Mark Brooks - Part 1 (The Early Years)

Intro Music 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle.

Mike Gonzalez 0:13

Then it started to Welcome to another edition of For the Good of the Game and Bruce Devlin. Let me just read a list of golfers here for our listeners. Burke, Demerit, Hogan, Nelson, Crenshaw, Kite, Sutton, Watkins, Cootie, Graham, Devlin, Rogers, Crampton, Elkington, Mahaffey, Trevino. What is it about Texas and great golfers?

Bruce Devlin 0:43

I don't know, but we've got a good one today, too. This gentleman has played a lot on the on the regular tour, was a part of the 1996 president President's Cup win, has seven tour victories on the PGA tour, and is the and won the PGA championship in 1996. And we are glad to have with us this morning Mark Brooks. Mark, thank you for joining Mark and myself. We look forward to chatting with you.

Mark Brooks 1:14

Well, good morning to both of you.

Mike Gonzalez 1:24

That's a good way to put it. And Mark, as we've talked about, Bruce and I uh set out uh last April to try to tell the stories of all the golf greats that uh are either members of the Hall of Fame, Golf Hall of Fame, or have won a major in their career. And uh we're so pleased uh to have you join us, and we're looking forward to uh telling your story and your voice Well, thank you.

Mark Brooks 1:50

Yes, uh it goes without saying I'm honored to be included on any list. I certainly would not put myself in any list of greats, uh let's say determined, uh you know, fortunate overachiever, maybe that might work.

Mike Gonzalez 2:06

Winning a major championship is a big deal, as as you know, because uh you tried a bunch as a lot of guys did and and and and didn't succeed, and uh that's quite an accomplishment just in and of itself. But uh, set that aside, for somebody to have played as much tournament golf at the highest level as you have, nobody's done more, have they?

Mark Brooks 2:29

Well, uh at last count, nobody. Uh there's there's uh couple of pretty good sticks that are pretty close, nipping at my heels, and that would be Jay Haas, I believe, is second.

Mike Gonzalez 2:40

Okay.

Mark Brooks 2:41

Uh, and then Davis Love, not too far behind. So uh it's pretty good company to keep. And uh again, another fellow PGA champion there. David Davis is only, I think, you know, 20 some odd tournaments behind me. So uh I've told him in not in private, uh, but to his face, I would be honored if he could pass me. So uh it's you know, records are made to be broken. I don't think the young the young pups are going to be approaching 800 events. It's the the way I put it in perspective for a younger guy is when I go out, I've I I caddy every once in a while for a couple friends of mine that are on tour still. I've done television, so I'm out around, and you know, they'll hear the number, you know, 803 or something, somebody give me give me grief about it, and then I'll I'll I said, let me put it in perspective when they finally come over and ask because they're like bewildered. And I said, It's actually not that big a deal. I said, if you played 25 tournaments a year, you'd only have to play 32 years. Straight. Straight. So that puts it in a little bit of perspective. It's 30, it's 32 years of 25, 25 a whack, and then you still got to go play a little bit more. So yeah, it's a long, it's a long time. You know, I'm not counting my champions tour of starts, but uh anyway, it yeah, it was uh I and and I will give you guys another one that kind of run off the bat, you know. They said, well, you know, because I I teach. Now, I mean, that's really my full-time job now, teach and entertain people. Uh, but you know, it's like you know, where did you get all the knowledge? You know, how'd you learn all this? I said, let me tell you something. First of all, when you play 803 tour events, you have spent a lot of your own money to gain that knowledge. So it was not a not a free ride, I'll I'll assure you. So uh I paid a lot of money for this experience.

Bruce Devlin 4:28

That's good. There you go. And Mac, uh, you uh you were born uh here in Fort Worth, Texas, right? Uh you're a true-blooded Texas boy. Yes, sir. Tell us about tell us about how you uh first got involved with the game of golf. I mean, who who were some of your people that really uh pushed you towards playing this game?

Mark Brooks 4:52

I don't recall everything about my youth, probably fortunately. Certainly the teen years they've faded into the past, but my my grandfather actually, I would say, formally introduced me to the game. He was uh uh he he was he worked at a refinery. Uh, you know, he had climbed the ranks, so he was in managerial positions at this refinery in a small town in Oklahoma called Surreal, Texas. And I mean, excuse me, Surreal, Oklahoma. And I want to say it was Conico Phillips at that time. And it was a real, you know, just I mean, Mayberry RFD, small town, you know, a couple of churches. Uh the refinery was actually the beacon of the town at the end of the main street was the refinery. But anyway, they ended up, they had a they had gone out, you know, a couple miles outside of town, and someone, you know, lent them some land, and they had built themselves a six-hole sand green golf course. And that is what I learned to play golf on. We're little round, probably, I'm gonna guess Bruce may have been around some of the stuff, probably 10 or 15 yards uh you know, in certain in diameter and uh or circumference, helped me out with my math there. But anyway, they were just small sand grains, which they rolled a smooth strip down the middle of it, probably five, five, six feet wide. So your shots would actually get to be raked the rest of it. So when your shot landed, it had a chance to stop because it was kind of soft. And of course, being an oil refinery, uh, they had a petroleum product they had mixed into the sand to make it a little heavier and stickier, almost like brown sugar, so it wouldn't blow away. But you know, that that's who introduced me to the game. And then uh I would go on and probably I'm gonna say about age eight, nine, ten, eight, nine, and there's when I started, and I would end up spending like say, you know, four to six weeks with them during the summer break. And we either played golf or we went uh fishing for crappie or perch in the afternoons, and uh, you know, drug his boat out and dropped it in a little lake. And uh, that's how I learned to play golf. And the fishing, I gave the fishing up and stuck with the golf. So it's turned out to be the right choice, I think, in the long run.

Bruce Devlin 7:10

There you go. Well, you talk about sand greens, and you made a reference there that I would know all about sand greens, and you are correct, sir. I, in fact, played uh an exhibition when I was 17 years old, 1954, with Gary Player in a little town in New South Wales, Australia. We played on an 18-hole sand green golf course, and you're correct. Sand mixed with oil so it sticks together, won't blow away. And boy, not much break on that sand, was it? You just had if you could hit it straight, you pretty much made it. I'll give you, I'll go back.

Mark Brooks 7:46

I remember a couple of parts really, honestly. I I don't remember the golf course very well. Uh forgive me, but that smooth part, I always had this impression until maybe I was probably 12, you know, 13. And I would my my grandparents actually finally moved uh just north of Fort Worth uh to a place called Runaway Bay. That and uh they had an 18-old golf course there. But anyway, back to the sand greens. But my impression was that he was a great putter. He was probably a mid-80s shooter, and you know, they would and they would every once in a while, probably once a month, they would go play a legitimate golf course, you know, green, green golf, greengrass golf course. But I've I always had this impression that he was a phenomenal putter. And finally, you know, it dawned on me, well, when he'd get on that sand green, he had a he had an old TP Mills that was a blade putter, but it had a very cambered sole on it. So he'd take the pin out, and then he would go to the hole and drag a little bitty crease with that that putter back to his ball that set his ball. He made everything.

Bruce Devlin 8:46

Everything.

Mark Brooks 8:47

Uh you know, he didn't he didn't allow me to he didn't allow me to create the trough, but uh I found out later in life that he wasn't such a great putter after all. And uh, and then uh I guess the the other point I'll talking about the sand green golfers. I do recall, you know, this is pretty vivid. He had a golf cart, finally. I mean, they may have shared it with other uh some other guys, and we were riding around and he had a bunch of what he called water balls, and you know what those are. Those are the beat-up balls they would find. And with there was one hole with a lake, and it was probably a 120 or 40 yard carry, it wasn't that far, but for a nine or ten-year-old, it was a pretty good poke. And I do remember one finally one summer, you know, we'd get to that T and he had pitched me the water ball. And I said, you know, this at this time I said, No, if I hit this really good, this ball's so bad it won't make it over. So pitch me a good one. And I, you know, he reluctantly threw me a really good sh ball in good shape, and I knocked it over, you know, on the green or whatever, and from that point on it was uh off to the races. No more water balls. There you go.

Mike Gonzalez 9:52

So who taught you the game and and and the finer points of the game as you were growing up then?

Mark Brooks 9:59

Well, my my father, I I came from a very athletic background, and he uh my dad was from West Texas, so let's call him pretty the the the tougher, the tougher region of Texas as far tough, you know, tough, friendly folks out there. And he was uh really became a very accomplished uh basketball player. He ended up playing at Oklahoma State for Henry Iva, the legendary coach there at Oklahoma State. And so my background was definitely from athletics, but he he ended up having the calling and became a Baptist minister, went to the seminary, did the whole deal, and ended up with a church in Fort Worth, in northern Fort Worth. And they fortunate for me, they allowed several ministers in the area to have pastorial memberships at these clubs, obviously at a reduced, you know, reduced rate. So he was able to join a club because I was really into golf, and several of my good friends all were playing, and their parents were members, and it was at Diamond Oaks in North Fort Worth, and it's still there, it's still a really good golf course. In fact, Lee Trevino is a partial owner there, a part owner there with a partner of his, and uh we we talk about it uh quite frequently every time I see Lee, which is several times a year still, and but that's where I grew up, and there were uh the head pro was Doug Higgins, who had actually played on the PGA tour for a few years. I'm gonna guess back in the probably late 50s, early 60s, uh became good buddies with Arnold Palmer, and you know, some of the guys would come in town during the Bayern Nelson or Colonial, and they'd show up. Uh but they were they were he was a you know very good player, and then he had two sons that were really good players, and I became really close with his one of his sons, Doug Jr. And you know, I would say he was sort of my uh role model mentor, other than watching you know the tour players play when they came through town. And uh, you know, that that's where I learned to play. I'll I will point out that I know gambling's now a big deal on the PGA tour, you know, all these gambling sites and things, uh, you know, left for another discussion another day. But I will say I grew up around a lot of uh, let's say, I won't say unsavory, but you know, the used car dealers, pawn shop owners, uh, and guys that literally just own their own businesses, you know, look really legit businesses. But uh getting out there and playing for a buck or two was you know a big part of my growing up. I know it'll disappoint my mother, but uh it was uh honestly, it we were so my point is it was competitive even on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. There was a competitive game out there all the time. Uh I I the story somebody tells, which is probably my mother. Um unfortunately, my father passed away you know way too early in the in the late 80s, but she she tells a story, and I know it's partially true, that I lost 26 Monte Cristo sandwiches one month. Oh my. And that that was the only way I could pay off the losses for that month. So uh I'll I didn't eat 26 uh fried ham and cheese sandwiches that month, but uh anyway, that I so I grew up around a highly competitive in a highly competitive environment. Texas Wesleyan, which is now a Texas Wesleyan University, they had a golf coach there named O. D. Bounds, and he goes down, he's one of the if not, he's probably won more NAIA championships than than you know than any coach um in history. They had notoriously great teams. Several players went on to play the tour, and their team, actually, this we were their home course. So, you know, all of a sudden there's another seven, eight, nine, nine guys out there all the time that I mean could play. Uh so I was fortunately included in these games. I'm gonna, and I'm not exaggerating, by about 13. I was in the the high school and you know, college games a lot, and uh, and also being exposed to the others. So, you know, that old adage about you know, it's not how, it's how many, uh, get it in the hole fast. I learned that all through my my uh uh upbringing. Nobody really made fun of anybody's swing. You might say he had a pretty swing or he's got a good looking swing. Nobody cared. It's like can the guy play? Yeah, you know, so that that's what I grew up with.

Mike Gonzalez 14:36

Yeah, yeah. So were were you the kind of uh kid that would learn a lot just through observation, or did you also read, study the game through golf magazines, watch it on TV? Where'd you where do you think you picked it up the most?

Mark Brooks 14:53

Emulating the better players, trying to copy the moves. Uh I'm not magazines, not so much, but I I had a couple of books. I had, you know, you go, well, what books did you have? I came from uh again, a highly educated, you know, my parents were both educated. I mean, I was fortunate. Uh I'm one of those people that's uh I I grew up in a pretty normal, normal household with uh two working parents, and uh they were both highly educated. And fortunately, you know, one was athletically talented, you know, obviously public speaker, doing what he did, and then my mother was uh musically talented, uh as well as you know, later in life became an administrator, in fact, you know, ran campaign for uh a state one of our uh excuse me, U.S. congresspersons. So uh very talented background I I came from. The two books that I recall that you know that I had on my shelf that I read a lot, one was Golf My Way, you know, from uh Jack Nicholas. I I couldn't understand the Ben Hogan five fundamentals. I had it in the in the room, but I it was too complicated for me. You could see the pictures, you know, the arms together, the grip, but as far as the uh pronating and supinating of the left wrist, that was a little over my head at that time. But so you know, reading Jack Nicholas's book uh when it first came out, and then of course the other book, being having a back basketball background, was John Wooden's Pyramids of Success, which I still highly recommend to this day to you know anybody that's involved with sports or business. Uh so those are the two books. Now, I didn't do the magazines, I'm sure we didn't buy the magazines, it wasn't really part of the part of our uh culture at my house. But watching, you know, watching the players, and I and I I will say this I would go into the front yard. I didn't have a, you know, I there wasn't room in the house, and I would use the windows of the house as my mirror, and I would pose positions, you know, get in the backswing position that you wanted to, and I'm looking at the reflection out of the actually the windows, and then you know, hitting hitting a few golf balls, you know, you couldn't hit them very far. But uh that's that's sort of my thing. And then as you got onto the club, I would watch the guys that I thought were really good players. I didn't know whether they had a good swing or not. I mean, to be honest with you, but uh that's how I learned. It was 100% through observation, and I'll be honest with you, I didn't really see my swing broken down until the fall of 1987. I'd already been on tour four years until I really had a broken down. That was eight millimeter, and that was I'd gone back to Doug Doug Jr., I call him, Doug Higgins Jr., and I said, Doug, you know, I'm not gonna be, I'm not gonna have a career here swinging the way I'm swinging, playing this tour. I'm just it just isn't working, and it wasn't. And I just somehow made my way, scraped my way through Q school in 1987, and ironically, I was playing with a guy named Kel Devlin the last day. And this was the fifth, the sixth round, I guess we played six rounds in 1987, down here on the Gold Coast of uh Palm Coast, excuse me, the Palm Coast of Florida, and Kel and I had gotten paired together the last round. So we were in about, and I I do know it was I'm close, we were around 70th place, and they'd had a cut, I think, to 90 in ties after four rounds. We'd made that. Obviously, we didn't move up enough. And we got paired together that that fit the last and final round, and I somehow scraped it around. I'm I'm I'm I know I shot 67. So I either made five birdies and no bogeys, or maybe scraped one, you know, got got away with one bogey in there. And I jumped from like 77, somewhere between 70 and 72nd, to about mid-30s and got my card. Back then, 50, 50 guys got their cards. And I will say that round was probably the turning point of my career, and that was with a pretty bad golf swing and just sort of figuring out how to get it in a hole, back to the you know, how many. And I went straight home, and uh, I mean, literally straight home. Within a couple of days, I had a meeting with Doug, and uh, he was uh teaching a lot at the club, and he I said, you know, do you are you gonna have time to do this? Take this on, and he thankfully gave me the time, and we worked in a spare room at the in the you know, in the kind of I'm gonna call it the basement of the club, an unused room, and kind of set up shop, used eight millimeter, and by being able to see my swing on film, I was able to make changes way faster. So, you know, it was uh instead of it feels like this, actually, I'm like, you mean it is like that? They're like, yeah, it's it's that bad. So I was able to make some pretty dramatic changes, I'm gonna say pretty quickly. So by this would have been in December of 1987, and I actually won that next whatever, I'm gonna say whatever, June or July at Hartford. So uh it was uh definitely a life-changing, you know, let's say eight or nine months in there between the final round of Q-school uh to actually winning a tour event. And uh, you know, one of my good buddies back in the day, you know, said you you know, you just went from the you know what house to the penthouse. So uh anyway, it was uh it was very, very, very transformative, uh you know, stubborn, dig it out of the dirt, guy. That's kind of our way, and you know, that that certainly was my way, you know, go figure it out. And I finally had gave up and said, I need help. I mean, I I can't I'm not doing this on my own very good. And as you guys know, you can't help. You get on tour, and it's just almost impossible to, or back then it was, to resist looking who whoever's playing really well at the time, they're always doing something great, you know, some swing, some new guru move. And you can't help yourself if you're struggling. Now, if you're playing good, you can ignore it, but if you're struggling, you're like, I'm gonna go down that rabbit hole. That you know, I can do that. You know, I that guy's not, you know, he wasn't that great a year ago, and look at him now. He's you know winning everything, or he's playing awesome. Uh, you Bruce would attest this putters. You want to, you know, you want to you want to make a putter popular, you know, especially back in the day, just get it out on tour and have a guy win with it.

Bruce Devlin 21:28

That's true.

Mark Brooks 21:28

And I mean, there'll be 30 guys within a few weeks, I'll promise you, you may not see it, but they'll all go try that thing because it's like the magic bullet. So anyway, that that was that's how I got got got started on tour, really.

Bruce Devlin 21:42

Well, but prior to the tour, uh, I mean, if if we look at your record, Mark, uh, you went to the University of Texas. Uh you were all American for three years, I believe, three times all American. So you obviously had a pretty good golf game, even Though you said that you didn't think you had such a great swing back then.

Mark Brooks 22:04

No, I had a good swing. I mean, it was, you know, effective. Uh, it wasn't. I um I don't really have pick, you know, I don't have fell on my swing when I was in, let's say, high school. But, you know, let's you gotta remember too, back then the the golf coaches, because there were no swings around, nobody was emailing a golf coach, you know, swing videos or you know, for recruiting purposes.

Bruce Devlin 22:28

Yeah.

Mark Brooks 22:28

Um, so all they could look at were your scores, and they'd, you know, come watch you play maybe around every once in a while. So it was pretty much done on uh the scores you posted, and of course the junior programs weren't anywhere near what they are now, right? But to to to that point, I climbed the ladder in I'm gonna call it a fairly traditional way, meaning started playing golf, got a little better at golf, got you know, finally got some decent instruction. And when I mean instruction, and you guys can understand this, I know Bruce can, I might get two lessons a year. Maybe, maybe three. You might get tips along the way, you would emulate things. Some guy might hit a bunker shot that was one of the better players in the club, and you might go, you know, finally, you know, corner him and have him go show you a little something. But as far as you know, paying my father paying someone to give me a lesson, I would get one or two a year. If Bruce Devlin would have told me, not to age ourselves, but somebody said, Go see Bruce, you know, you're the pro and I went to see you, and it was you know $200 an hour, and you told me like three things. Mark, if you'll do this, this, and this, you'll become a better player. That's what I went and worked on.

Bruce Devlin 23:46

Yeah.

Mark Brooks 23:47

Relentlessly. And so I didn't need you know, constant confirmation because I watched my ball flight and you know, learned how to play, and I took to heart what he said. It meant a lot, you know what I mean? It's like, so I didn't, and then I didn't go running back two months later and go, I'm not playing very good, I need some help. So I go, I went and figured it out because whatever he told me, I believed him. You know, I trusted him. I bought in. And you know, and mine came from pretty much, you know, Doug Higgins. Or uh I went there an old pro named Art Hall was at Shady Oaks for many, many years. And of course, you know, he was a good teacher, and I would go see him about once a year, and it was classic. What did you work on when you went over there? Grip, posture, ball position, maybe one good swing thought. That's it.

Bruce Devlin 24:38

Yeah, basic fundamentals.

Mark Brooks 24:40

Yes, sir. I went to see Harvey Pennick, you know, I said, Oh, be careful, he'll make your grip real strong and all that. Well, I was uh by this time, probably about a junior in high school. Well, I was putting terrible, which is the main reason I went down there. And of course, Harvey comes out and he really couldn't follow the flight of the ball much, but you know, so he he was a little bit arched already, you know, tilted over, and so he didn't really need to watch. And it turned out every shot I hit, he was just watching my hands, you know, the midsection region of my golf swing, and he called every shot I hit without watching it. He knew exactly where every shot went because he was probably already in his late 70s or what in the 70s at the time. But in the end, here's the point he didn't say one word about my grip. Everybody warning me, oh, he's gonna make you a big old hooker, all this stuff. Not a word. He got done, he goes, you know, how do you like your flight? I go, it looks pretty good. He goes, I'll meet you on the putting green. So my first lesson with Harvey Pennick on the range, he said zero. Just sort of keep doing what you're doing. It was good. Then we go to the putting green, and now the fun starts. So this is where I was really having trouble. And we get on the green, and he says, I'll meet you over there. So he goes, go over and kind of get used to the speed of the greens. And then so I go, he shows up and he goes over to one hole on the side of the green, and he has put a ball down, and he says, Come over here. So I'll go over, and it's about a 10-footer. Let's let's say probably a two or three-inch brake putt. No, no big deal. And he said, I want you to really concentrate and make this putting. You know, you need to pretend like this is to you know to win the state junior or something. So I line it up, do all my plumb bob, copy the tour guys. I get over it and I hit the putt. And as soon as my my the ball left my putter face, he grabs the putter and he twists it up and looks at the face. And he he doesn't say a word, he goes, Come back in a second. I move away, come back. He's got the same routine. Come back, I hit, do the same routine again. I hit the putt. He does the same. As soon as the ball's gone, he jerks, grabs my shaft, turns the face up to me, and goes, Look where you're hitting it. He had put chalk, white chalk, on the back of the white golf ball. And I'd hit it like, you know, way in the heel, for example. And he said, You'll never make a putt hitting it here. And so my he goes, until you learn how to hit it right here, and he's pointing right at the center of that putter face, he said, You'll make nothing. So he said, You gotta learn how to hit the center of the face. He probably gave me a couple of tips and off you go. Yeah. So that that was but you what did I do? I went back, and who knows, for the next you know, year, six months, I totally focused on striking every pot in the center of the face. Yeah, there were no there were no tricks, there were no you know, 69.95 training aids to stick on your putter. It was hit it in the middle of the face. But uh his chalk trick on that white golf ball was pretty ingenious, I will tell you.

Bruce Devlin 27:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pretty good. Interesting. Interesting story, Mike.

Mike Gonzalez 27:45

You know, you played uh in a golf a great golf program at um at Texas, and so you must have been exposed to other guys that had had some success there and on the tour, and it probably influenced you a little bit.

Mark Brooks 27:57

I I did, and I got off on the story, so how did I progress? So fortunate I got became a better good enough player to start playing some national junior stuff, uh, started regional. Uh like, for example, uh our state junior had I'm gonna say had waned a little bit in its prestige, and they they needed to probably change golf courses. They played a golf course that had been a little bit that was gotten a little tired, so it didn't have a great reputation. And I I want to say I only played the state junior one time when I was about 11 or something and never went back. And it wasn't just because the golf course, it's because other events were started happening. Uh, there was a tournament called the Insurance Youth Classic, and uh you you qualified regional, well actually almost locally, then you went to state, and then they paid your if you made that, they paid your way to the nationals. Um and Bert Roos, you may remember that's the one where the final two rounds, all the all the kids got paired with tour pros.

Bruce Devlin 28:56

Yeah.

Mark Brooks 28:56

So that was a huge deal. You know, I made that a couple of times. Uh fortunately, qualified for a couple of U.S. juniors, uh, you know, future masters, which was a big deal in Dothan, Alabama. So I got to play quite a bit. And by the time I was a senior in high school, I I had won a couple things. Uh I actually won our state amateur. Uh, I'm gonna say the summer of my after my senior year in college in high school. So, you know, almost a high schooler and won the state am. And we had we had a lot of good players in the state. And uh so that I I'd climbed that ladder, you know, got into the top, more of the top level at junior uh in junior golf, and then you go on to Texas. Now you're in the now now, I get to get in the bigger ocean, and you're a smaller fish. And you know, I didn't win a tournament. I'll just start out with this. I didn't win a tournament in college until my senior year. Now I'm gonna tell you one reason I didn't win a tournament my freshman probably or sophomore years are names like Bobby Clampett, Hal Sutton, John Cook, Joey Sindelar, Gary Hallberg, uh Bob Tway. You I mean, it's like, do you want me to go on?

Intro Music 30:09

Yeah.

Mark Brooks 30:10

You weren't gonna beat those guys.

Intro Music 30:12

Yeah.

Mark Brooks 30:13

So, you know, it's kind of like you, you, you're out there, you're just not good enough yet. These guys are are already really, really good. And, you know, it was a pretty Southwest conference where I played, of course, had a bunch of those guys in there. And we, and as y'all are most people are quite aware, you actually don't just in college golf, even back back in the dark ages, we didn't just play against our conference. We played real regionally, and probably two or several times a year, you know, national. If you were a decent team, a lot of teams small of the country would would come and play in one event. So we played against Oklahoma State. You know, Houston was still a powerhouse in golf at that time.

Bruce Devlin 30:53

Yes, they were.

Mark Brooks 30:54

Billy Ray Brown, uh, Fred couples. Oh, I forgot Fred. Oh, that's right. Fred was there when I started college. Um, so I mean, it was so it was a it wasn't just a learning experience, but it was a great learning experience playing with those guys. You also weren't going to beat them. So it just became my time. Okay, I you know stuck with the game plan, uh, kept getting better, played, you know, played better and probably in the summers than I did during the school year. Uh obviously I'd had less on my plate other than playing golf when you're you know out on the summer circuit. And I just, you know, finally my senior year, I became, I won't say became a way better player, but attrition and age, we got to age those guys out. So they all moved on to the PGA tour, and here we are. We're now three or four years older, and we're, you know, now we're the top class, so it's your turn. And that's honestly, that's what happened. So uh, you know, Willie Wood, Brad Faxon, I can name all the guys. That that's my class, the Andrew McGee's, you know, all guys that went on to play the tour for many, many years. Uh, that was kind of our that was my my era of class, and uh a lot of guys went on and actually, you know, and played the tour very successfully for many, many years.

Bruce Devlin 32:09

Yeah.

Mark Brooks 32:10

Uh the tour, same deal. Now you make the next step, you decide to go play the tour. Again, got through Q-School my first shot. You know, it was probably the the uh the it was a good curse because I had to go learn how to play pretty fast. Uh you know, as Bruce can attest, once you think you know how to play, you really kind of get out there, and then it's a whole new learning experience. But uh that that was my road to the tour. And uh, you know, it was just uh it wasn't a matter of biding, you know, I wouldn't say biding your time, but it was like recognizing honestly, guys, after the fact, when you look back, when someone says, Well, why didn't you ever win a tournament? And then you sort of assess it and go, it would have been really, really hard, you know, with the skill set you had, the experience you had to beat that that type those those guys that were still around. Um anyway, that's that that's how I wrote got to the tour.

Mike Gonzalez 33:01

So who was most influential in helping you with that decision that you finally made to say, okay, I'm gonna do this for a living?

Mark Brooks 33:10

I I've thought about it some. It was more around my junior year in college. I didn't go into college thinking I'm gonna play the tour. It was always uh, you know, it'd be cool if it happened, but you don't know if you're good enough. And you you know I haven't been even though you've played on the national stage with U.S. amateurs, U.S. juniors, you're not sure if you can do it. And I would say it took at least until my junior year before I thought, you know, I'm probably gonna give this a shot. But now you have the issue of financial backing. It, you know, you got to figure out out. I mean, we could I my family certainly couldn't afford to put me out there, so I made it look fortunate I was able to make some contacts. And the guys that actually stepped to the plate were guys that became pretty big in in in uh let's say college, amateur, and finally professional golf, and that's the guys in Abilene, Texas. It was they they owned a company called Le Jet Oil. They were a petroleum, uh honestly, jet fuel was their primary business at the time. And there were uh there were four or five partners, and they started hosting some big amateur events, and you know, so I got to become really good friends with those guys, and there we are again out in West Texas, you know, where part of my DNA started, and those guys, you know, we became good enough friends that, you know, by about that period, so whatever I am, almost probably about 20, they're you know, they we get along really well, and the discussion finally at some point, probably my senior year, comes up that if you get, you know, if you want to give it a shot, I'm sure we can scrape enough together around here to sell a few barrels of oil and you give you a shot at the PGA tour. And that's those were my original backers. Uh they were uh out of there, out of Abilene, Texas. Uh they built a golf course, they they had a golf company. Dave Pells, the world-renowned short game instructor, had a full-blown golf equipment company. They actually owned that company. Uh, I my first events as a when I finally got my card, I carried a Dave Pels featherlight golf bag. So uh it was very interesting, but those are the guys that gave me the the first shot. I did, I will mention why, to be fair, and that that lasted a couple years. I basically was able to, I'm gonna say, almost wean myself off of them. Uh I kept my card the first you know year, and I did have to go back to school several times. Uh, but only that last time was I actually kind of in jeopardy of not being able to play much. Uh I was finishing in the what we call the proverbial 126 to 150. And in the 80s and probably even through the early 90s, that that particular category would could get in 25 events. You were you were not dead in the water if you finished you know 126 to 150. Both anyway, well, that was my sidebar. Back to the money. I then needed some assistance later on. I'd gotten married, and finally it was you know, I'd about to have a child, and a group of mine, got uh friends of mine from the and back to the diamond oaks. The stories always circle back to the base, you know, put together a group and uh gave me a let's just call it a uh a nice cushion to go out there and feel like I didn't need to worry about money for a while. And uh that group formed, and my dad was kind of behind getting it started, and uh they they were my second set of let's call them sponsors, and proudly I can say I was able to pay them off, pay them back, and uh knock on wood. None of those guys, uh including the original guys, yeah, lost money on me. So I I turned out to be an okay bet. Nobody got rich on the deal, but uh I I didn't leave I didn't leave owing a whole bunch of money to those guys, which was great. But it was I couldn't have started without them. Uh it would have been impossible, honestly.

Mike Gonzalez 37:09

Thank you for listening to another episode of For the Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, tell your friends until we teat up again with the good of the game so on.

Intro Music 37:33

It went smack down the fairway. It started to slice, just smit off line. Headed for two, but it bounced off time. My caddies, as long as you're still in the state, you're okay.