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What started out last month as a casual conversation on the back patio at Maridoe Golf Club between a few members and the club’s owner ended up as a sort of exhibition for golf’s action-starved fan base. Pull back the curtain on last month’s Maridoe Samaritan Fund Invitational and you’ll get a window into how golf can continue amid a global pandemic.
The first tournament was such a hit, in fact, that the Maridoe Samaritan Fund Invitational 2.0 (or MSFI) is already scheduled for May 19-21.
The men’s game at Maridoe, a golf oasis in Dallas, is stiff. Morrison’s 15-year-old son Tommy, Golfweek’s top-ranked junior in the class of 2023, plays in it regularly. He was part of the conversation from which the tournament was born – a “what if” the club’s regular (and high-level) grudge matches got a little more formal?
As a get-together grew into a proper tournament – albeit one with strict social-distancing measures in place – word started spreading and everyone wanted in. Alison Morrison, the managing member at Maridoe, had filled the 72-player field in six days. Her phone was ringing off the hook.
The inaugural event was a wild success on many levels, from the more than $20,000 raised for Maridoe’s caddies to a stellar field that ranged from Korn Ferry Tour players to top collegians. Jordan Spieth played only as a marker (he was famously robbed of a hole-out by a spacer in the hole) because he was tied up early week with PGA Tour Players Advisory Council duties, but he’s in the field for the MSFI 2.0.
“This was a beautiful opportunity to contribute to the Maridoe Samaritan Fund and help those caddies who have been affected,” Maridoe owner Albert Huddleston said in a statement. “Simultaneously, it provides opportunity for tremendous pleasure and support when playing the sport I enjoy most. If you do things correctly, follow guidelines, and all things required under the Dallas County ‘Order’ – then golf is a perfect sport to play.”
Scottie Scheffler logged his first win of 2020 (though unofficial) at the 54-hole event played April 28-30. Scheffler was one ahead of Korn Ferry Tour player Will Zalatoris and two ahead of PGA Tour rookie Viktor Hovland.
The event has the unmistakable touch of a golf mom. As Morrison saw Hovland off at the end of the event, she asked for a text when he arrived home, to let her know he had made it safely. But she got more than that.
“Do it again!” came the request from Hovland, adding that he had Scheffler in his sights. Morrison passed it along to the winner, who seemed up for the challenge. He wanted bookend trophies, he said in returning the rib.
Once again, the requests flooded in and this time the field is expanding to several recognizable Tour names. The 78-player field is nearly finalized, with almost 30 more players on a waiting list. The encore 54-hole event falls a week before the Tour’s scheduled return at Colonial Country Club in nearby Fort Worth for the Charles Schwab Challenge.
“Colonial is in a few weeks, so why wouldn’t you want to play?” Morrison reasons.
It’s not just that. Maridoe is hosting the Southern Amateur, an elite amateur event, July 15-18. That’s a big plus for the collegians in the field. Initially, the NCAA prohibited collegians from competing until the end of the regularly scheduled college season, but that’s cleared up now.
A juiced-up field isn’t the only new detail this time around. This time, pros can play for whatever charity is close to their hearts.
“The tagline is, who do you play for?” Morrison said.
Among the confirmed Tour players in the field are Abe Ancer, Austin Cook, Beau Hossler, Brandon Wu, Doc Redman, Davis Riley, Harry Higgs, John Senden, Scheffler, Sebastian Munoz, Talor Gooch, Hovland, Zalatoris and Spieth.
Tony Romo, who plays golf as an amateur, will return and so will some of college golf’s best, including recent Haskins Award winner Sahith Theegala. The college presence also includes U.S. Amateur runner-up John Augenstein, Cooper Dossey, Austin Eckroat (low amateur at the last event), Cole Hammer, Travis Vick, Parker Coody, Pierceson Coody, Noah Goodwin and Quade Cummins.
Version 2.0 of the Maridoe event also includes Tommy Morrison’s hand. The junior golfer, who is verbally committed to Texas, wondered if the top two ranked juniors from each of the next four high school classes could have a place in the field. He and close friend Gaven Lane, verbally committed to Oklahoma State, will represent the class of 2023.
“It will be kind of be interesting to see how (the juniors) stack up against the bigger stage players,” Morrison said.
That makes the Maridoe Samaritan Fund Invitational the ultimate – and the rare – hybrid event. Morrison teed it up in the first event, too. It was his first real (albeit unofficial) Tour start. He had an opening 72 playing alongside Scheffler.
There’s maybe no one in the field who knows Maridoe – a challenging course that can tip out to nearly 8,000 yards – as well as Morrison. His family has lived in the area for nearly a year now, though it feels like much longer – probably because Morrison plays the course every day.
Before the MSFI, Morrison last teed it up for a tournament at the Sage Valley Junior Invitational on March 12-14, a can’t-miss event for junior golf’s best. He played a handful of junior events before that. The stretch in between was as long as he’s gone without a tournament start. Golfers at all levels are finding themselves there.
This time of year, Tommy and Alison are generally jetting around the country together chasing junior golf tournaments. It’s time Tommy cherishes, though in a recent dinner-table conversation, the family discussed how nice the time at home has been, too. He can get competitive reps in his backyard, afterall.
“I’m spoiled,” he said. “I’m lucky.”
In many ways, the tournament is an obvious fit for a club with just over 200 members, many of them professional athletes (across many sports) or captains of industry.
Practices in place at Maridoe will include a walking scorer with each group who also rakes all bunkers and is the only person allowed to touch the pin (no spacers in the cups this time). Social distancing is enforced, but that often comes down to courtesy – don’t stand on top of other players on the tee boxes or crowd the same side of the putting green.
The rest of the industry should be watching closely.
“Somebody has to be courageous enough and smart enough and responsible enough to display to the world that (golf) is different,” Morrison said. “It’s not basketball, it’s not football, you’re not sweating on top of each other. This has taught them to just be very respectful of the game. . . . We have to get back to a place where we can start to compete.”
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