The legacy of this secretive golf legend has permeated the game. Ask Callaway's boss
GOLF Originals it's not a PBS production, but we're going to steal a PBS line here anyway: This series is made possible with the support of Callaway and its CEO, Chip Brewer.
Until now, GOLF Originals allowed viewers like you to see David Feherty, Tom Doak, Mike Whan, Brandel Chamblee and Padraig Harrington (hopefully!) in new and interesting ways. And here, in episode 6, we bring you O. Gordon Brewer Jr., and his son, OHGORDON3, aka Chip.
So, yes, we pointed our camera at our boss and, specifically, his father. We do this with pride. OGB is OG. He is one of golf's secret legends, like the late Sandy Tatum or Adolphus (Golf Ball) Hull. Gordon is a starter.
Gordon Brewer grew up in yes ma'am working family – little leisure time, few frills, church on Sundays – Winston-Salem, NC He found his way to golf by going to a mom-and-pop driving range while attending Guilford College in Greensboro on a basketball scholarship. Ten years later, he was a husband, a father, a business executive — and one of the best freshmen in a city full of them, Philadelphia.
Gordon played in 42 USGA events, including six US Senior Opens, and won the US Senior Amateur twice. He was president of Pine Valley for ten years and then some. He has been on the USGA board of directors for years and won the Bob Jones Award, the USGA's highest honor, in 2009. Tiger Woods won it this year, thanks to his record playing and philanthropy focused on education. Gordon earned it through his playing record and his golf-to-the-core integrity. There are many Bob Jones in O. Gordon, and some Ben Hogans, too. He doesn't need many words.
I first met Mr. Brewer in 1988, Pine Valley. His golf was exceptional and he was also very accurate. Gordon was in the 13th grade. I say and remain silent. On the 14th, a long, downhill 3 over the lake, he washed his shot and spoke (loudly) his first words of the round. It was a question to his friend: “What did you say the yard was?” Followed by, “I hit the wrong club.”
Darren Riehl/GOLF
But the most important thing about the round came before we played our first shots. (No mulligans. PV is not a breakfast ball type.) I was a reporter on it The Philadelphia Inquirer then. On the day of our game, there was a front-page article I had written about a 15-year-old Philadelphia high school student and football player who had been stabbed to death by another student outside their school, Frankford High. “It made me cry,” said Mr. Brewer.
Golf at its best informs your world. The world as it is and as it should be informs every aspect of Gordon's life. You will hear a voice integrity usually in this little document of 10 minutes. There's a story telling in it, a father and son play at a party in Pine Valley, and the father calls a penalty to his son and teaches him a lesson, which has informed every aspect of Chip's life ever since.
In a way of speaking, Callaway's support of the series is a great gift to the game, helping us explore interesting lives and interesting people in the game, in interesting places. (We shot Feherty in Las Vegas. We shot the Brewers in Pine Valley, NJ) I wish Sandy Tatum and Golf Ball were still alive. It would have been great for this series. If you have suggestions of people we should include, please send them my way, famous or not. I am trying to find the now retired CC Sabathia. I know that from talking to him golf has improved all aspects of his life. Gordon Brewer can say the same. It is the beginning of many things, including a place in this series.
Try to hold back as you watch him play the snippets in this video. he is 88! The beat! It's hard to imagine lifting it to a better beat anywhere years of age.
Gordon likes baseball, basketball, golf, competition. His son and daughter and his long, long marriage have all been enriched and shaped by golf and its values. Some may laugh at that sentence, but those people are not, as the old editor used to say, of golf. Gordon is here. I once introduced Gordon to a baseball player named Joe Pignatano. He was a Brooklyn Dodger and Los Angeles Dodger hitter in his last at-bat. When Gordon, who was the president of the club at the time, came to us, I thought we might be in trouble with playing low, playing high, something. Nothing of the sort. Gordon shook Joe's hand, and they talked about Koufax.
Topgolf is a big part of Callaway's business today. I remember Chip telling me about Topgolf years ago, under a tree in Augusta. Callaway didn't sound right to me. It shows you why I type for a living. Chip knew how his father got his golf swing, by driving with a bunch of bent clubs. You did the work. Now imagine a driving range with good balls, new clubs and cold beer?
My father saw everything. He knew about his life and his times: If you can find people in golf, it's a good thing. Here's Gordon.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at [email protected].
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