The Impact Of Getting An Autograph Can Be Monumental

By Lorne Rebenstein
THE GLOBE AND MAIL

It's impossible to know how many golfers Tiger Woods has inspired to take up the game. This is the story of one such golfer, a Canadian who will play next week's British Amateur at the Formby and West Lancashire links courses in Southport, England.

Lindsay Renolds, 22, was born in Lyon, France. He holds a Canadian passport through his father, a geologist who lived in Canada for 20 years. He also holds Irish, French and United Kingdom passports. His family has a home in Christina Lake, B.C., where Renolds spends two months a year. He's lived all over the world, including Nairobi, Houston, Jakarta, Singapore, Thailand and Myrtle Beach, S.C.

It was in 1998 that Woods exerted his influence in a simple yet in the end profound way over Renolds. Woods was playing the Johnnie Walker Classic in Thailand. A friend of Renolds' got VIP tickets. One morning, Renolds went into the clubhouse.

Woods was reading a newspaper before teeing off. Renolds felt nervous, but decided to approach Woods.

“I walked up and asked for his signature,” Renolds said during a phone call from Manchester, England, where he was staying in advance of the British Amateur. “He looked up and he smiled. ‘Not unless you say that magic word.'” Renolds said please, and got the autograph. He followed Woods for the entire tournament. Woods rallied from eight shots back in the last round to defeat Ernie Els in a playoff.

“I wasn't a golfer before that, but meeting Tiger got me started,” Renolds said. “It was a great experience.”

As an aside, it's worth noting the way somebody else got an autograph from Woods last Sunday. Woods had just won the Memorial tournament in Dublin, Ohio. He was 19 questions into his news conference, with golf legend Jack Nicklaus at his side, when somebody posed an unusual question given the situation.

“Jack is going to hate me for this,” the fellow said, standing up. “Tiger, congratulations for winning the Memorial. I'm a normal person that snuck in here with a patron badge. I was just wondering if I could get an autograph?”

Nicklaus, good soul that he is, looked at Woods and asked, or said: “If he's got that much guts, he can get it, right?”

The fellow's badge was passed to Woods, who signed it for the interloper.

Renolds didn't have to go through such machinations. He got his autograph, watched Woods and became a very good golfer. He eventually attended Coastal Carolina University in Myrtle Beach, graduating in health promotion.

Renolds plays out of Canada when he enters tournaments, and has been eligible for the National Order of Merit that the Royal Canadian Golf Association established. He qualified for Team Canada, the RCGA's squad of elite amateurs, by virtue of his play. The rest of the team, except for Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., will join Renolds at the British Amateur that starts Monday.

Taylor won't be there because he qualified last Monday in Roslyn, Wash., for next week's U.S. Open.

The University of Washington student reminded everybody of his talents when he shot 66 and 70 to win his sectional qualifying for the second consecutive year. He missed the cut in last year's U.S. Open, when he made a few mistakes over the last nine holes.

Taylor, an all-American who won four U.S. college tournaments this year, will join Andrew Parr, of London, Ont., a tour pro on his way up, at Bethpage State Park's Black course in Farmingdale, N.Y., for the U.S. Open.

Parr played with Taylor last Monday and shot 71-67 to qualify in second place; only two spots were available. Mike Weir of Bright's Grove, Ont., and Stephen Ames of Calgary will also play the U.S. Open (they were already eligible and didn't have to go through qualifying).

Renolds, meanwhile, has been preparing for the British Amateur by competing. He played four tournaments in a row overseas before taking this week off. He was on a range yesterday in Manchester when he was informed that Taylor had qualified for the U.S. Open.

“Wow, that's great news that Buck [Taylor's nickname] made it,” he e-mailed. “Two years in a row. Good for him.”

Then, it was back to work.

“I've been playing well, but not scoring,” Renolds said. “I've just been working on rhythm.”

Renolds plans to turn pro in September. National team head coach Henry Brunton had some advice for him recently.

“He was telling me now that school is over, I have to see golf as a job,” he said. “That's what I'm doing.”

And it all began with a question, a smile and that magic word.

rube@sympatico.ca

Lorne Rubenstein is the preeminent figure in the world of Canadian golf journalism and a member of the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. He has been reporting on golf for more than thirty years

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