The Connors brothers – Chuck, George and Dave – were dispersed across the globe and took up golf at different points in their lives.
By the mid-1990s each had been bitten by the golf bug and was playing on a regular basis, but they had never taken a trip together.
The World Am changed that.
Chuck Connors was working for a government contractor in Wiesbaden, Germany when George, who had been playing in the World Am since 1989, made what proved to be a life altering suggestion.
“George said, ‘Why don’t you come over and play in the Amateur,’” Chuck recalls.
Needing to find a place to live upon returning to the United States in 1995, Chuck took him up on the offer and the three brothers met for their first golf trip. (While driving up Route 17 to Myrtle Beach, Chuck and his wife saw Walter Cronkite on a billboard pitching a Myrtle Beach retirement community and bought a piece of land on their first day in town, so the area is now his home!)
Since that first trip, golf has served as a gathering point for their families.
“(The game) is important to keep us together,” said Dave, who is retired military. “I’m in Florida, and George is in North Carolina. We bring the wives and it’s how we stay close together.”
While the trio comes to see each other, the camaraderie of the event is also a vital part of the World Am experience.
“I like it for meeting people,” Chuck said. “I play courses that aren’t part of my regular routine, and it’s interesting meeting (new) people.”
They don’t play in the same flight but that doesn’t keep the brothers from comparing scorecards and exchanging money after each round. On Monday they bet on who would have the fewest number of putts and Chuck, the best golfer of the group, had to cough up $10, much to the delight of his brothers.
