By Matthew Zacher ’18
THE ROUNDUP
Max Mayfair ’18 is a talented golfer, and his father’s performance in the U.S Senior Open keeps him aiming high.
Mayfair’s father, Billy Mayfair, finished tied for second place in the U.S. Senior Open Aug. 11-14 at the Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio.
Mayfair was excused from the first week of the school year to follow his father at his first Champions (Senior) Tour event.
Mayfair said that his father hadn’t played in many tournaments leading up to the U.S. Open. So, while expectations were high, he said they didn’t expect to finish as well as he did.
“It was nerve racking and thrilling at the same time,” Mayfair said. “You want him to hit the best shots that he can, but you know that you have no control over it.”
Mr. Mayfair finished one stroke off the winner, Gene Saunders, with a score of 2 under par, and Mayfair said his dad was disappointed at first.
“He was a little disappointed,” he said. “That was mainly just right afterwards, but overall he was pretty happy with his performance.”
Max Schwarz ’18 is on the varsity golf team and said he was very impressed with Mr. Mayfair’s performance.
“Anytime you can compete at any professional level is very impressive,” Schwarz said. “I would be very proud.”
Schwarz said that his own father does not golf and added that having a PGA pro as a father would help a lot toward improving his golf game.
“My dad is a terrible golfer,” he said. “Having a pro like Billy Mayfair as a dad would definitely help with the mental parts of the game that you learn from playing at that level.”
Mr. Andy Schmidbauer ’88 used to golf regularly and knows Max Mayfairfrom his Honors Spanish II class.
He said he was very impressed with Mayfair’s win.
“I watch those guys play golf, and the amount of pressure that they feel and that they can still perform, I think I would throw up,” he said. “The poise that they all have is amazing to me.”
Mr. Schmidbauer said that if he were Max walking with his father on the final day of the tournament, he would not have said anything.
“The last thing I would want to do is say, ‘Oh my God, you’re tied for second’ and then get that in his head,” he said.
