University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang: British Open Musings From Denton
7/20/2009 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
By Steven Bartolotta, July 20, 2009, 1:31 p.m.
Anybody else watch the British Open yesterday? Me too. I was hoping that Tom Watson could pull off the unthinkable but in the end his incredible run just wasn’t to be. It got me thinking though that North Texas women’s golf coach Jeff Mitchell played on the PGA during Watson’s heyday. Putting two and two together I realized they did indeed play on the PGA Tour together.
From 1978-84 Coach Mitchell and Watson played and were part of the PGA Tour as regular members. I was able to get the thoughts of Coach Mitchell on the achievement of Watson. In case your wondering Coach Mitchell is a life member of the PGA Tour and was the champion of the 1980 Phoenix Open.
Oh by the way we should have a women’s golf schedule for release in the next day or two. Some nice upgrades and one trip everyone will want a part of.
North Texas Coach Jeff Mitchell on Tom Watson
“Personally the fact that he got as far as he did is just amazing. It’s just shows you as a player that you get smarter as you get older and your ability to play the game at that level can be based so much on what you have learned than what you can do.”
“He’s a great friend and we got to play around 20 times together when on the tour and it always was amazing to see how good his short game was and he was just a consistent golfer.”
“If he had won the Open Championship it would have to be one of the most amazing victories that anyone has achieved in sports. He’s played a lot of golf in Scotland and learned a great deal from doing it.”
