For three years Miles McConnell has been the general manager of a bistro named Jackson’s, which he calls “one of the busiest restaurants in Tampa.”
After a career in the hospitality business, he’s accustomed to the long and hectic hours at the award-winning waterside establishment. At age 55, he leverages golf so he can really enjoy living. As a result, the Canadian-born McConnell is savoring a mini renaissance in his game.
“I enjoy golf now more than I ever did,” McConnell said after his recent win against a stacked field in the Golfweek Player of the Year Classic at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club. “The motivation factor has been there. There are some fun things you can do at 55 because of golf. It’s been a large part of my life, but you have the feeling that time is running out and even hitting balls gives me a sense of motivation.”
McConnell, a 1989 University of South Florida graduate who spent 10 years playing professional golf, was the Florida State Golf Association senior player of the year in 2021. Except for a 12-year stint in Madison, Wisconsin, working for the Outback Group where he opened Carrabba’s Italian Grill restaurants in the Midwest, he is a Floridian. The family moved to Orlando when he was 10 and then to Tampa when he was 16.
He’s been successful in golf wherever he’s lived with runner-up finishes at state amateurs – twice in Florida and once in Wisconsin.
He won the Ray Fischer Amateur in Wisconsin in 2011 at 19-under-par 269 and called it “the best golf I have ever played.”
But his performance in Tampa at the Golfweek Classic was extraordinary.
“It shows me that my game hasn’t deteriorated with age,” McConnell said of his victory there. “I’ve kept myself in good shape, except for some shoulder trouble. I feel like I’m capable of playing my best golf. I knew it was a good field. I was trying to keep my tempo all week.”
His final-round 70 made him the only player under par at 214 and gave him a two-stroke win ahead of Matt Sughrue, the runner-up at the 2016 U.S. Senior Amateur. In that final round, McConnell also held off 2019 U.S. Senior Amateur winner Bob Royak, who was three shots back, as well as 36-hole leader Billy Mitchell, the low amateur at the 2021 U.S. Senior Open, and Gene Elliott, the 2021 U.S. Senior Amateur and the (U.K.) Senior Amateur champion.
McConnell, who advanced to the round of 64 at the 2021 U.S. Senior Amateur and was the runner-up and low amateur at the Florida Senior Open last April, loves the idea that competitive senior golf brings attractive opportunities.
In 2022, he plans a Scottish trip to the Senior Amateur at Royal Dornoch Golf Club in July, the North & South Senior in Pinehurst, North Carolina, as well as his usual routine of FSGA events and now USGA championships such as the U.S. Senior Open and the U.S. Senior Amateur.
“I’ve never played golf in Scotland and I’m extremely excited about Royal Dornoch and hope I’ll earn enough World Amateur Golf Ranking points,” McConnell said. “My wife, Bea, took up the game a few years ago and we are looking forward to that trip.”
Golfers can be defined by their “coulda” moments, and one opportunity that eluded McConnell happened in 1987. He had advanced to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur at Jupiter Hills Club in Tequesta. There he faced the 1986 U.S. Amateur Public Links champion Billy Mayfair.
Mayfair won the match – and eventually the championship – thus preventing McConnell from earning a cherished opportunity.
“Back then the (semifinalists) got Masters invitations,” McConnell said. “I knew that, to say the least.”
He admits to not thinking about that during his tense match with Mayfair until the Arizona State standout faced a 6-foot putt on the 19th hole.
“I thought, ‘If he misses I’m going to the Masters,’ ” McConnell recalled. Mayfair holed it and then won the match on the 20th hole.
“I think about that every April,” McConnell said.
That chapter of his golf life stands apart from the others but as a 55-year-old enjoying golf’s benefits, he points to his proudest moment in golf in 2018.
That year he was the low amateur at the Florida Senior Open and won the Florida Mid-Senior. Those were topped by his work at the 2018 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship, for players 25 and older.
“I’m probably most proud that at age 53, I made the round of 32 at the U.S. Mid-Am,” McConnell said. “Charlotte Country Club was playing at about 7,500 yards, and I’ve never been that long but I hung in there with the young guys hitting it 80 yards by me.”
Top: Miles McConnell during the 2021 U.S. Senior Amateur
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