He had already hit his first tee shot to Applebee's, and made birdie. He sent his second drive all the way to Rosenblatt Stadium, and saved par.
So here stood Big John Hurley, on the ninth tee box, and the moment us golf masochists had waited for.
Hurley vs. No. 9. Man vs. Food. Godzilla vs. Tokyo.
The par-4 ninth at Champions Run is the welcome-mat hole at the Cox Classic. It lies there, like a lamb, 315 yards short. Most pros drive the green. If they can't, they're immediately disqualified and sent to a mini-tour where they pay winners in chicken wings.
Big John stepped up to the box and, for a minute, it looked as if he was drooling. The ninth hole cowered.
He pulled out a 3-wood. A driver would have left the county. A hybrid? You might feather it short.
By now, there were 500 people watching, including a couple hundred sitting in the sports bars that book-end the ninth hole — who were reminded they were at a golf tournament.
Hurley swung hard enough to shift the Earth's axis. It sounded like a sledge hammer hitting metal spike. The ball took off like a small rocket, but it was going left.
It landed over a large bunker to the left of the green, hit the bleachers and fell a foot away in the rough.
Hurley got a free drop. Ever made par from a sports bar? Hurley chipped to 12 feet past the hole. And made his birdie.
The crowd roared. Score one for Godzilla.
It was a round-saving hole for the pride of O'Neill, Neb., and the pride of Nebraska, period.
"Let's get pumped," said Bobby Knowles, Hurley's friend and caddie, as they walked briskly to the 10th tee.
Get pumped. Big John shot a 3-under 68 in the first round of the Cox Classic. He just turned pro a month ago, and now he's playing in the home state, before the home crowd, with a chance to make a cut in a Nationwide Tour event.
Good start. But there's a long road ahead to the Nationwide Tour, PGA Tour and, yes, giving Nebraska a golf celebrity/legend.
Mark Calcavecchia lived in Laurel, Neb., until he was 12. Does that count as a Nebraskan?
Mike Schuchart. Tom Sieckmann. Dick Knight. Jim White. And Scott Gutschewski. All fine Nebraska golfers who spent time on the PGA Tour.
Could Hurley be the new standard?
Can we get this kid a short-game teacher?
Hurley has the look of a future legend. Tall, slender, strong shoulders. Blond hair. Soft-spoken. Classy.
Oh, yeah, and he bombs it.
Hurley is more than a side show. But galleries dig the long ball. Hurley provides that, almost with comical consistency.
He hit two longest-ever drives for this event on Thursday, 381 yards on the par-5 sixth, and 342 on the par-4 15th.
His drives fall to the earth like small, white meteors on some unsuspecting spot up the fairway.
On the 379-yard fifth hole, Michael Schachner was on the green looking over a birdie putt when he heard something. He turned and saw Hurley's drive, just 15 yards off the green.
And he laughed.
But that's when it gets exciting. Big John chipped to eight feet and missed the birdie. He missed a five-foot birdie on the sixth. On No. 7, he was 90 yards from the pin and managed to make bogey.
Hurley's 68 easily could have been a 65, or better, and he knows it.
"Guys who win tournaments out here make 98 percent of their putts inside 10 feet," Hurley said.
"It's a top priority. All the long drives I hit don't mean anything if you can't get the ball in the hole. On 18, I heard a guy from the stands yell, 'Work on your wedges.' I'm like, 'I already do.'"
Hurley's just out of Texas A&M. But has he thought about hiring a short-game or putting teacher?
"If I want to get to where I want to be, I have to look at it," Hurley said. "It could mean one or two shots a round. Out here, that's big."
So far, so good, though. Hurley is managing his game. He put the 3-wood in his bag this week for specific holes on Champions Run. He's also managing his nerves.
"The first hole, with all those people watching, was the most nervous I've been in my life," Hurley said.
Yes, even more than the Dakota Tour events he has played in so far in Sioux Falls, S.D.; Waterloo, Iowa; and Aberdeen, S.D. The latter was his best finish, a tie for 14th that netted a whole $1,200.
Ah, but living your dream: priceless. Even for the caddie.
Knowles, an Omaha Creighton Prep grad who played golf at Kansas, has known Hurley since their junior golf days.
Now Knowles is headed for law school and trying to help Hurley get to Tour school.
"It's neat," Knowles said. "I'm not going to play at that level. But it's also cool to be here, inside the ropes, being around what I worked so hard for in junior golf. And to go through it with my friend."
Hurley is living out other dreams, too. Hurley's best friend, Jesse Peetz, followed Hurley 18 holes in a wheelchair. A rare blood disorder left Peetz paralyzed several years ago. He watched Hurley win the state match play a year ago in Omaha. Now he's his good luck charm.
Afterwards, the two huddled off the 18th hole, where Peetz had two words for his friend.
"Good start."
Contact the writer:
402-444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com
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