farewell, for Tommy Stankowski’s epitaph, it fits.
