Interview With Steve Lowery Former PGA and Current Champions Tour Professional Golfer

During the Wednesday Pro Am Day at the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic, I had the opportunity to play with and interview Steve Lowery, the Former PGA and Current Champions Tour Professional Golfer. In between shots and draining his birdie putts, he answered some of my favorite questions I love to ask Professional golfers. (Note: If the opportunity affords itself, it is a must to play in one Pro/Am event in your life. It is worth the price of admission. Rumor has it the Champions Tour players are much more enjoyable to play with and playing with Steve was a thrill of a lifetime. Treat yourself to next years event! More info at http://www.2015mgrc.com/pro-ams.php)

Brief biography
Steve Lowery was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He has PGA Tour victories in 1994, 2000 and 2008. All three of his victories on the PGA Tour have come in playoffs.

Lowery has been featured in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking. His best season on the PGA Tour was in 1994, when he finished 12th on the money list. He missed most of 2007 with a wrist injury. The PGA Tour granted him a partial exemption for the 2008 season. He needed to win more than $250,000 during his first eight starts in 2008 in order to re-gain his full exemption on the PGA Tour, but that became a moot point when he won the 2008 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. The victory gave him a full two-year exemption.

Lowery also won the Birmingham Golf Association Junior and State Junior in the late 1970s, before embarking on his four years of college at the University of Alabama. He played for coach Conrad Rehling from 1979-1983, on the Alabama Crimson Tide golf team.

In 1998, Lowery was involved in a bizarre incident at The Players Championship, in which his successful approach shot to the infamous island green on the 17th hole was stolen by a seagull (which then dropped his ball into the adjacent water hazard). Under PGA rules, Lowery was allowed to replace his ball with no penalty.

Though it was in a losing effort, Lowery played a memorable stretch of golf at The International in 2002. He holed out a shot from over 200 yards for a rare double eagle (or albatross) on the 71st hole to pull within one point, ultimately losing by the same margin after missing a birdie putt on the last hole. Coming near the very end of the tournament and creating such a close finish, Lowery's double eagle was one of the most dramatic in PGA Tour history since Gene Sarazen made a double eagle at 15 in the final round of the 1935 Masters Tournament. Two holes before his double eagle, Lowery also holed out a wedge from the fairway for an eagle.

When did you start golfing, who introduced you to the game and a brief memory?
I was 8 or 9 years old. Both my parents played so I would go with them to the course.

What is your current home course?
Greystone Golf & Country Club is a private, 36-hole golf club located just outside Birmingham, Alabama

To date, what is your proudest golf accomplishment?
On the course in 2002, I holed out a shot from over 200 yards for a rare double eagle on the 71st hole to pull within one point at The International.

What is your biggest golf pet peeve on or off the course?
The volunteers sometimes make more noise and movement then the entire gallery.

What is your favorite club in your bag and why?
Putter, because it magically erases mistakes.

If you could change one aspect, rule or thing about golf, what would it be and why?
I don't like the call in the rule where someone watching a tournament on tv can call in & change a tournament ruling because not all players are being scrutinized.

What is your favorite golf destination?
Hard not to say Pebble Beach as I won there.

What course is on your bucket list that you have not played yet?
I have not played Pine Valley. You would be surprised on the number of great courses many of us Pro have not played before.

If you woke up tomorrow and could play one course you played before, where would you play?
The Country Club at Castle Pines a private club in Denver Colorado.

Dream foursome (living)?
My father-n-law, son and wife. We have a lot of fun on the course.

Dream foursome (living or dead)?
I would add my father to the group already mentioned.

18 Rapid Fire, Off The Cuff Questions