www.globalgolfpost.com
APRIL 2, 2012
When Randal “Randy” Lewis played
in the finals of the 1996 U.S. Mid-Amateur, against John “Spider” Miller at the
Hartford Golf Club near the Connecticut
capital, he couldn’t stop thinking about the
invitation to play in The Masters traditionally offered to the winner. And he thinks
that hurt him as he lost that day to Miller,
3 and 2. So when Lewis made it back to the
Mid-Am finals, at the Shadow Hawk Golf
Club outside Houston last September, he
kept his mind focused on other things.
“I only thought about winning a USGA
championship,” says Lewis, who works
as a financial adviser in Alma, Mich. “I
concentrated on that because that was the
task at hand, and because there is nothing
so important to an amateur golfer as win-
ning a national amateur championship.
Being invited to The Masters was
something I could think about later.”
That strategy appeared to work,
and it was only after the 54-year-
old Lewis dispatched Kenny Cook
at Shadow Hawk to become the
oldest Mid-Am champ in history that
he turned his thoughts to Augusta
National.
“All I could think of was, what an
unbelievable reward,” Lewis says.
And it is a reward that he is
now collecting with great glee. “I
love the golf course at Augusta,”
he says. “I love the strategies
and the angles you have to
employ, and the greens are so
much fun. I love the history of
the golf course and the tournament, and
I am looking forward to the experience. I
know every day will be fun. I know every
day will be unique. I know I am really going
to enjoy myself.”
Playing in the year’s first professional
major, and competing on such hallowed
golfing ground, is simply the latest stop on
what has been a remarkable golfing jour-
ney for Lewis. Born and raised in Michi-
gan, he took up the game as a 16-year-old,
when his father, who was a maintenance
manager at the Total Petroleum Refinery
in Alma, bought himself a set of clubs.
James & Associates. And over the years,
he established himself as one of the best
players in the Wolverine State, winning a
pair of Michigan Amateur titles, in 1992
and 1999, as well as the Michigan Mid-Am
championship in 1998. In 2009, he was inducted into the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame.
Lewis has also enjoyed success on the
national level, advancing to the semifinals
of the 1999 U.S. Mid-Am just three years
after losing in the finals of that championship to Miller. Winning last’s year’s Mid-Am
is the obvious career highlight.
Lewis has made three trips to Augusta
National for practice rounds, and one thing
he has learned is how hard the course
plays from the Masters tees. “I am going to
have to hit hybrids into six or seven greens
during each round,” he says. “And I am not
counting on getting home on any of the par
5s in two.”
Lewis will be coming to town with his
wife, Melanie, and their two sons, Chris-
topher and Nicklaus, the last one spelled
exactly as the Golden Bear spells his last
name. Lewis is renting a house in Augusta,
which will have as many as 20 family
members and friends on any given night,
and will not be sleeping in the Crow’s Nest,
in large part because he has sleep apnea
and uses a breathing machine at night. “I
don’t want to disturb any of the other ama-
teur players, and at my age, my priority is
to get as good a night’s sleep as possible.”
His other goal, of course, is to enjoy The
Masters. Especially now that he can allow
himself to do that. l
