www.globalgolfpost.com
APRIL 30, 2012
Abell Able To Overcome Adversity
JOHN STEINBREDER
E-MAIL JOHN
The Coleman Invitational is one of David
Abell’s favorite golf tournaments. It is held
at Seminole, his home club, and many
of the contestants are good friends and
among the top mid- and senior amateur
players in the country. Which means the
camaraderie is as good as the competition.
Then, there is the fact that Abell won
this prestigious event in 2008 – and secured a place for his name on the tournament boards in the hallowed Seminole
locker room that boast some of the biggest
names in professional and amateur golf,
from Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer to
Vinny Giles and Buddy Marucci.
But that triumph was a lot more than
another notch in Abell’s competitive belt.
It also represented a major victory over
anxiety issues that first surfaced when he
was a teenager and nearly caused him on
several occasions to give up the game.
“We all have snakes in our heads, and
I certainly had them in mine,” says Abell,
now 52 and the longtime business man-
ager for Nick Price. “They made playing
competitive golf very tough at times. So,
it was an amazing feeling when I won the
Coleman. I never thought I’d find the confi-
dence and wherewithal to do it.”
Initially, golf was not so hard for Abell,
who grew up in Fort Pierce, Fla., and was
introduced to the game by his dentist
father. “I won the Florida State Junior
Amateur Championship when I was 14,
and then the Orange Bowl International
Junior event when I was a high school
sophomore,” he says. That last one was
a particularly impressive triumph, as his
eight-stroke margin of victory was a tour-
nament record and came against a field
that included Price and Hal Sutton.
David Abell, left, is business manager for Nick Price.
a home. In addition, he began teeing it up
in events at the golf clubs he had joined,
among them Pine Valley and Seminole,
both of which offered admission on the
very same day in the fall of 2002. Abell won
the Pine Valley club championship the next
year, and began playing events like the
Crump Cup and the Coleman Invitational
on the so-called cocktail party circuit. Golf
was starting to be fun again.
But that did not necessarily mean it
was always easy, and Abell leaked oil on
his way in the final day of the 2008 Coleman, bogeying the last three holes to end
up tied with Roger Hoit. There were worries among those in the gallery who knew
of Abell’s past travails about how he
would do in the three-hole playoff. But he
hung tough, draining a 15-foot birdie putt
on the last hole for the win, with many golf
friends and members of the club staff in
attendance.
It was his best triumph since that
Orange Bowl Invitational Junior all those
many years ago – and a revelation that
there could indeed be joy in winning. l
