By Clay Horning
The Norman Transcript
July 02, 2009 12:38 am
—
Only one day remains until the Westwood Invitational, which, it should always be reminded, remains the biggest stroke-play event in the state even though it continues to be played on a 6,200-yard golf course in 100 degree heat.
With that kind of fanfare under those kinds of conditions its mere existence is annual news. Golfers from all over town, the metro area, the state, and more from out of state than you might imagine, will again tee it up beginning first thing Friday morning.
But for all that’s been written about the event — most of it in this newspaper — I’m not sure the set of questions I posed to Westwood head pro David Lisle Wednesday afternoon had yet been asked.
“About five in the morning,” was Lisle’s first answer.
That’s the time he sets his alarm clock, and you know he’s not the only one, nor are his longtime assistants Rick Parish and Bobby Florer. It takes an army (well, maybe not an army; maybe a small army) getting up at 5 a.m. to put this thing on.
Lisle will go home around 11 p.m. Friday night and do it all again Saturday and Sunday. Again, he’s not the only one. They used to head home around midnight, but they get better at turning this tourney around every year.
It should be noted, at least in Lisle’s case, he wakes up before 5 a.m. Friday and Saturday and Sunday morning. He wakes up at 4:30, then 4:40, then … well, you understand.
Another question I’d always wanted to ask just as long as I got an honest reply. Because this tourney is the annual height of Norman’s golfing scene. People look forward to it all year and talk about it all year and work on their game’s in anticipation of it … at least a day or two.
And when it’s over there’s always a lot of congratulations thrown back and forth, and if you never thought about it you’d think the whole staff just loves what’s become something very close to four straight 18-hour days.
But can they really?
Lisle said there were elements of both high anticipation, and, yes, dread. On the other hand, it’s not really about either one.
“It might be a little of both,” he said, “but you want to put on a good show. You want to put on a good tournament.”
Just that such a sentiment remains foremost in the head of the guy most on the hook for putting it on seems awfully telling.
Lisle became head pro at the city course in 1986 when it was something like an 80-player event. Typically, for the last several years, it’s been a 200-player plus event.
Through 2007, the guy most on the hook may have been tournament director Ron Stucker, who seemed to live in the Westwood clubhouse the spring and early summer of every year.
Stucker died unexpectedly March 26 of last year and is memorialized between Westwood’s clubhouse and scoreboard.
But those who continue to put it on, if they don’t have Stucker’s very same passion for it — because that would be very hard to match — they share the same pride in creating a fantastic event.
It is four straight crazy long days because the day before, today, is a lot like the three days the tourney runs.
Lisle spends his time worrying about “ice, beer, food, plates, liquids, the water on the course for the players.”
He’s a detail guy, but somebody sure has to be. Somebody has to be at the phone, too. About every 5 seconds today new call will come in inquiring about a tee time.
Lisle was a young man when he arrived in Norman, 23 years ago. He’s not yet an old man, but he’s no spring chicken.
“This pretty much exhausts the staff,” he said. “We really put a lot into it.”
Clay Horning
366-3526
cfhorning@normantranscript.com
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.