U.S. Senior Open pre-tournament notebook

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- While working at The Broadmoor as a teenager, R.W. Eaks swears he had a moment exactly like that old USGA commercial. You remember -- it's the one where the young boy is playing golf at sunset, makes a hole-in-one and excitedly jumps up to celebrate until it dawns on him that no one else witnessed it.

Eaks

Eaks, who worked as part of the grounds crew, was changing the cup on the eighth hole.

"I (still had) dirty hands, dirt under my fingernails and everything. And I didn't hit it very far back then. I hit a 6 iron, hit about 30 yards right up on the top of the hill, big slope on the green. It just kind of kept going and going, and it just disappeared and went in the hole," Eaks said. "... I was looking around to see if anybody was watching, and I was the only one out there. It was too late at night. I think that was one of my first holes-in-one I ever made."

Because of his ties to the area and The Broadmoor, Eaks expects at least 100 friends and family members to watch him play this week. Some old friends have traveled from as far as South Carolina to follow Eaks, who won on the Champions Tour two weeks ago at the 3M Championship.

While growing up in Colorado Springs -- and when he wasn't busy winning the state championship with his high school basketball team -- Eaks served as a Broadmoor caddie, grounds crew member and mentee to Dow Finsterwald, the former director of golf at The Broadmoor and the 1958 PGA Championship winner.

Consequently, he learned the secret to these tricky Broadmoor greens -- most putts break away from the nearby Cheyenne Mountain and it's important to keep the ball on the other side of the flagstick from the Will Rogers Memorial Shrine of the Sun on the mountainside.

"You've got the shrine up there and you kind of have to triangulate where the shrine is and where you're putting. I know it sounds funny, but it really works. It just takes time to get used to it, but shoot, it took me a while to try and figure that out," Eaks said.

While working on the grounds crew, he played more than 100 rounds and became so adept at changing holes that he could knock out 36 in an afternoon. But, before you ask, there's one duty Eaks didn't perform as a grounds crew member.

He never did kill a gopher.

To read more from R.W. Eaks' interview and to see how expects his injured knees to hold up, click here.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON

The name "Gunner" kept popping up as Mark Wiebe was meeting with members of the media.

Wiebe

Gunner is Wiebe's caddie this week and looped for him at the Senior British Open last week, where Wiebe tied for 27th. Gunner accompanied Wiebe on several trips over the past few months to The Broadmoor, as he made the drive from his home in Denver to practice. Because Gunner played the course with Wiebe, he has an advantage and can read the greens based on feel and personal experience.

Gunner is also Wiebe's son. At age 19, he's still developing his own game and can rely on his professional papa to help him out. In return, Gunner helps Mark with his swing and with reading putts.

In the summer of 2007, just before Mark turned 50 and began his already successful Champions Tour career, he teed it up on the Nationwide Tour as preparation. Gunner caddied for him during part of a stretch where he made the cut five times in six tries with the youngsters.

"I was playing some nice golf. And actually it was kind of cute. I had some kids out there that were just a little bit older than my kids, and I watched them kind of go from, what in the bleep are you doing here, to hey, nice playing, old man," Wiebe said.

Of course, like those Nationwide Tour pros, his own son is one of those young kids who can drive the ball a mile past the old man. When they both hit the ball well, Mark estimates that Gunner still crushes it 40 yards past him.

"We came down (to The Broadmoor) to play in the practice round, this is two months ago and we get on the first tee, and we're hitting from the (furthest tees) and I hit a driver out there right of the bunker," Wiebe recalled. "Gunner steps up and flies the bunker and I thought, 'oh my God, that would be so fun to do that.'"

The duo works on their swings together and feed off of each other both on the course and off. Next week, they'll even switch roles, as Mark will be on the bag as Gunner attempts to qualify for the U.S. Amateur.

To read more about Mark Wiebe's interview and his long journey back from injuries, click here.

HISTORY IN THE MAKING

If you include both the professional and amateur majors, Jack Nicklaus won his first major championship at The Broadmoor.

Douglass

While a student at Ohio State University, Nicklaus captured the prestigious U.S. Amateur title in 1959. Dale Douglass participated in that U.S. Amateur and reminisced upon his return this week.

In that event, which took place at The Broadmoor course where his father Hal once served on the staff, Douglass lost in the third round.

"I lost my match to a guy from Des Moines, Iowa named Orville Goens. Now, the significance of that is there's two. One, had I beaten him, I would have played Jack (Nicklaus) the next day, which potentially could have changed the course of history," Douglass deadpanned, evoking laughter from members of the media.

"Instead, I lost to Orville Goens who whistled when he putted. Nothing I'd ever heard before."

Douglass, a Colorado native, was 23 then. Now, at age 72, he's the oldest player in the field at a tournament he won back in 1986 when he first joined the Champions Tour.

He knows that the 50-year-olds have the advantage on Tour but thinks that his advanced age has both plusses and minuses.

"You might think you might know more at 72 than (at a) younger age. But the fact is that you've forgotten more. And that evens it out, so you don't have an advantage of wisdom," Douglass said. "It doesn't bother me. I'm very fortunate to be healthy and able to play and able to walk this golf course at 72. Hopefully I will play well."

To read more from Dale Douglass, including his thoughts on the TOUR's new drug testing policy, click here.