For four decades, Mac McGee has been a mainstay in amateur golf. But like many senior amateurs, he couldn’t begin to put a number on the starts he has made.
“I played I don’t know how many tournaments in my career,” McGee said, “but it’s been a lot.”
McGee, 72, has maintained a competitive-yet-gentle presence throughout that span, giving back to the game through the grace with which he plays it. As McGee tees it up at the U.S. Senior Challenge next week, a tournament in which he has competed many times over, he will also receive the Challenge Man of the Year award, given annually presented to a person whose life has been exemplary in family, business and golf.
“I think that it’s really nice to be recognized by your peers – you don’t really know, you don’t try to win these accomplishments I don’t think,” he said. “You just go and you play the game and enjoy it and try to pass something on. . . . I know there were some thoughtful people that put some names up and they chose me and I’m just really honored and humbled by it.”
In addition to putting together a team for the U.S. Senior Challenge each year, McGee, from Midland, Texas, has always offered what he can to help the tournament.
As a player, McGee has found success both nationally and close to home. He’s a five-time club champion at Midland Country Club but also has qualified for two USGA championships. He competed in the 2014 U.S. Mid-Amateur at the age of 60 and ten years later, played the U.S. Senior Amateur as a 70-year-old. Each time, he was among the oldest competitors in the field, which speaks to his ability to maintain his game at a level where he can compete with younger players.
Perhaps his most notable accomplishment, nationally at least, was winning the 2012 Porter Cup.
McGee, a native Texan, devoted most of his attention as a younger man to fast-paced sports like basketball and football and attended Texas Tech on a basketball scholarship. Since 1978, he has worked in the oil and gas industry and founded McGee Drilling Corporation, which he still operates, in 1990.
Still, McGee has had a club in his hand since he was a little boy. Around the age of 10, his father bought him a set of clubs after McGee pestered him relentlessly to take him along to the golf course when he played with his friends on the weekend.
Even though McGee showed a clear affinity and talent for the game, he admits he also developed something of a temper when it didn’t go well. McGee vividly remembers his dad taking his clubs away after watching him throw a golf club on the driving range after hitting a poor shot. The message was clear: That’s not the way to play the game.
The lesson stuck with him throughout his life, and has no doubt contributed to the grace for which he is known.
“I think the biggest accomplishment I’ve contributed to the game is just the way I’ve tried to play with respect for the game and respect for my playing competitors,” he said in reflecting on the Challenge Man of the Year award. “Trying to maintain your composure when you’re playing poorly, and it’s easy to maintain it when you’re playing good but that’s part of the challenge of the game is to maintain things together when things just aren’t going your way. If I’ve contributed anything, I think that’s one of my biggest accomplishments.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Texan Mac McGee named senior amateur golf’s Challenge Man of the Year
