Calgarian scores exemption to Charity Classic
‘Dream summer’ goes on for golfer who qualified in June for U.S. Senior Open
After a major eye-opener earlier this summer, Calgary ’s Steve Blake has at least a sliver of experience golfing in front of a gallery.
Then again, he realizes it will be a different experience in two weeks when he tees it up as a hometown hopeful in the Shaw Charity Classic at Canyon Meadows.
“If there’s going to be a few nerves, it’s probably going to be because everybody I know is going to be there — all my family, all my friends,” said Blake, who was awarded an exemption for the PGA Tour Champions showdown Aug. 31- Sept. 2.
“When I looked around on the first tee at the U.S. Senior Open, there were probably 400 or 500 people, and I might have known three or four faces in the crowd. But I kind of have this feeling that I’m going to look around at the Shaw Charity Classic and say, ‘Geez, I know that guy. I know that guy. I know that guy.’
“Just another reason to get nervous, I guess. I’ll have to really practise my focus.”
As golf fans in Calgary have grown accustomed to, the sixth instalment of the Shaw Charity Classic will once again feature a star-studded field.
Davis Love III racked up 21 victories on the PGA Tour — the latest coming just three years ago — and still often competes against the kids. You know that guy.
Miguel Angel Jimenez, the cigarsmoking Spaniard who has topped the leaderboard at two senior majors this season, has been dubbed “The Most Interesting Man in Golf.” You know that guy.
Bernhard Langer, Colin Montgomerie, Mark O’Meara and Vijay Singh are all, like Love, enshrined in the World Golf Hall of Fame. You know those guys.
And what about the 50-year-old Blake, the latest addition to the lineup for the shootout at Canyon Meadows? Yeah, you might know this guy, too.
He’s a member at Hamptons Golf Club. A proud husband and father of two, he’s lived for 20-plus years in the community of Harvest Hills.
After a crack at tour golf in his younger days, he now works as a financial adviser.
Blake qualified in June to compete at the U.S. Senior Open in Colorado Springs, Colo. Although he finished four strokes south of the cutline in his first major championship, another reward was coming.
As Shaw Charity Classic organizers sifted through a stack of exemption requests, they saved a spot on the tee-sheet for the likable local.
Tournament director Sean Van Kesteren delivered the good news about a week ago.
“After I got the call from Sean, I was thinking, ‘Jeez, I’m really excited to get back in the lockerroom just to see if anybody actually recognizes me from the U.S. Senior Open,’ ” Blake said.
“I’ve been given this great opportunity to sort of carry on this dream summer, to keep it going. The U.S. Senior Open, as far as the golf goes and what I need to do on the golf course to succeed and to play against those guys, it was an invaluable experience. And I’m just so excited to get another opportunity so quickly and to use everything that I learned there and put it in use here at the Shaw Charity Classic. I really want to compete. I really want to win or have a high finish. At least, prepare myself for that.
“Some of us wait for 10 years, 15 years, to get an opportunity like this. There are other guys that will wait their whole lives and never really experience what I’ve been fortunate enough to experience just in the past month or two. So I’m very, very fortunate.”
A friend, he said to me, ‘Blaker if you do get in, I’m going to start making T-shirts up. It’s going to be Blaker’s Army.’
The Shaw Charity Classic has averaged about 40,000 fans per year, part of the reason organizers have made an annual habit of rewriting the record for the largest donation in PGA Tour Champions history.
On several occasions, Blake has been among the spectators at Canyon Meadows. This year, he’ll be among the birdie-seeking stars of the show.
“A friend, he said to me, ‘Blaker if you do get in, I’m going to start making T-shirts up. It’s going to be Blaker’s Army, and we’re going to give them out to anybody who wants one,’ ” Blake said. “He’s talking about doing up a Facebook page or something to get the word out. He said, ‘I want hundreds of these things, hundreds of people wearing them.’ ”
Blake pauses, perhaps pinching himself as he ponders the potential scene.
“Honestly, I think it’s just going to be awesome.”