Tower Tee's Bob Gaus Readies To Tee It Up At Southern Hills
Jul 27, 2007
|
| |||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||
Southern Hills serves as the venue for this year's 89th PGA Championship, to be held Aug. 9-12., and Gaus was looking forward to getting his first look at the course. As one of 20 PGA Professionals (teaching pros) to qualify for the year's final major, Gaus will compete against the likes of Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and other of the world's top-ranked golfers. Gaus, age 46, qualified for the PGA Championship, one of golf's four majors, by finishing in the top 20 at the 40th PGA Professional National Championship held June 21-24 at Crosswater Golf Club in Sunriver, Ore. With 312 professional golfers in the field, the Crestwood resident and Lindbergh High School graduate posted a 72-hole score of three-over-par — winning a playoff on the first extra hole to earn a berth in this year's PGA Championship. After a solid start his first two days (73-67), Gaus' dreams of making it to the PGA Championship were almost dashed when he carded a disappointing third round score of 79. He rebounded the next day, however, with a one-under-par 71, shooting two-under par on the final nine holes. "The last day I didn't have anything to lose," Gaus said. "I played my game and stayed focus. I think I passed about 40 guys on the last nine. I'm pretty happy with what I did — to put up a good score after that 79." Gaus was among six players tied for 16th place with only five spots available. A playoff ensued. "One of them bogeyed the first hole (of the playoff) and the rest of us had tap ins for our pars and a trip to Southern Hills," Gaus said. Though Gaus has never played on the PGA tour, he did compete in the 1998 and 2000 PGA Championships, as well as the 1990 U.S. Open. He said his goal at Southern Hills is to make the 36-hole cut and advance to weekend play. "I'm going to Southern Hills to win like everyone else, but I have to be realistic. My goal is to make the cut, and then to move on from there," Gaus said. Gaus played Southern Hills for the first time on Tuesday. He said the course is in perfect shape, is well manicured, and will be a "very fair" test of players' abilities. "There are some tight driving holes, and players will have to work the ball with fades or draws. And you better have a pretty good short game out of the rough, which was about three and a half inches tall. It's a fair test, but it will be difficult," Gaus said. Gaus was a first-team NCAA Division II All-American at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. He turned professional in 1983 and played on the former Nike Tour from 1996-98 — making seven cuts in 10 events. He played full time on the Buy-com tour in 2001. Gaus has won just about every local tournament there is to win. He has been named the Gateway PGA "player of the year" four times, and is working toward a fifth honor for 2007. He was a member of the 1998 U.S. PGA Cup Team, posting a 3-0-1 record. In 1998, he finished second in the National Club Pro tournament played at Pinehurst, and in 2004 he was the winner of the Assistant Pro Championship. | |||||||||||||||||||
