The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Duke’s gratitude to mentor Toski still boundless
CROMWELL — Ken Duke walked to the first tee for the Travelers Championship Celebrity Pro-Am, laughing alongside comedian George Lopez, handing out footballs to former NFL quarterbacks Boomer Esiason and Dan Orlovsky.
His mentor was on his mind Wednesday.
Duke hit his second shot within 23 feet to birdie the par-5 13th hole to claw back to an opening round even-par 70. Yes, his friend was on his mind Thursday.
After birdies on five of his first six holes Friday morning, Duke survived three bogeys the rest of the way to go 2-under and slip under the cutline to play the weekend of the tournament he won in 2013.
Of course, Bob Toski was on Ken Duke’s mind.
“No question, he is,” Duke said. “Things happen for a reason. I won my first one here. He won his first one here. The truth is I’ve always got Bob Toski on my mind. Every day. He’s 91. C’mon.”
Eventually, the Splendid Splinter — who used to have the more famous Splendid Splinter cursing about how far a 126-pound man could hit a golf ball — will read Duke’s quote. And Toski will smile.
He will read another of Duke’s quotes: “I wouldn’t be talking to you if I had never met Bob Toski.” The great golf teacher will smile again.
Connecticut’s premier sporting event has had 57 individual champions since 1952. Toski won the Insurance City Open at Wethersfield in 1953. He won $2,400 for his first PGA Tour victory. Duke won the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in 2013. He won $1.098 million for his first.
The numbers are merely the product of time and economy. Sixty years between their Connecticut victories and the $1.0956 million difference in the champion’s purse could never separate these two men.
Toski admitted himself into Boca Raton Regional Hospital on June 9 where he suffered a major heart attack. He was in critical condition. There was great concern in the golf world, and Duke would feel much of that pain. He tweeted out a few pictures of him and Toski, standing there in his Kangol cap. There’s a photo where Duke is getting pointers from one of the game’s great instructors. In another, they’re holding the Travelers trophy with both their names on it. Two
names forever engraved alongside golfing greats Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, Billy Casper, Lee Trevino, Greg Norman, Phil Mickelson.
“Please pray for this Legend,” Duke tweeted.
By last weekend, Toski’s son Bruce was tweeting Toski had been able to walk around, called it a miracle. CBS12 in Florida reported Toski had needed six shocks from a defibrillator to bring him back to life, yet was able to watch South Florida’s Brooks Koepka win the U.S. Open. Toski predicted a handful of years ago Koepka had the talent to be another Palmer.
“Bob’s doing OK,” Duke said. “He’s out of ICU. He still has a long way to go. He’s not out of the woods yet. He’s doing better.”
Tim Rosaforte of The Golf Channel had a chance to chat with Toski on Friday and wrote that, yes, Toski had the paddles applied a half-dozen times. “It’s been quite a journey,” Toski told Rosaforte. “But I’m going home (Saturday).”
Toski called Duke on Thursday night, left him a message. Duke didn’t get a chance to talk to his mentor. Mentor actually doesn’t cover all of what Toski means to Duke. Mentor, friend, instructor — he has been all of it since they started working together in 2006.
“He changed my life,” Duke said Friday. “He changed thousands of other people’s lives, clubs pros and golf pros. He has touched everyone. The way they teach, the way they play golf. It’s hard to put words to his name. He is a special man.”
It was June 2013, after Duke had held off Chris Stroud in a Travelers playoff, after he had spoken about his battle with scoliosis and the 16-inch steel rod that runs down his back, that he turned to a phone call he had received that morning.
“It’s your time,” Toski told Duke.
Duke was 44; he’d just become one of the oldest guys ever to win a PGA Tour for the first time. He had known all the tours, Canadian, Asian, South American, Web.com. He struggled for years with the game. He had grown up in Arkansas, Hope and Arkedelphia, and never had many lessons. When he got to Florida, Toski told him to come see him. And as he talked that Sunday five years ago, 65 years since Toski won the IOC, man, you could feel the emotion. It was Ken Duke’s time.
Duke talked about how Toski taught him to really swing a golf club, to get around back problems. How he’d go over to Toski’s house just to talk about everything under the sun. Few times had the history of the tournament, the bond of the state’s great sport event, seemed so tight.
“A lot of times we have lunch and it’s all storytelling,” Duke said Friday. “We have time when we work on the game. If you’re on edge, you put a lot of stress on yourself. He doesn’t do that. He keeps you loose. He keeps you laughing. But he keeps you focused as well.”
Toski had come to the Travelers for a clinic in 2014 and he imparted this classic wisdom: “Once you swing with grace and ease, then your body it will please. But if you swing hard and fast, you’ll fall down on your …” That’s the guy born Robert John Algutoski in Haydenville, Mass., on Sept. 18, 1926. That’s the guy who won five times on the PGA Tour, led in earnings in 1954, became the first living instructor inducted into the World Golf Teachers Hall of Fame.
The guy called the Elegant Mouse and Splendid Splinter who taught champions like Tim Kite, Bruce Crampton and Judy Rankin. The Splendid Splinter who left Ted Williams amazed by his crushing shots. The man, Duke said in 2014, who refuses to take a penny from him.
“What’s the No. 1 thing he taught me? Have fun,” Duke said Friday. “He’s 91. And he’s still having fun. No question, he has put that in my mind.
“The momentum I had today kind of kicked me in the head on 2 (his 11th hole played). I hit it right in a divot in the middle of the fairway. I bogeyed. Kind of bad luck. I limped in.”
Duke seemed to hear a voice in his head. He remembered to have fun. He smiled.
“I’m so happy being here and seeing the fans,” Duke said.
With that, Ken Duke headed for lunch. A phone call from Bob Toski would come soon enough.