Without a doubt,
PHOTO CREDIT HERE
one of the best feel-good stories of the
summer was Leesburg native Billy Hurley
III breaking through for his first win on the
PGA Tour.
That victory came on June 26, at the
Quicken Loans National at Congressional
Country Club, not far from his home. It
came after missing six tournament cuts
this season and after three previous winless
years on the PGA Tour.
It came after Hurley seriously considered calling it quits this spring—his playing
status and PGA Tour card dangling in a
precarious balance.
And his time to win finally came nearly
one year after his greatest loss—when his
father mysteriously disappeared from
home and inexplicably ended his own life
alongside the Potomac.
“I think Billy has a different perspective
on life and he doesn’t worry about that little
4 ½-inch hole in the ground,” said Mark
Guttenberg, PGA Director of Instruction at
Bull Run Golf Club and Hurley’s golf instructor from 1992-2004. “He’s had bigger issues
in life and he’s just a really rock-solid guy.”
Hurley’s reputation as a humble, “saltof-the-earth” man and polished former
U.S. Naval officer made his victory even
more compelling for golf fans. So many
who watched him shoot 17-under 267 to
emerge as the champion remembered the
heartfelt plea Hurley gave on national TV
a year earlier, asking for the public’s help
to find his missing father.
In spite of the timing of his painful return
to Congressional, where his family’s nightmare played out in full public view in 2015,
Hurley conducted himself like a man who
understood the tenets of time.
After all, it had taken time for him to
develop from a mid-70s high school player
into a college champion at the U.S. Naval
Academy, where he once shot a 61 in the
school’s home event, the Patriot Classic.
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