Roger Mackay was an accomplished Australian professional golfer, and he was my friend. He died after a battle with cancer in 2002, at age 46. Even though 11 years have passed since his death, the announcement of the World Cup returning to Royal Melbourne in Australia in November brought back a lot of great memories of Mackay, who represented his country alongside Peter Senior in the same event at the same venue in 1988. After initially meeting Roger in 1986, I got to know him better while we both lived in Perth the following year. He asked if I would caddie for him on the Australasian PGA Tour and I happily agreed. I got to know his wife, Ros, pretty well also and even babysat their son, Brendon, a few times while we traveled on Tour. One of my fondest memories was a three-day visit with Roger to the many museums in Washington D.C. while stranded in the city after he withdrew from the 1988 Kemper Open due to a back injury. I stayed on his bag until the end of 1992 when I left, with his encouragement, to begin working as a Rules Official on the Australasian Tour. Mackay wasn t well-known to American golf fans, but he was a star in his native Australia after winning twice on his home Tour in 1987 – early in the year at the Victorian Open and late in the year at the Australian PGA Championship. He also carved out a very productive and lucrative career in relative obscurity in Japan, where he won eight times. He and Senior finished third at the 1988 World Cup when it was last played at Royal Melbourne. Mark McCumber and Ben Crenshaw won the event for the United States, with two of Japan s Ozaki brothers, Jumbo and Jet, finishing second. The 1988 World Cup began with controversy well in advance of the event when Senior and Mackay were selected to play for Australia. Most in the country shared the opinion that Greg Norman and Rodger Davis should have been the team to represent their nation, but neither had played the required number of tournaments to be eligible. Mackay was the Australian PGA champion and Senior led the money list, so they were selected. It was Australia s bicentenary celebrations that year, and organizers hosted many of the world s best players at Royal Melbourne for the Bicentennial Classic the week preceding the World Cup. Davis playoff victory over Fred Couples at the one-off tournament and his first-place check of $500,000, one of the biggest in the game at the time, didn t help calm the controversy heading into the World Cup the following week. Coincidentally, Royal Melbourne will again host an event the Australian Masters immediately preceding the 2013 World Cup. After competing in the 1988 Bicentennial Classic, Mackay and Senior flew home to their respective families. Roger and I were in a unique situation where our wives were due with our first children, either that week or the week after, explained Senior. We caught a lot of flak from a few of the journalists, saying that our mind wouldn&apost be on the job. Some of those writers were harsh on both players, claiming the pair should have been on site to practice and attend the opening ceremonies instead of being with their families. Those same journalists were even more brutal after the first round when the duo finished 13 strokes behind the leaders. But the pair rallied in the second round, Mackay shooting a then course-record, 9-under 63 and Senior adding a 68, to give Australia the 36-hole lead. Mackay s round included two three-putt greens and two lipped-out chips. Roger played great on the second round, shot 63 and put us in a position where we could finish pretty well. And we did pretty well in the tournament, said Senior. The journalists, several claiming their writings had spurred the pair onto success, eased up on Mackay and Senior during the weekend after they had played their way into a position to win the tournament. Mackay was considered among his peers as one of the nicest guys on Tour. His World Cup teammate, however, shared a side of Mackay that many outside the professional game may not have ever witnessed. He was probably one of the most inconspicuous practical jokers you&aposve ever come across, revealed Senior. We spent quite a bit of time up in Japan, and if anything went wrong, anybody played a joke, he was the instigator. But it kept us amused up there, which you had to do, because we wasted a lot of time up there. There wasn&apost much for us to do. That was a great way of spending the time. Senior shared a story of how he and fellow Australian professional Craig Warren gave Mackay, who was a bit of a neat freak, a taste of his own medicine at a tournament in Japan. As Senior tells it, he and several fellow Australian professionals checked in a hotel on the fifth floor. Roger always got a double room with two beds so he could lay all his clothes out on one bed and sleep in the other, continued Senior. Craig was in the room next to him, and when Roger went down to the lobby, Craig slipped across the balconies outside remember, he&aposs five floors up and goes in and he packs Roger&aposs clothes back into his suitcase. Roger comes back to his room and he’s like, Where&aposs all my gear? He sees it in his suitcase, so he unpacked it all again, thinking that the maid had come in and packed it all off the bed. While Senior and Mackay had dinner, Warren again jumped across and repeated the prank. When Mackay returned to his room he had the same confused reaction and went back downstairs to get the manager. At that same time, Warren jumped across again and started hanging Mackay s clothes all around the room. His stuff was on the ceiling fans, in the lights, his underpants were all over the place, giggled Senior. Roger brought the manager up because he couldn&apost understand what was going on. When he opened the door his clothes were everywhere, and the manager just looked at him with a blank stare. And we were hiding watching the whole thing, just laughing. He was a great guy. You could spend a lot of time with him. Like Senior, Mackay never played many tournaments in America and would likely share the same regret. I played around the world, and I really didn t play a lot here. I wish I had, said Senior. Unlike Senior, who has enjoyed much success on the Champions Tour, Mackay obviously never had the chance to experience the over-50 circuit.
Author: Mark Williams / Champions Tour