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52 °F Forecast | Road Cams Saturday, September 18, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People 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 August 29, 2004 Fitzpatrick lends hand By KRIS HENRY Mail Tribune Jim Fitzpatrick has always been a visionary when it comes to the world of golf. Early on, that vision included him as a hopeful member of the PGA Tour mingling with the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, etc. These days, it’s Fitzpatrick’s visions of golf that decorate the homes of such professionals, as well as golf enthusiasts around the world. "I had tournament golf hopes," says the acclaimed, self-taught artist, "but it was never lucrative enough to take the time off to try and make that happen." Golf brought Fitzpatrick to the Rogue Valley in 1974 as the head professional at Oak Knoll Golf Course, and it brings the California native back this week after being commissioned to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Southern Oregon Golf Tournament. Advertisement "It’s a terrific event," he says. "I’ve probably been there five or six times in the last 10 years and I always enjoy coming back." Fitzpatrick’s recently completed work, which features a handful of scenes spanning the rich history of the Rogue Valley Country Club event, will be awarded as tee prizes to this year’s participants and will also be available for purchase at the club. The entire process began one year ago when he was approached to do the commemorative work and has included between 300 and 400 hours of actual painting time on the detailed piece already getting rave reviews from RVCC officials. "Mr. Fitzpatrick put together a very nice print representing the country club and Southern Oregon Golf Tournament," says Hugh Graham, general manager at RVCC. "It’s something you’re not going to find anywhere else. It’s 75 years of our history on one canvas, and Mr. Fitzpatrick did a wonderful job representing that." Done in two tones, the more traditional aspects of the SOGT piece have been painted in sepia and feature an early tournament moment with an orchard backdrop, legendary golfer Chandler Egan, RVCC founder Glen Jackson and women’s champion Helen Milne. More recent images in standard hues include two Rogue Valley holes overlaid and a deck scene depicting the revelry that is a highlight of the Southern Oregon experience each year. "Hugh was real great," Fitzpatrick, 56, says of leeway given by Graham and the rest of the RVCC board. "He said, ‘You’re the artist, you come up with the concept.’ We had talked about a collage and I sent him some drawings about three months ago and he wrote off on it and said it was fine." An added feature of the lithograph is a half-inch border around the inside of the image that has the name and year for every champion in the 75 years of the SOGT in the men’s, women’s, senior and junior-senior divisions. "To me, that’s the best part," says Graham. "To me, that’s like a family heirloom. It’s family history as I like to call it, a traditional history within the club." Because of the sheer volume of championship names, that feature was done graphically on a computer and printed on a final canvas that Fitzpatrick had to paint around. It’s all a far cry from Fitzpatrick’s beginnings in the art world. His first attempt at painting was of a solitary golf ball. At the time he was working at KOBI television and was a part-time instructor at Bear Creek Golf Course. Fitzpatrick recalls Vern Perry, who ran the driving range at Bear Creek, shrugging off the attempt at art as "too plain." Fitzpatrick went back to the drawing board, adding a butterfly to the golf ball image, then a frog to another and a lady bug to yet another. His first attempt at a broader scene came when he painted an Oregon golf hole in 1978 in a piece Fitzpatrick simply refers to as "ugly." In 1983, he produced the first two paintings he was happy with (holes No. 15 at Cypress Point and No. 4 at Pebble Beach in California) and had them printed along with the whimsical golf ball drawings. "I had a supposed art critic or specialist say, ‘I don’t know about these (golf ball drawings), but I can use these others,’" Fitzpatrick recalls. While the whimsical pieces did find a hint of fame as the lead-in images for a commercial break following Johnny Carson’s trademark golf swing to wrap up his "Tonight Show" monologue, it’s Fitzpatrick’s golfing images that have made him one of the most renowned artists of that genre. Fitzpatrick estimates that he has done pieces for about 30 different PGA Tour events, along with countless commissioned pieces for smaller, private events and corporate gift-giving. Fitzpatrick owns about 50 of his near 200 original pieces, and estimates he’s done another 100 pencil drawings of top golfers and has well over 200,000 photographs of golf courses and famous figures in his collection. "Photography is probably what I have the most fun with," he says. "You’re either out late or early with no one around and you can do whatever you want in search of a beautiful scene." In truth, though, Fitzpatrick admits his artistic pursuits merely disguise a desire to play the top golf courses in the world and hobnob with the game’s most notable figures. "It isn’t the art, it’s the people I get to work with and the places I’m allowed to play," he says, adding that he’s working on a piece for Nicklaus now and has done some for Palmer, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Billy Casper and Lee Trevino in the past. Fitzpatrick estimates that he has played about 60 of the top 100 courses in the world and about 300 overall. "I have a very controlled game," says the 6 handicap, who was a plus 1 in the late 1960s. "I can play Bethpage Black or Rogue Valley and shoot the same score. I’m not real long, and I don’t putt like I should." The latter belies expectations for someone with a detailed eye for scenery, but Fitzpatrick dismisses the notion of any advantage he might have with such visualization. "It’s not reading them that’s the problem," he says. "It’s being able to hit it where you aim with the right speed." Reach reporter Kris Henry at 776-4488, 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 © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. 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