Trio approaches Senior Open qualifying differently

John Groth thought he was going to be a pro golfer. He wound up, like his father, John Sr., selling cars.

Philip Yim is a British-born entrepreneur for whom golf is a challenging diversion from the high-stress world of high-tech.

And Brian McCormick is a teaching pro who doesn’t need a golf course. He gives lessons at an indoor facility in San Rafael, near a busy stretch of I-580 in Marin County that skirts past San Quentin State Prison on its way to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.

What Groth, an amateur golfer from Santa Rosa, Yim, an amateur from Petaluma, and McCormick, a pro from Petaluma, have in common is that they all hope to qualify for this year’s U.S. Senior Open.

Groth, 50, will make his first attempt at the national championship for male golfers aged 50 and over on Tuesday at Green Valley Country Club in Suisun.

Yim, 53, who admits he did not fare well in two previous Open qualifying rounds, will join Groth and 88 others at Green Valley.

And McCormick, 57, who came up short in his only previous bid for the Senior Open two years ago, will compete June 1 on the Lake Course at Olympic Club in San Francisco.

Qualifiers at those two sites will advance to the 36th U.S. Senior Open on June 25-28 at Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento. Groth, Yim and McCormick all said they have not played the course being used for the Senior Open.

For Groth, getting to the Senior Open “would mean the world to me,” he wrote in an email. McCormick noted in a similar email: “Qualifying for the Senior Open would be a dream come true, and give me a great confidence boost in regard to my instruction style and theory.” Yim, also in an email: “Yes, it would be exciting, but I have a day job and there are many other competitors that golf for a living.”

In the late 1980s, Groth figured he might have quite a few United States Golf Association tournaments under his belt by this time. He was a first-team Division III All-American at Stanislaus State and in 1988 helped the Warriors win the fifth of their sixth consecutive national titles. In 1990, he won the prestigious San Francisco City Amateur, outlasting Mark Sear in 39 holes.

As it is, though, the only USGA event Groth has competed in was the 1988 U.S. Amateur at the Sam Snead Homestead Course in Hot Springs, Va. There, he shot two steady rounds of golf (74-75) but failed to reach the match-play portion of the event.

“That was really something,” recalls Groth. “I was on the range hitting balls, and there was (two-time U.S. Amateur champion) Jay Sigel to my left and (1987 U.S. Amateur champ) Billy Mayfair to my right.”

Groth’s success at Stanislaus State had him thinking strongly about a pro career. But then his father suffered a heart attack in August 1989, and his mother asked him to help run the family business -Groth Motors. (His father, by the way, is still going strong at 91.)

“I was going to do that for a few months, and it ended up being 25 years,” said John Jr., now sales manager at Town & Country Auto Sales in Santa Rosa.

Groth, who formerly played out of Santa Rosa Golf & Country Club and now plays at Bennett Valley Golf Course, has tried to keep his game sharp by competing against “the kids,” golfers half his age, in various Northern California Golf Association tournaments. Most recently, he shot 77-76 in the Sonoma County Amateur two weeks ago at Foxtail in Rohnert Park - not exceptional scores, although he said conditions were not conducive to scoring.

Though it’s been more than two decades since he tried to qualify for a USGA event, Groth has confidence in his golf game.

“My driving and my putting are my strengths,” he said in an email. “When they are on, I will score very well.

“I have worked on my game transforming it the past couple of years, and in the past few months I have just begun to see successes, and it’s just a matter of believing in myself and letting it happen.”

Yim came to the game later than most top-notch amateur golfers. He was born in 1961 in Liverpool, England - about the time four mop-haired Liverpudlians were about to take over the music world - and came to the United States at 29. A soccer player, Yim didn’t take up golf until he was in his 30s.

His chief occupation then was in the telecom sector. In 1999, Yim, John Webley and Rich Stanfield founded Turin Networks, a Petaluma-based broadband access company. Yim is now senior vice president at Allied Telesis, a San Jose-based telecommunications company.

Yim does find time for golf, however. He plays out of Foxtail in Rohnert Park, and once shot an 8-under-par 64 on the North Course there. “I was 8 under after 11 holes,” he said. “I got 2 under and said, ‘Let’s get it to 4 under,’ then, ‘Let’s get it to 6 under,’ then, ‘Let’s get it to 8 under.’ I had never been to 6 under before.

“I enjoy golf because it’s a personal challenge.”

Yim also has had one significant success in competitive golf. He won the 2013 Marin County Senior Amateur at San Geronimo National Golf Course, in his first tournament as a senior. Yim tied three others for first place, then won the title when he birdied the fourth playoff hole.

Yim has modest expectations for Tuesday’s qualifying at Green Valley.

“For me to actually qualify, I would have to play exceptionally well and be very lucky,” he wrote in an email. “The competition is very, very good at this event. I am more excited about the opportunity to be in the same field.”

McCormick, meanwhile, comes to the qualifying from the perspective of a teacher. He gives lessons at the Golden Gate Golf & Tennis shop in San Rafael.

In addition to the one bid for the Senior Open in 2013, he has tried “four or five” times to qualify for the U.S. Open, including 2013.

McCormick said he is looking forward to playing the qualifying round on Olympic Club’s Lake Course, site of five previous U.S. Open championships, and one of “my all-time favorite courses.”

“Right now the strength of my game is trusting my experiences,” he said in an email. “I wouldn’t say that any one part of my game stands out as strong, but I’m happy to say that there is not one area that will bury me, either.”

Like Groth and Yim, he knows the qualifying is a daunting challenge.

“That’s what makes it so fun,” McCormick said. “You can have a great round and you can find yourself on the doorstep of the Open.”