The first big win will always be with Greg Meyer, but the last big win is still out there, somewhere.
Right?
“I sure hope so,” Meyer said last week in a telephone interview from Indiana where he was settling in and draining off some serious jet lag in preparation for this week’s U.S. Senior Open at the Warren Golf Course on the campus of Notre Dame, “that’s what keeps me going.”
It has been long haul, in more ways than one for the former Hilo High School standout who went on to a successful collegiate career at UH-Manoa before embarking on a golfing conquest of Japan that has defined his career for the last 30 years or so.
He married a Japanese girl, gave the Japan Tour a try and found it to his liking.
So much to his liking that this Hawaii Hall of Fame golfer has won millions there to go along with his 15 state of Hawaii victories and 10 Hawaii/Sony Open appearances.
Meyer turned professional 35 years ago in 1984 and while he hasn’t been winning as often as he did when he was younger, he’s a smart golfer with a very polished stroke on the putter that has enabled him to finish in the top 25 70 different times.
His game has always been punctuated by his apparently innate ability to master the putting game. That, and an exceedingly calm demeanor allowed him to adjust his game as he aged, using a veteran’s understanding of the challenges on various courses and how to fit his game to meet those demands. It’s a maturity that every golfer understands, but not one that every golfer can pull off.
When asked how he manages to adjust and change as his body and skills demand over time, Meyer avoided the opportunity to boast.
“It’s not me, it’s just what you have to do in life,” he said. “Take away golf, make it about anything — your career in business, whatever — people aren’t the same at 55 as they were at 25, you just have to recognize what you can do and what you can’t do and then try to stay away from those things you can no longer do.
“When you start thinking, ‘I used to be able to do this, maybe I can do it again,’ that’s the kind of thing that gets you in trouble.”
For being so far away for so long, it might feel like old home week when Meyer runs into his old pal Kevin Hayashi, competing in the same tournament. Hayashi will have some jet lag, but nothing like Meyer who takes an 8-plus hour flight from Japan to get to Hawaii, then it’s another 10 to Indiana.
“It’ll take a couple days,” Meyer said last week, a day after he got situated in South Bend. “I’ve just been wandering around the campus and checking it out, what amazing history they have here. All these buildings look like churches, very cool.”
The reunion with Hayashi will no doubt serve to spark some memories, but the big ones go way back before high school.
“He was a heckuva player in high school,” Hayashi said, “but before that, I thought he was going to be a pitcher. He was really good in Little League.
“But in high school, I think his putting really stood out. He won the state championship by a couple strokes and it was probably the putter that separated him from everyone else.”
Meyer was a natural putter, one of those guys who just seemed to get it from the very start, but it was just as much an identifier that his short stroke skill was wrapped in humility.
To this day, he’s still that way. When asked last week about his youthful ability, he said, “I got the idea in high school that I could play golf in college, but in Hilo, we always read the Tribune-Herald, and there were always these stories about the Oahu guys and the scores they were shooting.
“When we were (at the state tournament), Kevin was my roommate and I was just fortunate to play well in that tournament. It gave me the idea, ‘Maybe I can actually do this,’ because it was against all those Oahu guys I looked up to.”
Safe to say those “Oahu guys” spent more time looking up to Meyer than the other way around since those high school days.
“He’s just such a polished player,’ Hayashi said, “that’s what he’s become on the golf course. He is, and I say this all the time, the best putter I have ever played with, anywhere, any time, and I’ve played with a lot of guys.”
A big part of that is Meyer’s ability to know the course he’s playing and conform his straight-down-the-middle, near-perfect putting game to the situation, something he’s been very good at professionally.
By the time Hayashi lands in Indiana on Monday, Meyer will have had a few practice rounds in already, calculating his opportunities to make low scores on a hole-by-hole basis.
“Right now,” Meyer said Thursday, “it feels kind of like Hilo, there’s some cloud cover, it’s very comfortable, might be some rain, but next week when we play, it will be totally different, and once the tournament starts these guys know how to set pins in places that can be a real challenge, so it will be interesting.”
Hayashi, as is his style, will get to the Notre Dame course in time for one or two rounds, then start play.
“It’s been a while since we’ve played,” Hayashi said, “but he’s ready for me, he’s already set up practice rounds, times, the whole thing.
“It will be fun, and if either of us is lucky enough to win, we will be very happy and either of us would probably say, ‘If I didn’t win, I hope Greg, or Kevin would have won.”
As it happened, that prediction had already come through by the time Hayashi made the comment.
In a prior phone call, Meyer was asked if his putting could be the difference in a significant tournament like this.
“Oh, that was 40 years ago when I had that good stroke,” Meyer said, “laughing off the compliment to his ability. I just want to go, compete, have a good time and see Kevin again.
“If I don’t win it,” he said, “I hope Kevin does.”
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