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Two Different Paths To Kiawah, One Common Goal

By Justin Hancher, USGA

Bert Atkinson finished runner-up at the 1991 U.S. Mid-Amateur. (Fred Vuich/USGA)

One is a 39-year-old gas station owner who “was lucky to break 80” in college, but wound up playing in the 2009 Masters. The other is a 51-year-old owner of a custom embroidery business who was an NAIA All-American and quit working on his golf game at the age of 45, but made the cut at the last two U.S. Senior Opens.

Both their golf games and careers have taken completely different paths, but on Oct. 3, they’ll have one common goal: win the 2009 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship.

Defending champion Steve Wilson (the gas station owner) of Ocean Springs, Miss., and 1991 U.S. Mid-Amateur runner-up Bert Atkinson (the custom embroidery business owner) of Charleston, S.C., will be two of the 264 golfers competing in the 29th U.S. Mid-Amateur, taking place Oct. 3-8 at The Kiawah Island Club in South Carolina.

Wilson will be back to defend his title, having won the 2008 U.S. Mid-Amateur with a 5-and-4 victory over Todd Mitchell in the final at Milwaukee Country Club in River Hills, Wis.

His advantage? He knows he can win.

“I think having won this event already will make it easier,” Wilson said. “If I had to face someone in match play that I knew had won it before, it’d make me a little more wary of them. Hopefully that will work to my advantage.”

Wilson’s path to the 2008 title and an invitation to the 2009 Masters began when he picked up the game at the age of 12. He played collegiate golf at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College before transferring to the University of Southern Mississippi and graduating with a business management degree in 1997. He also turned professional, playing sparingly in mini-tour events, and began his current business venture.

“Whatever tournaments would come close, that’s where I was,” Wilson said. “Instead of me traveling, I let them come close to me.”

After varied success in professional golf, Wilson decided to apply for reinstatement and ultimately regained his amateur status in May 2005. It turned out to be not the most fortuitous time to rededicate himself to competitive golf – or any golf, for that matter.

Just three months later, Hurricane Katrina left his family with a flooded home. Wilson, his wife, Shelly, and 9-year-old son, Gavan, were forced to stay with his parents until they could get their house in working order. It didn’t leave much time to play the game he loved.

“It was weird [not playing],” Wilson said. “I normally couldn’t go two or three days without playing or hitting balls, and I had to go two straight months without touching a club.”

When he first teed it up in late 2005, he carded a round that would lead some to conclude his time away from the game was not a bad thing. He shot a bogey-free 65 at Whispering Pines/Jackson County Golf Course in Hurley, Miss.

“I remember it well,” he said. “Seven under par.”

He would go on to win the 2007 Mississippi Amateur and the 2008 Mississippi Mid-Amateur before winning the life-changing 2008 U.S. Mid-Amateur, which brought Wilson the Masters invitation.

“It was just like a dream come true,” Wilson said of his trip to Augusta this past April. Though he was disappointed in his play (he missed the cut), he thoroughly enjoyed the experience, especially having Gavan on his bag for the par-3 contest.

 “Everything I imagined it would be, it was,” he said.

Although Wilson says his game is not in the shape he would like it to be, he hopes his putter turns hot at the right time as it did last year. Wilson one-putted 14 greens over 30 holes in the 2008 Mid-Am final.

“Of course I’d love to win again and go back to Augusta, but I’ve been playing really bad lately,” said Wilson, who adds that he has never played the two courses at Kiawah that are hosting the Mid-Am, Cassique and The River Course. “It’s funny because last year going into the Mid-Amateur I had been playing really bad all year, so it’s kind of similar.”

Perhaps this is the other common denominator between Wilson and Atkinson as they set their game plans for the Mid-Amateur; Atkinson also said he is not playing as well as he’s capable.

Atkinson, at least, will have home-field advantage on his side. He lives just 20 miles from the club, where he was a golf professional from 1979 to 1982. He’ll also have the experience of being a past Mid-Amateur finalist, having lost to Jim Stuart, 1 up, in the 1991 final at Long Cove Club in Hilton Head Island, S.C. Does that loss serve as motivation?

“Always,” Atkinson said. “I think about it every time I tee it up in this championship.”

Like Wilson, Atkinson played for three years at one school before transferring to another; he spent three years at Northeast Louisiana University and one at Francis Marion University, graduating with a business degree in 1980.

He then served as a golf professional at Kiawah at a time when the club had only one course, Cougar Point Golf Course. A lot has changed since then. Kiawah now has five courses, and Atkinson has transitioned from golf professional to sales representative to business owner. He and his wife, Stephanie, now own and operate O’Connor Inc., a custom embroidery business that specializes in headwear and golf apparel, employing a staff of 15.

After starting his business, he took somewhat of a hiatus from the game.

“I had really quit working on my golf game when I got to the age of 45. I still played a lot but I really wasn’t working at it,” said Atkinson, who was reinstated as an amateur in 1985. “I qualified for the Senior Open last year and it kind of gave me the golf bug again, so I’ve been working on my game a lot more this year than I was the prior four or five years.”

It has certainly shown. Atkinson is the only amateur to have made the cut at the last two U.S. Senior Opens, tying for 52nd in 2008 and finishing 60th in 2009. He was one of just three amateurs to make the cut in 2009, along with low-amateur finisher and 36-hole leader Tim Jackson of Germantown, Tenn., who is a two-time U.S. Mid-Amateur winner and will also be playing in this year’s championship.

While the crowds may be smaller at Kiawah than at Crooked Stick, Atkinson looks forward to playing in the event he came so close to capturing years ago, with one special twist this year: he can sleep in his own bed.

“It sure makes travel arrangements easy,” he quipped. “I’m really looking forward to playing, and I’m glad that it’s here.”

Atkinson qualified for the championship on Aug. 31 with a 2-under 69 at the Country Club of Charleston, where he is a member. A three-time South Carolina Amateur Match Play champion, he expects to be competitive, noting he can still play with the younger guys – guys like Wilson – and has some familiarity with the course.

“I think Cassique fits my game,” Atkinson said. “I’d never really played the golf course from the back tees until just recently, and it’s a pretty demanding golf course. I think we’re going to see a wide spread in scores out there. You’ve got to drive the ball well in order to play the course.”

Justin Hancher works in the USGA’s Communications Department. E-mail him with questions or comments at jhancher@usga.org.