"Tommy is such a good boy and for somebody to come from a small town like Bishopville, be a little unorthodox, never went to college and win on the PGA Tour? How hard do you think that is?"
/From Doug Ferguson's game story on the course-record-60-shooting Tommy "Two Gloves" Gainey breathing life into the McGladrey Classic, which feels like a fall version of the Tavistock Cup only with much smaller galleries.
"Oh, man," Gainey said. "I tell you, you're out here on the PGA Tour. You're playing with the best players in the world. Ninety-nine percent of these guys have already won, and won majors, big tournaments. The only show I can say I've won is the `Big Break.' Now I can sit here and say I've won the McGladrey Classic here at Sea Island, and I'm very proud to be in this tournament and very proud to win. And wow, it's been a whirlwind day.
Tim Rosaforte does a nice job capturing the Gainey backstory beyond the Dexter Morgan two black glove look, including this from Tommy Sr.:
During the two-and-a-half-hour wait between when Gainey posted his 60 and Furyk, Tommy Sr. and Tommy Jr. talked on the phone. When Toms hit a drive, Tommy Jr. could hear Tommy Sr. rooting it into a fairway bunker.
"He said, 'Dad, you can't pull against these guys," Gainey Sr. said. "I said, 'Tommy, those three guys they have everything, they're Hall of Famers."
When it was over, Tommy Sr. headed back to his house in Bishopville so his wife, Judy, could punch the clock for the graveyard shift at the wood plant. He took early retirement when he was 57 but now, at 65, he does consulting work for A.O. Smith, the factory where Tommy Jr. worked as a teenager wrapping insulation around water heaters for $8.25 an hour.
The miniscule PGA Tour highlight package that would look so much better on YouTube: