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MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend July 3, 2004 Golf gods gave Barry a day to remember By TIM TROWER Mail Tribune Chipping in for eagle. Priceless. Sinking a tournament-winning, 35-foot birdie putt on the last hole. Priceless. Advertisement Getting your first hole-in-one in 25 years of playing and, with it, winning $20,000 toward a Cadillac. Priceless. Doing it all in the same round? Freakin’ unbelievable. Jeff Barry, a former major leaguer who isn’t short on athletic accomplishments, nevertheless had a day to rival any other Monday in the Cadillac Invitational at Eagle Point Golf Course. "At the dinner," says his wife, Teresa, referring to the post-tourney soiree at which an exotic vacation was raffled, "I told him, ‘If we win the Hawaii trip, we’re leaving right now and going to 7-Eleven to buy a lottery ticket.’" Barry was gracious enough to leave that prize for someone else. The scramble tournament, which benefits the National Kidney Foundation, is a qualifier for the national golf event at Pebble Beach each January. Barry, a mortgage broker for People’s Bank of Commerce, and teammates Buck Brigham, Brett Morris and Bill Thomas will make the trip after posting a winning score of 15 under par. They tied another team but won out on the tiebreaker. Being crowned champion culminated a dizzying afternoon for Barry, who still must decide if and how he’ll use the $20,000 toward a vehicle and sort out the resulting impact on his amateur status. Certainly, there are worse problems to have. Barry had a feeling early that it could be a special day. "That’s how I felt the whole afternoon after it (the ace) happened," he says. "It was only our second hole, and I was able to extend that feeling through the whole round of golf. That was my first hole-in-one, and to do it in that tournament on that hole with a car and everything is something else." His team made birdie on its starting hole, No. 2, then Barry stepped up with a 7-iron at the 181-yard third hole and launched his customary, left-to- right fade. "It’s funny," says Barry. "I hit it clean, but I took this big, huge divot. It stopped my swing; I wasn’t even able to follow through. It didn’t look and feel that good, but it turned out OK." The ball landed about pin high to the left, took a couple of short hops, then spun diagonally back and into the cup. After a moment of stunned disbelief, his teammates began to whoop and holler, prompting another team on the nearby 18th green to dash up and see about the commotion. "It was unbelievable," says Barry. He was just getting started. After a disappointing par 5 on the fourth hole, Barry chipped in for eagle at No. 5. His sculled shot from 20 yards short and left of the green careened into the flagstick, a la Wile E. Coyote into a rock, then popped up and fell into the hole. Barry had hit a similarly loose shot on the previous hole. "I told myself, ‘Don’t scull it,’ but I did," he says. When the ball fell, so did he to the ground. "I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. What’s going on here?’" Doubtless, the golf gods were at work. Surprisingly, Barry was something of a nonfactor on No. 6, the No. 1 handicap hole. After using his drives the first four holes, the team went with Thomas’ tee shot, which left them in the left rough, 181 yards out. Brigham stuffed a 6-iron to about 8 feet, then Morris dropped the putt for birdie. They didn’t know how pivotal that was until their final hole, No. 1. On the way from the 18th hole, which they birdied to go to 14 under, they came across Mark DeBoer’s team, which finished play at 15 under but only parred No. 6, the first tiebreaker hole. "We knew we had to birdie (our final) hole," says Barry. "We didn’t know where everyone else was, but we knew 15 (under) would be tough to beat." Barry’s drive left them 110 yards to a back pin, but they could get no closer than 35 feet with their approach shots. Putting second, Barry sank the downhill, left-to-righter. Barry knows he had the kind of day that will be tough to duplicate. "Pretty much," he says. "I’ll be talking about this for a while." It will go on his list of sports highlights: as a junior, quarterbacking Medford to the 1985 state football championship; being called up to the big leagues for the first time; as a Colorado Rockies outfielder in 1999, getting the best of Braves star John Smoltz by going 3-for-5 with a home run and five RBIs. "The chance of me having a game like that against the Braves and against Smoltz were probably the same as me getting a hole-in-one," he laughs. While the experience was priceless, Barry would pay a price in accepting the $20,000 certificate. The United States Golf Association doesn’t allow amateurs to receive prizes in excess of $750 — the amount was raised this year from $500 — without losing their amateur status for one year. "The USGA stays right to the fine line," says Jim Gibbons, executive director of the Oregon Golf Association. "You’re either an amateur or a nonamateur. The USGA looks upon this as not just a lucky shot, even though there’s a lot of luck involved." Barry, who plays to a 9 handicap out of Rogue Valley Country Club and isn’t a candidate to turn pro, thinks it’s a silly penalty for a once-in- a-lifetime shot but has no intention of violating rules. What often happens, says Gibbons, is that players who accept extravagant prizes often apply to be reinstated as amateurs at the same time. As a dues paying member, Barry would be able to play in Rogue Valley events without penalty and might be able to participate in other tournaments if no one protests or he doesn’t accept prizes. If he accepts the Cadillac prize, Barry would like to wait until after the Southern Oregon Golf Tournament so he can play in the prestigious event. "There are still a lot of questions to be answered," he says. One thing without question is that he had a day to remember. Have a local golf story idea? Reach sports editor Tim Trower at 776-4479, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. 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