Hamilton Traveled Long, Winding Road to Troon

Todd Hamilton became the improbable champion with the even more improbable story Sunday.

He learned to play golf on a nine-hole course in west-central Illinois, dedicating himself to making it big. But unlike Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and other top stars, his dream was deferred.

Hamilton toiled through Asia, living on the fringes of the pro game. Even after experiencing success in Japan, he longed to play on the PGA Tour. But it didn’t happen until last fall when, on the eighth attempt, he finally made it through the Tour’s qualifying school. At 38, he became a PGA Tour rookie.

The long wait and hard work all crystallized in a true golf fantasy Sunday at Royal Troon. Hamilton stunned the golf world, outlasting Ernie Els in a four-hole playoff to win the British Open, the silver Claret Jug and $1,348,272.

Afterward, Hamilton summed up his path to this moment by saying, “It seems like a fairy tale, and to me it really is.”

Oquawka, Ill., also rejoiced. Near the Quad Cities, the town of 1,500 people now can boast that it is the hometown of the British Open champion.

Even Hamilton admitted Sunday that the last year and half “has just come out of the blue.”

The road to the championship was hardly ordinary.

It started at Hend-Co Hills Golf Club in Biggsville, a nine-hole facility where Hamilton learned the game. He couldn’t get enough of golf, once playing 63 holes in a day.

“I used to go to work, and he’d be running after me, ‘You have to take me to the golf course,’ ” said his mother, Jayne Pearson, who was at Royal Troon on Sunday.

Hamilton’s wife, Jaque, whom he met in high school, recalled that when they were dating, Hamilton used to pretend that he was making a putt to win a major.

After winning two Illinois high school championships, Hamilton attended college at Oklahoma before embarking on a pro career.

While repeatedly failing to gain PGA Tour status, he endured some of golf’s most desperate outposts. He described playing amid abject poverty in India.

Hamilton was so short on money in 1992, he couldn’t afford to practice in Florida during the winter. Jaque recalled him hitting balls off mats on the ice in Illinois.

But Hamilton enjoyed a rebirth, becoming the leading money winner on the Asian tour that year.

He eventually moved to Japan, winning four tournaments and earning more than $1 million last year.

Still, the travel was difficult. His family eventually moved from Illinois to the Dallas area, in part because it had direct flights to Tokyo.

But Hamilton wanted to play closer to home. Finally, on his eighth attempt, he qualified for the PGA Tour.

He pulled a shocker earlier in the year when he won the Honda Classic in March. Still, nobody, including Hamilton, expected him to contend in a major.

Hamilton arrived in Scotland playing poorly, but something clicked at Royal Troon. He went into the final round with the lead.

The pressure would have been overwhelming for most rookies. But his mother said her son was “completely calm.”

“He’s really focused,” said Ron Levin, Hamilton’s caddie. “He knows how to tune everything out.”