Last week Kim Young instructed a youth camp at the Wedgefield Golf Club. Next week he’ll be teeing up against Greg Norman, Curtis Strange, Fuzzy Zoeller and others at the U.S. Senior Open in Colorado Springs after qualifying at a tournament in Lake Wales, Fla. On Monday he’ll begin his practice rounds before the real action gets underway a week from today at The Broadmoor.
Young is credited with more than 100 mini-tour wins throughout the state, has played in two U.S. Opens and still holds several course records. But this marks his first major tournament in over a decade after suffering a cut in the cornea of his eye, directly over his pupil, which became infected and rendered his short game virtually useless.
Since then he’s traded in tour cards for providing golf tips to others. Young has been the teaching professional at Wedgefield for nearly three years and recently took over as the club’s head professional on July 1. “I can’t tell you how much we value him here,” said Bob Townsend, director of golf at Wedgefield Golf Club. “He’s one of the best teachers around. He’s great with people and he’s great with kids.” You’d have to be to work at a club that welcomes the future generation of aspiring golfers with an array of specials and discounts.
“Young people of today will be the golfers of tomorrow,” said Young, who keeps busy by running youth clinics on Saturday mornings and holding down the pro shop during the week. Not long after qualifying for the U.S. Senior Open, members of the club got together to show their gratitude for the time he’s put in by collecting donations for next week’s trip. It’s expected that nearly 10 Wedgefield members will be flying out just to watch their local pro play, though Chris Moore will have the best view of all as Young’s new caddie at the event.
Young is shocked at the outpouring of support by the club’s members, who are proud of a pro that’s become one of their own. To even qualify for an event previously won by the likes of Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, Hal Irwin, Allen Doyle and most recently Brad Bryan, Young needed every bit of the 71 he shot at that 18- hole qualifier.
Of the 80 golfers in the field only two would secure a spot at the Open. It took not only being in contention on the final hole, but a five-way sudden-death playoff before Young could even think about making those reservations.
Keeping things in perspective
Young is no stranger to many of the
golfers he’ll be paired up against at the
U.S. Senior Open.
After all, he spent six years on the PGA Tour, five years on the Nike Tour, and a combined four years on the Hooters and Buy.com tours before the eye injury. But when he touches down in Colorado he won’t be looking to rekindle old friendships. “Golf, when you’re playing, is a very small circle, so I know probably 70 to 80 percent of them,” he said of the field. To some that may sound like a privilege, but to Young it’s just another day in the exclusive world of golf.
In golf, there are those who barely make a dent in a tour schedule and are gone and forgotten before most even learn their names. The rest of the pack continues playing the game in hopes that other names are forgotten in place of their own. The way Young tells it, since the day his eye became infected after messing around one afternoon in the garage, he’s noticed the fine line between the inner and outer circles that encompass the sport.
Even pertaining to the competition at the upcoming Senior Open. “Let’s put it this way: I’m looking forward to competing against them, but I couldn’t give a hoot about them,” he said of his peers. “People don’t understand how the golf profession can be very cliquish.” Barely on the other side of 50, he recalls the old friendships that came and went as being lessons learned. Bonds were made with guys who made it to the PGA Tour before he got there, and vanished soon after upon his own arrival to the elite level.
“If you’re coming on [the tour] and you’re doing well, you’re bumping somebody out that could be some guy’s buddy,” he said. “It’s a dog eat dog kind of thing.” As is in most professions. Young still has a few friends he’s made through golf, though few and far between, but most of his close friendships are with people away from the professional game.
Such as those he hangs out with at Wedgefield, among them an old golf coach from a local junior high who shares laughs about how much the eastside has changed over the years.
Staying close to home
At this point in his life, Young is content
with staying close to home and
helping to inspire future generations of
young golfers at Wedgefield.
He now lives in Oviedo, always rooted in the Orlando area ever since graduating from Colonial High School. His family moved to the area in 1958 when he was just 3 years old, back when Semoran Boulevard ended at Colonial Drive and dirt roads surrounded the area. “It’s pretty neat to see how Orlando has grown,” he said.
His home course in those days was at Rio Pinar Country Club, but he remembers the time he played out at Wedgefield as a kid “when there was nothing out here.” His game was honed by years of playing catch-up to his brothers and dad, who made him start behind the pack as a kid until he eventually surpassed their levels of play.
“I knew when I was about 10 or 12 years old that I was going to be a golf professional or a professional golfer, come hell or high water,” he said. “And things worked out.” After finishing up high school he enrolled at Valencia Community College before spending just two days on the campus of Troy State.
That’s when he realized that college was not the place for him. He turned pro after that and a year later was playing on the PGATour, though to little success in his younger years. The following decade found him bouncing between being a teacher of the game and playing mini-tour events. The dedication paid off when he earned his tour card back in 1988.
In 1990 a refocused Young finished 10th on the money list at the inaugural Ben Hogan Tour. Then over the course of the next three years he continued playing the PGA circuit with his wife as his caddy before deciding to slow the pace in 1994.
The 1995 U.S. Open would be his last hurrah in a sport he dedicated his life to before damaging his sight. Now in some surreal way he returns to his past next week, to momentarily awake a slumbering career that drifted too swiftly into the twilight in a blink of an eye.
