09/11/2026
It took seventeen trips to PGA Tour qualifying school before anybody handed him a card. Within five years of finally getting one he had won twice. ⛳
Mac O'Grady was born Phil McGleno in Minneapolis in 1951 and later changed his name legally, which was among the more ordinary decisions he made. He was ambidextrous in a way almost nobody in the sport has ever been, good enough right handed to win on the PGA Tour and good enough left handed to play to scratch, and he would offer to go round from either side depending on what amused him that morning. Through the 1970s he sat the qualifying tournament again and again, missing by a shot here and a round there, taking whatever work paid for the next attempt.
The card came in 1982. He won the Greater Hartford Open in 1986 and the Tournament of Champions in 1987, then moved across to the teaching side of the game, breaking the swing down into a system of measurements and terminology that other instructors found either brilliant or completely impenetrable. Seve Ballesteros went to him for help. So did a long list of players who never said so out loud. 🏌️
Sixteen failures is the sort of number most people would treat as a verdict. What is the thing you kept going back to long after a sensible person would have stopped?
