More chapters to write in Phillips’ inspiring comeback story

By Ken MacLeod

One Oklahoma-based professional golfer who took a long hiatus was internationally celebrated this week when Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club member and former Oklahoma Sooner Anthony Kim won the LIV event in Australia, setting off a social media hyperbolic frenzy.

Kim was out of professional golf for 12 years. This weekend the state will celebrate a different Oklahoma pro who took a 20-year break from competition, but was never away from the game.

Tracy Phillips, who has triumphantly returned from his self-imposed competitive exile to win a host of section events and earn spots in 11 major championships, will be inducted Sunday into the South Central PGA Hall of Fame.

“The good news for both of them is that they were incredibly talented before and that always helps,” said Tim Fleming, director of golf at Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club, who has had an up close view of both comebacks. “What Tracy has done is inspiring to me and should be inspiring to everyone.”

Fleming and Phillips, now 63 and still going strong, will team up for a talk at the section meetings Sunday afternoon meant to inspire other PGA of America professionals to continue to remain competitive and work on their game. The two former Oklahoma State golfers have played in a combined 25 major championships (14 by Fleming) and won numerous section championships in addition to stand out performances in the qualifiers for the national events such as the PGA Professional Championship and the PGA Senior Professional Championship.

Remarkably, Phillips has played in all 11 of his majors since 2014 after very rarely playing a full round from 1988 to 2008. But he was never away from golf during his hiatus, far from it. Instead he became one of the nation’s top teaching professionals, instructing thousands of students including top juniors, collegiate and LPGA players and working for a time alongside Hank Haney at his golf center in McKinney, Texas.

The son of legendary Cedar Ridge Country Club head professional Buddy Phillips, Tracy grew up learning the game from his father with an assist now and then from Hall of Fame teacher Harvey Penick, whose most sage advice may have been to take his 1 iron and wrap it around a tree. Phillips quickly showed an incredible aptitude. His short game was the stuff of legend as he rose through the junior ranks to become No. 1 in the country by 1979, a four-time AJGA All-American and then won the 1980 PGA Junior.

Off to Oklahoma State he went in 1981 to play for Mike Holder where he won his first collegiate event. A combination of a herniated disc in his back and a swing change adding more lag led to frustration, however, and he left the team after his sophomore year as Fleming was coming in. For the next three years he tried to play professionally at various times while also learning the ropes of a PGA club professional working in the pro shop alongside his father at Cedar Ridge.

He learned a lot quickly there, including the fact he didn’t want a career behind the counter. So he began teaching at Golf World, a driving range in south Tulsa, where he would often have up to 13 ½-hour lessons a day.

He continued to play until 1988, when the driver yips as he called them became too much to take.

“I was at a tournament in Wyoming. On the first tee there was a pasture to the left and in-course out-of-bounds to the right. After putting a ball in each, I teed off with a 7-iron and just kind of punched it down the fairway,” Phillips said. “I could tee off in Oklahoma and land in Texas, it was that bad.”

So to preserve his sanity and escape the crushing disappointment of seeing his playing career fizzle, Phillips bought a bass boat and would go fishing whenever time allowed. It wasn’t that often. He was co-owner of the popular teaching center Tee Town Golf Ranch which later had to move to make way for the Creek Turnpike. He sold his interest in the second Tee Town location and went on the road to instruct LPGA professional Kelli Kuehne and when Cedar Ridge built an indoor teaching center in 2008 he became the director of instruction until leaving for a position at the new Flying Tee three-story golf facility in Jenks in 2017.

The idea that those type of facilities would be learning centers was short-lived, as Phillips said his job became mostly fixing broken clubs. Ready for another change, he became the staff instructor for the company Executive Homes while teaching his outside clients at Cedar Ridge, where Maggie Roller was now and remains the director of instruction.

His playing career resumed in 2008 with a phone call from veteran pro Vince Bizik urging Phillips to join he and fellow pros such as Pat Tubach and Rick Reed in their Monday games.

“The first round with us you could tell this guy was on a different level,” Tubach said. “He was so quiet and humble and didn’t say much but I think we brought him out of his shell a little. But his game was like he didn’t miss a beat. He was taking our money right away.”

Tubach will introduce Phillips Sunday and likely tell the tale of how he carried Tracy to the 2017 South Central Section Four-Ball Championship at Shangri-La by making two pars on holes where Phillips made bogey and one timely birdie. All Phillips contributed were 21 birdies and three eagles in 54 holes.

Phillips eased back into playing tournament golf but by 2011 was both the PGA South Central Section Championship winner and the Player of the Year. He began a run of qualifying for the Senior PGA Championship (now seven times), the U.S. Senior Open (three times) and in his tie for eighth at the 2024 PGA Professional Championship against all the young players earned a spot in the 2024 PGA Championship.

His first major was the 2014 Senior PGA Championship at Benton Harbor, Mich., and Phillips made the cut with father Buddy, who passed in 2020, watching his son play in a major, the culmination of a long anticipated dream for both.

He didn’t make the cut at soaked Valhalla Golf Club in the 2024 PGA Championship and soon afterwords said that playing against the best young golfers in the world was a goal accomplished. But as well as he continues to play, his thinking has changed again to why not? He has earned a spot in the 2026 PGA Professional Championship April 26-29 at Bandon Dunes and will have a chance there to play his way into the 2026 PGA Championship May 14-17 at Aronimink Golf Club in Newton Square, Pa.

“As long as I can continue to compete against the best young guys in our section and in the national qualifier, why not give it a shot,” Phillips said. “It was such a great experience.”

“Tracy is one of the best players and teachers anywhere,” said Roller, who first began to observe his teaching way back at Golf World. “I think more pros should come and watch him teach. There’s a treasure here and everyone who can should be taking advantage.”

The driver yips long gone, Phillips adjusted during his years of teaching only by weakening his grip and other changes to keep the clubhead more under control on the driver swing. Nothing else ever left.

Tubach and Rick Reed, long-time head professional at Oaks Country Club, took turns caddying for Phillips at the 2022 Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores, where Phillips finished as low club pro and tied for 17^th overall, dazzling Ernie Els with several shots as they played the final two rounds together. Tubach said that many pros who had been on tour for decades stopped by to admire his chipping and putting on the practice greens.

He went on to tie for 24^th that summer in the U.S. Senior Open. He has three times tried the near impossible task of making it through the PGA Tour Champions Qualifying School which has now been eliminated altogether. If he had caught lightning in a bottle, there is little doubt he would be a solid competitor on that tour, beating a lot of the same guys he did as a junior, although now 12 more classes have come behind.

“If I hear Tracy had a bad round, I’m almost shocked,” Fleming said. “I just don’t see how it happens. He’s so solid in everything he does.”

Phillips gives a lot of credit to Billy Ray Young, a Tulsan who has worked with him extensively on the mental side, for his competitive successes. As for teaching, he has recently decided to share some of his short-game secrets with all of us as his daughter Samantha, a student at the University of Oklahoma, has helped him create a Tik-Tok, Instagram and Facebook Page where he does short videos called Tracy’s Tuesday’s Tips.

@tracyphillipsgolf

Learn how it is best to make a smaller swing with less loft for this crazy lie!! #titleist #footjoy #tuesdaytips #EH #golftips

♬ original sound – tracyphillipsgolf – tracyphillipsgolf

Just watching him execute the short game shots is priceless.

Notes: Phillips will be the only inductee into the Hall of Fame this year. Following are the other section award winners:

PGA Golf Professional of the Year
Chris Mayes, Pleasant Valley Country Club, Little Rock, AR

PGA Hall of Fame Inductees
Tracy Phillips, Cedar Ridge Country Club, Broken Arrow, OK

PGA Teacher & Coach of the Year
Ryan Rody, Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa, OK

PGA Player Development Award
Trent Rommann, Crestview Country Club, Wichita, KS

PGA Youth Player Development Award
Bruce Baxley, Searcy Country Club, Searcy, AR

PGA Professional Development Award
Tony Biata, Folds of Honor, Owasso, OK

Bill Strausbaugh Award
Tony Luczak, University of Central Oklahoma PGA Golf Management, Edmond, OK

PGA Executive of the Year
Brian Davis, South Central Section, Broken Arrow, OK

Patriot Award
Scott McClinton, Chenal Country Club, Little Rock, AR

Merchandiser of the Year – Private
Jon Sandell, Oak Tree National, Edmond, OK

Merchandiser of the Year – Public
Tyler Woodward, Jimmie Austin Golf Club, Norman, OK

Merchandiser of the Year – Resort
Ryan Snyder, Shangri-La Golf Club, Monkey Island, OK

Deacon Palmer Award
Cary Cozby, Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa, OK

Assistant Golf Professional of the Year
Jacob Baird, The Patriot, Owasso, OK
Scott Williamsen, Wichita Country Club, Wichita, KS

Leon Faucett Salesperson of the Year
Bobby Rucker, FootJoy