A real life “Cinderella Story”…Steve Wilson headed to The Masters

Steve Wilson in action during the USGA’S Mid-Amateur Championship in September of 2008 (Courtesy: USGA)

Former MGCCC golfing great set to play at Augusta in April

Former Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College golf coach Charles Cooper used to have a saying: “Golf is a game of days….and when it’s your day, nobody can beat you.”

For Steve Wilson, “his day” turned into five days of the best golf of his life.

The funny thing is, Wilson was actually thinking about walking away from competitive golf before his trip to the 2008 United States Golf Association Mid-Amateur Championship changed everything.

Wilson made an improbable run at the 2008 USGA Mid-Am in September of 2008. The first Mississippian to ever win this event, he won six matches in five days, with the finale being a win over Todd Mitchell 5 and 4 (meaning Wilson was five holes ahead with four to play) in the final match at the 7,004-yard Milwaukee Country Club. Wilson says, “I qualified for the Mid-Am at Annandale Country Club in Madison. “From there, we played two rounds on two different courses in Milwaukee, and out of 264 golfers, they took the best 64 scores, and those players began match play.”

This win wasn’t just a trip to the Midwest full of good golf and nice memories. By winning the U.S. Mid-Amateur, Wilson qualified for the Professional Golf Association’s (PGA) tour event in Mississippi (The Viking Classic). The big prize was an invitation to play in the 2009 Masters in Augusta, Ga.

“I really didn’t play that well during the first few matches,” Wilson said. “But I kept running into golfers who were playing worse than I was. So with each win, I got more confidence. It's like hitting the lottery for me. I knew I had some game. I never believed I could win anything this big. At the same time, I knew it was possible. I really didn’t expect to win. I haven’t been playing all that well this year. I was actually thinking about making this my last year of competitive golf.”

So much for that notion.

“Before the Mid-Am, I would tell people ‘Oh yea, and if I win, I’ll go to the Masters…’ But during every match, it’s in the back of your mind. I kept thinking ‘I’m this much closer to going.’ I tried to block it out, but of course it’s going to pop into your mind. Everyone wants to be a national champion…that’s great, but the Masters is the prize that everybody really wants.”

Now Wilson will be teeing it up at Augusta National…the Mecca of golf in the United States. He’ll compete against Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, and all the PGA greats.

“It still hasn’t sunk in yet. “With each day I’m thinking, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe they’re going to let me tee the ball up and play in front of all those people’…I just can’t believe it.”

Not bad for a kid from St. Martin who grew up playing golf with his father at Bay Breeze Golf Club, the challenging layout that snakes through part of Kessler Air Force Base in Biloxi.

“We’d go out there (to Keesler) and walk two rounds every Saturday and Sunday,” said Tom Wilson, Steve’s father. “He started when he was around 9 or 10 years old. By the time he was 12, they were picking him to play in scramble tournaments out there.”

Even back then, Tom said he knew Steve had the tools to become a good golfer.

“I always figured he would get there, but I thought it would be by a different route. If I would’ve been like Phil Mickelson’s dad and built him a sand trap and a green in the backyard, he probably would have.”

From there, Wilson, a D’Iberville native, went to high school at St. Martin, then at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College under golf coach Charles Cooper. In 1990, he and fellow Bulldog golfers won the State/Region 23 golf championship and then played in the NJCAA National Tournament. That trip represented the first time ever that Gulf Coast had an entire golf team represent the college at nationals. Wilson, along with Todd Donhaiser, David Lee (current pro at Windance Country Club in Gulfport), Wyatt Boyett and John Boothby, took fifth place in the event. On October 11 of this year, Wilson was one of six former athletes to be inducted in the MGCCC Athletic Hall of Fame.

“We won the state tournament at Hickory Hills in Gautier, which is now called Mississippi National,” Wilson says. “At that time, I wasn’t that good. If I broke 80, I was doing well, so it was definitely a big tournament at that point.” Wilson earned NJCAA All-Second Team honors at the national event. “There are so many different levels of golf,” he adds. “That experience definitely made me feel more confident.”

Wilson, in the middle of an historic run, says there’s still a Bulldog connection with his game: Charles Cooper. “I still call Coach Cooper all the time for swing advice and other tips,” he says. “He recently worked with me on my putting, and I feel like that was a pretty big factor in my recent success. It was an alignment thing. It was really hard to aim at the hole the way I was setting up. Now I have a much better set up over the ball, and it’s much easier to aim putts. What’s weird about golf is little things can make a huge difference.”

Like the little thing he did with his swing back in the early 1990’s that changed his golfing destiny. Wilson had finished playing college golf at The University of Southern Mississippi and was on the course one day when he noticed something about his swing.

“I remember the shot. I had a pitching wedge into the green. “Every time I was in trouble and I needed to cut the ball (a “cut” is basically a fade or a slice…for right-handed golfers that means the ball fades from left to right), I would try to do it and it wouldn’t cut very much. So I decided to aim right at the pin instead of to the left of the pin. It (the ball) went straight at the flag. Ever since then I either cut it a little bit or hit it straight. That made a huge difference. Before that, I hooked everything. I could hit it a mile, but I was really wild. When I started moving the ball left to right, I started getting better really quick.”

That meant trouble for amateur golfers in South Mississippi. Wilson went on to win more than 13 local and regional golf tournaments and has competed at the professional level on several occasions. That championship resume includes seven Coast Open titles and a Mississippi State Amateur title in 2007. However, none of those compare to winning the US Mid-Am. The crazy part is Wilson had never won a match play event before his trip to Milwaukee.

"I love match play because you can be super aggressive," said Wilson, who owns a couple of gas stations in the South Mississippi area.

Many, including current MGCCC golf coach Tommy Snell, think Steve’s win at the Mid-Am and his upcoming trip to Augusta is the biggest thing to hit South Mississippi’s golf scene in years.

“With the addition of so many new golf courses, and the Gulf Coast becoming a golf destination, Steve’s accomplishment makes us a bigger blip on the map,” Snell said. “It’s huge. It also helps us at MGCCC. Anytime you have someone go on to fame it helps. This is easily the biggest win for us from someone who’s played golf here.”

Snell added it also helped Wilson that he was a virtual unknown to many at the Mid-Am.

“I’m sure he expected to win…but he flew under the radar so to speak in the national circles. It didn’t take them long to find out he belonged.”

In fact, other than people on the Coast following every stroke via the tournament web site, Wilson was free to focus on golf, and five days of intense, pressure-filled competition.

“Thanks to the computer, we were able to keep up with it,” Tom Wilson said. “My daughter-in-law has a computer, but we don’t. My wife said ‘don’t call me with updates…I can’t stand it.’ I said ‘Call me…I can stand it!”

Next month, Tom and the rest of Wilson’s family and friends will be at Augusta to follow Steve’s journey. Granted, his gallery make not be as fabled as “Arnie’s Army,” the term used to describe the throngs of people that followed legendary golfer Arnold Palmer in the 1960’s.

“Army?” Wilson said. “I’m not even sure you could call it a squadron.”

They may not be strong in numbers, but they’ll be rooting on the Coast’s contribution to Augusta.”

“Are we going? You better believe it,” Tom said. “My oldest son lives in Savannah, so we’re going to stay there. You can’t get a room near Augusta.”

In the meantime, Steve plans to continue getting ready for The masters and spending time with his wife Shelly and 9-year-old son Gavin, who Steve says likes golf but isn’t crazy about it.

“He goes with me to play every once in a while,” Wilson said, “but he doesn’t like it too much. He’d rather play Nintendo or Wii.”

To be honest, Steve’s kind of like that too about golf. Not playing and competing, but playing badly and competing…something we can all relate to.

“I enjoy playing,” he said, “but I don’t have the love for the game like I used to. “In the old days, on the night before a tournament I would clean my clubs, map out my strategy, and mark my golf balls…all that stuff. On the night before the championship match in Milwaukee, the clubs didn’t leave the trunk of my car, and I didn’t clean anything. All I did was drink a couple of beers and play gin at the hotel. I like good golf. “When it’s not good golf, I’m not into it.”

That laid-back attitude could help Wilson when The Masters rolls around, because he’ll be on the driving range at Augusta hitting balls a few feet away from Tiger and Phil. That’s enough to make anyone a bit nervous.

“I’ve heard stories about some golfers who said the worst moments of their careers came on the first tee at Augusta,” he said. “I’m sure it’s going to be overwhelming, but that’s the great thing about golf. “If you’re in control of the golf ball, and you’re making it move the way you want, you don’t get that nervous. You get nervous when the ball won’t go where you want it to. That’s what makes me nervous…when I start playing bad.”

Hopefully that won’t happen to Steve. And when he tees off at Augusta for real next month, we’ll all be living vicariously through the guy that’s just happy to be there. While Steve’s journey to Augusta could easily be called a “Cinderella Story” (a reference from actor Bill Murray’s role as “Carl” the greens keeper in the classic golf movie “Caddy Shack”), a more accurate description of his newfound success would be the fruits of hard work and a desire to win.

On Mar. 11, Tommy Snell and other Steve Wilson supports held The Road to Augusta Invitational Tournament at Sunkist Country Club in Biloxi. More than 50 local golfers teed it up to support Wilson’s trip to Augusta, and roast him a bit to try and calm what has to be some impending nervousness about next month’s once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“We want him to know that all of South Mississippi is behind him, especially those of us who love golf and understand how big this is,” Snell said.

At the U.S. Mid-Am, Steve Wilson’s “golf is a game of days” moment lasted five days. At the Masters, he’s hoping for four more.

So are we.