Wiese Earns a Precious Share of the Limelight

To borrow Hollywood terminology, the U.S. Open is American golf’s star vehicle. Galleries and television viewers this week will watch Greg Norman, Nick Faldo, Fred Couples, John Daly and Tom Watson battle at Oakland Hills in Michigan.

But there is always more than one who’s he? in the who’s who field. Kent Wiese, a journeyman professional from Huntington Beach, certainly qualifies. Yet, he has no doubt that he belongs, and he plans to be more than a bit player.

With their narrow fairways, high roughs and super-fast greens, U.S. Open courses favor players with attributes Wiese attributes to himself. “Maybe I’m a little naive, but I’ve always thought my game was pretty well-suited for the U.S. Open,” he said. “I don’t hit it that long but I hit it straight and putt well.

“We’ll see if I’m accurate with that assessment. I’ll get a test that’s for sure.”

Wiese is at Oakland Hills this week because of a remarkable day last Monday at U.S. Open qualifying. He shot 69-67, eight-under par, and won the qualifier by three strokes at Lake Merced Golf and Country Club in Daly City. “It was a strange day,” said Wiese, who was nine-under in the final 27 holes. “I kept hitting it at the hole and it kept stopping there.”

He finished his day with a couple of incredible shots. On the par-three 17th, his five-iron tee shot lipped out. He tapped in for birdie, then had to wait about 25 minutes before playing the par-five 18th.

His second shot on 18, a three-wood from 245 yards, hit the lip of the hole and came to rest three feet away. “Then I missed the three-footer for eagle,” Wiese said, “but it didn’t matter by that point.”

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Wiese is hoping for many meaningful putts to come, but until recently his professional career was basically going nowhere. The Times Orange County high school golfer of the year in 1987, his senior year at Huntington Beach, he turned pro in 1991, after playing four years for UCLA.

He knocked around mini-tour events and by 1994 was making some progress. He was successful on the South Pacific PGA tour, winning about $7,000 for finishing second in one event and finishing fourth on the money list.

Early the next year, he qualified for the Asian PGA tour. Then the day after he returned from the qualifying tournament in the Philippines, disaster hit.

Playing indoor soccer in Garden Grove, Wiese, playing forward, collided with the goalkeeper on a breakaway. The goalkeeper suffered a compound fracture of his shin bone; Wiese broke his arm while breaking his fall.

“Kent’s very competitive,” said Travis Brasher, a former Huntington Beach teammate now an assistant professional at SeaCliff Country Club. “There’s no half-speed with him.”

Wiese’s abandon knocked him out of the Asian tour and prompted some of his sponsors to withdraw their financial support. He played some Golden State Tour events after recovering, but late last year took a job painting houses.

“I didn’t know what I was getting into,” he said. “I didn’t know how tough it was. Man, what a brutal job. I realized my vocational skill is not in manual labor. I wasn’t into that at all.”

About that time, he decided to give competitive golf another try. So before playing in the Pasadena Open, a three-day Golden State Tour event early this year, he asked his friend Brasher for help.

Brasher mostly helped Wiese make mental adjustments, aiming to stop him from over-analyzing his game. Then he served as caddie as Wiese finished second in the Pasadena Open. More recently, Wiese qualified for the Canadian PGA tour and finished 18th in the first event last week.

“It was a pretty quick change,” said Brasher, who will caddie for Wiese at the Open. “I never thought it would happen that quick, but I’m sure you can’t discount those three or four years of experience he had out there.”

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Another former Huntington Beach High golfer had a breakthrough last week. Scott Gibson, who finished his eligibility at Tulsa this spring, won the Southwestern Amateur Saturday in Phoenix.

Former winners of the tournament include Craig Stadler, Jay Haas, Mark O’Meara and Corey Pavin, an amazing fact in Gibson’s estimation. “It’s just kind of funny to have my name on a trophy with those guys,” he said.

Gibson shot five-under 68 in the first two rounds at the par-73 Moon Valley Country Club, then had 72 in the final two rounds and won by one stroke.

The victory takes some of the sting off a horrible finish to his college career. Tulsa finished 16th of 21 teams at the NCAA West Regional and Gibson shot 74-74-80. He had been thinking about turning pro immediately after college, but decided instead to play amateur events this summer.

“I was thinking, “Well, maybe I’d better take one step back and not rush into it,’ ” Gibson said.