Connor McKay (TGA/Twitter photo)
Connor McKay’s comeback is notable because of just how far he came. The Knoxville, Tenn., native, who recently finished his senior year at Lipscomb, had hip surgery a year ago. He was in a wheelchair then used crutches – needless to say, golf was out of the question for a few months.
On Saturday, McKay won the Tennessee Match Play Championship at Oak Ridge (Tenn.) Country Club. Talk about a long, determined climb.
There are certainly bigger trophies in amateur golf – the U.S. Amateur, for one – but for McKay, this was the one.
“It’s no U.S. Am, but people don’t understand what I’ve been through over the last year, year and a half. It really actually means the world to me,” he told the Tennessee Golf Association shortly after winning. “A lot of people helped me get here. I had hip surgery, didn’t play for a year, struggled with school, was unable to play for a little bit and then bounced back.”
In the final match against Jack Uselton, a rising junior at Belmont, McKay went 1 up immediately at the first, but had lost his advantage by No. 5 and was 1 down on the sixth tee. It was back and forth until the final few holes. When McKay took a 1-up lead at the 15th, it was the beginning of the end. McKay held that lead as the two tied the final three holes and he eventually won, 1 up.
McKay came in as the No. 13 seed after rounds of 65-73 in stroke-play qualifying. Earlier this year, he tied for 28th at the Florida Azalea.
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ABOUT THE
Tennessee Match Play
This match play event adopts the format used by the
PGA Tour for the World
Golf Championships Match Play tournament. Under
this format, a field of 64
players will be divided into 16 groups of four players
each. Each group will play
a round-robin format with each competitor playing
three matches within their
group. A player will receive one point for a win, a
half point for a tie, and each
group’s winner will advance to the round of 16.
Applications are open to
amateurs who possess an active USGA/GHIN
Handicap Index of 8.0 or less from
a TGA member club or course.
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