MAYFAIR
BACK BILLY
NINE THE
Q&A runs gamut from early days to Champions Tour
BY JOHN DAVIS T
he name Billy Mayfair is synonymous with golf in Arizona, to the point that the Arizona Golf Association presents the
Mayfair Award annually to the golfer with the best weighted scoring average. Mayfair grew up at Papago Golf
Course, along with many other budding young stars, under the tutelage of the legendary Arch Watkins. After leaving Camelback High School, he became an All-American at Arizona State and won the Haskins Award as the top player in college golf. He also captured the U.S. Public
Links and U.S. Amateur championships and has accumulated five PGA Tour titles, including the only playoff victory on that tour over Tiger Woods. For much of the past decade, his
career has been hampered by physical issues, but perhaps even more by the distractions of a contentious, prolonged divorce and a five-year legal battle for custody of his son, Max. Along with various injuries, he also had to overcome testicular cancer, which required surgery and is in remission. Mayfair’s life and career took “a very
positive turn” in 2013 when he married former ASU golfer Tami Proctor. He now has full custody of Max and has made lifestyle changes that improved his
24 | AZ GOLF Insider | FALL 2016 Billy Mayfair
health, including the loss of 30 pounds. He turned 50 in August and
headed to the Champions Tour. In his first event, the U.S. Men’s Senior Open, he tied for second, one shot behind winner Gene Sauers. Recently, the Arizona Sports Hall of
Fame member talked to AZ GOLF Insider about his experiences in golf, his “second career” and the joys of family life.
10 What has your experience been like on the Champions Tour? It has been
wonderful. I am having the
greatest time. It’s very competitive, don’t get me wrong, but it’s so much fun playing again with guys I have known for so long. It’s great getting caught up with everybody, but come Friday it gets serious because we’re all champions out here and we all want to win again. Guys tell me that on the Champions Tour you never have a bad day, and I think that’s true. To qualify for the Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Desert Mountain, that would be a great way to end the year.
11 You’ve had a lot of success in USGA events. Why do they fit so well? I
think, first of all, I’m a very
patient player. At USGA events, par is not a bad score and I have a tendency to
make a lot of pars. I hit fairways and greens and try to stay away from the big numbers, and at the end of the day, if you’re around par, you’re in contention. It’s not a birdie-fest and I think that’s why I’ve had success in those events.
12 Does your playoff victory against Tiger Woods have special significance
for you? It sure does, absolutely.
When it happened (1998), you didn’t know what Tiger was going to accomplish the rest of his career and he has done so many amazing things. So to be able to say I’m the only guy who beat him in a (PGA Tour) playoff, that’s a feather in my cap. It makes me smile every time someone brings it up.
13 You have five playoff losses on the PGA Tour. Did the one against Vijay
Singh in the 1995 Phoenix Open sting
more than the others? Yeah, it did. I had a putt on the 72nd hole to win and I thought I made it, and then made a bogey on the first playoff hole. When that happens, it hurts because you want to force the other guy to make a birdie to beat you. Out of all the second-place finishes, that was the hardest one to swallow because it’s my hometown event and I always wanted to have my name on that list of winners.
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