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Oh Brother! Tony, Joey Behrstock Absorbing U.S. Mid-Amateur Experience Together

By David Shefter, USGA

Kiawah Island, S.C. – Tony and Joey Behrstock have had many golf experiences together.

The two southern Californians make an annual trip to Caves Valley near Baltimore with their buddies and they have played Augusta National with their father. They once played with Fred Funk at Hillcrest Country Club in Los Angeles, their home club. Joey, nine years Tony’s junior, caddied for Michael Jordan as a teenager while Tony played against the NBA Hall of Famer in a friendly match at Hillcrest.

Tony even played classic venues Pine Valley, Merion and Chicago Golf Club in a three-day span.

Joey Behrstock qualified for his first U.S. Mid-Amateur at Hillcrest C.C. in Los Angeles, his home course. (Photo courtesy of SCGA)

But the two brothers – Tony is 42 and Joey 33 – might have a tough time topping this week’s adventure in the Low Country of South Carolina. How about qualifying for your first U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship together, and achieving the feat at the club you’ve called home since birth?

“The fact that I am with my brother makes it so special,” said Joey. “It’s like a golf trip.”

Only the stakes are much higher. The two Behrstocks are among the 264 contestants competing at The Kiawah Island Club – Cassique and The River Course – in the 29th edition of the national championship for players 25 and over. This is Joey’s first-ever USGA event, while Tony has qualified for two U.S. Amateurs (2000 and 2007).

So when the two noticed that Hillcrest C.C. was one of the southern California sectional qualifying sites for this year’s U.S. Mid-Amateur, both immediately filed entries. With Tony being a 14-time club champion – he’s beaten his brother twice in the finals – and Joey knowing every nuance of the course, all the stars were properly aligned.

Tony carded a 2-under-par 69 to earn medalist honors, but Joey’s even-par 71 put him in a seven-man playoff for the final three spots. With family and members gathered at the first tee, Joey coolly knocked a wedge approach from the right rough to 3 feet for a birdie. Jerry Chang, a former teammate of Tiger Woods at Stanford, also birdied the first hole and Brad Shaw garnered the final spot, knocking out Chang’s brother, Jim, which would have made for a wildly bizarre storyline with two sets of brothers qualifying for the Mid-Amateur at the same site.

Nevertheless, the Behrstocks were suddenly the toast of Hillcrest. E-mails went out from the pro to the membership. A few weeks later, Tony was at nearby Bel-Air Country Club and pro emeritus Eddie Merrins congratulated him on the feat. The only thing that could have possibly topped it was if Tony’s boss at Lawyers Title Insurance Company, Don Dubois, had qualified as well. He was the first alternate from the Santa Ana C.C. sectional.

Not only did the Behrstocks get to travel together, but they’re also sharing a home near the Ocean Course with their parents and fellow southern California qualifier Robert Funk. They have absorbed everything from the hospitality to practice rounds with some of the finest amateurs in the country.

“I really want him to appreciate it,” said Tony, who played one year collegiately at San Diego State before transferring to Cal State Northridge where one of his teammates was future U.S. Amateur Public Links champion Tim Hogarth. He shot a 1-over-par 73 at Cassique on Saturday. “I’ve told Joey there’s nothing like it.”

Joey has come into this process a little like a first-year law student. There’s excitement and apprehension. He wants to enjoy the process without embarrassing himself.

“I’m a little like a fish out of water,” said Joey, who attended the University of California-Santa Barbara, but only spent a year on the golf team. “I feel like I am one of the worst players in the field. That’s just how I feel. It’s great to be here and experience it and hopefully it makes me a better golfer in the long run. I just want to make some good swings and good golf shots because I don’t have any expectations. I’ve sent the link [to the Mid-Amateur Web site] to all of my friends, but I don’t want to hear, ‘Oh nice 81.’ ”

Both Behrstock brothers work in sales – Joey in life insurance and estate planning and Tony in title insurance and commercial real estate – so getting in rounds of golf at home is never a problem. Tony said he probably averages three to four rounds a week, many with clients. Tony also has an impressive résumé that not only includes the club championships but also the 2000 Southern California Golf Association Tournament of Champions – an event for winners of their club titles – and the 1994 Kelly Cup at Lakeside Golf Club. Joey and Tony have also teamed to win the prestigious MacBeth, a two-man invitational held annually over Memorial Day weekend at Wilshire Country Club.

While Tony, a father of three children ages 7, 4 and 5 months, admits his game didn’t flourish until after college, his game definitely took a turn for the better after Lasik eye surgery in 2000. That year he qualified for his first U.S. Amateur at Baltusrol and seven years later, he qualified for the Amateur again, this time at the Olympic Club. That year, he played a humbling practice with Stanford’s Joseph Bramlett, who kept calling Behrstock “sir” and while he wore a San Diego State hat, Bramlett inquired if Tony was the school’s golf coach.

“I’m like, ‘Oh man, maybe I don’t look 20,’ ” said Tony laughing at the memory.

At least this week, he won’t have to worry about the hotshot juniors or college All-Americans. They aren’t eligible for the Mid-Amateur and Tony likes that fact.

“It’s nice showing up and not seeing every college bag on the putting green,” said Tony, who will be inducted into the Beverly Hills High Hall of Fame later this year. “I am at the Olympic Club and I see every college bag and I almost threw up. Really, your stomach is churning because they’ve all got the look like they want to be on [the PGA] Tour. These guys [at the Mid-Amateur], we’re passing cards and I actually met a guy from my company who lives in the New York area. We exchanged business cards.

“That’s what neat about it. You feel like you’ve got a shot.”

While Joey, a father of two young children ages 4 and 6 months, doesn’t quite have the same golf portfolio, he has shown flashes of brilliance. When Funk, the reigning U.S. Senior Open champion, showed up at Hillcrest on a few years ago as a guest of a member prior to the Nissan Open, he decided to play Joey in a friendly match, giving the amateur two strokes a side. Joey held his own, shooting a 69 to Funk’s 65.

“That’s one of the better golfing days I’ve ever had,” admitted Joey, who also played at Beverly Hills High and shot a first-round 85 on The River Course. “It was awesome. I played as good as I could play.”

	Tony Behrstock of Los Angeles is excited to be playing in a USGA championship alongside his younger brother Joey. This is Tony's third USGA event and first U.S. Mid-Amateur. (Photo courtesy of SCGA)

Twice, Joey has managed to reach the finals of the Hillcrest club championship, a match-play event that features a 36-hole qualifier and 16-player bracket. Both times he wound up meeting his brother Tony in the 36-hole final and each time the matches weren’t close – Tony said the results were 9 and 8, and 6 and 5.

Joey doesn’t fret over the defeats and admits there’s not a sibling rivalry with Tony. Because of the age difference, the two never waged fierce battles as youths.

“Tony is really the golfer,” said Joey. “I joke that Tony and I have 14 club championships between the two of us, but he’s got 14 and I’ve got zero.

“[But] golf has been a part of our lives forever. As a kid, if I wanted to talk about something at the dinner table, I had to talk about golf. I was lucky enough to grow up at a country club and start golf when I was 8 or 9 years old. It’s who I am. I kind of identify myself with golf. My grandfather was a [Hillcrest] member. My dad grew up at Hillcrest.”

Having brothers compete at the same USGA championship certainly isn’t unprecedented. Texans Hank and Trip Kuehne played in several U.S. Amateurs together. New Englanders Andy and John Drohen competed in the same Mid-Amateur in 2005.

The Behrstocks would relish the opportunity to face each other in the match-play portion of the championship. In fact, both hope they aren’t headed to the airport Monday morning, which would mean each failed to advance to match play. A pact has been made that if one does qualify for match play, the other brother would caddie.

But more than anything, the brothers hope this isn’t their last USGA championship experience.

This was the first year that Tony tried to qualify for the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Mid-Amateur. Oddly enough, he only had tried for the U.S. Mid-Amateur on one other occasion (2007). Now that he’s achieved the feat he knows he will be attempting many more times in the future.

“You always hope there’s another one,” said Tony. “After Baltusrol [in 2000], I was hoping I could play in the U.S. Amateur again. I thought will I ever get another chance. It’s such a longshot. You just never know. I’m 42 and a few years away from the Senior [Amateur]. You just hope you can play more USGA events.”

Especially when you come with your brother.

David Shefter is a USGA Digital Media staff writer. E-mail him with questions or comments at dshefter@usga.org.