He was a precocious lad of 15 when he made his first USGA appearance, qualifying for the U.S. Junior Amateur at The Country Club in suburban Boston. This week, 56 years after that USGA debut, Gary Koch is competing in the U.S. Senior Open at historic Newport (Rhode Island) Country Club.
It's a reaffirmation once again that golf is the game of a lifetime.
Thanks to his three-decade run as a golf broadcaster, Koch is likely known by most American golf fans as a TV guy. What many golfers might not know is that Koch was a very good player for a very long time.
Koch was the medalist at that 1968 U.S. Junior but lost in his first match. Two years later, he was crowned the U.S. Junior champion, defeating Mike Nelms, 8 and 6. From there, it was off to the University of Florida, where he was a three-time all-American and a member of the 1973 NCAA championship team. He competed on two victorious U.S. Walker Cup teams (1973 and 1975) and, with future PGA Tour winners George Burns, Jerry Pate and Curtis Strange, played for the Americans who won the Eisenhower Trophy at the 1974 World Amateur Team Championship.
Koch turned pro in 1975 and had an admirable career, winning six times in 428 starts on the PGA Tour. His best season came in 1984 when he won twice and missed only five cuts in 28 starts. His $1.63 million in career earnings seems paltry in today’s world of multimillion-dollar paydays, but in Koch’s era, it represented a successful tour player.
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