It is no secret that Andrew Landry stepped up in 2018 as the current most successful player from Southeast Texas on the PGA Tour.

Landry won the Valero Texas Open, finished second in the Career Builder Championship after losing a playoff to Jon Rahm, had five top 10s, has banked over $2.5 million and is still alive in the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Not so well known, however, is the Port Neches-Groves graduate who emerged as arguably the area’s No. 1 PGA Tour fan. The claim is based on his attendance at this year’s Masters, Players Championship and British Open.

Meet Doug Anderson, who will be able to look back on 2018 as a year he got up close and personal with two of golf’s majors, as well as what is considered the fifth major. The highlight was spending three days at Carnoustie, following a day taking in the sights at St. Andrews.

“All in all it was a blast,” says the 63-year-old Anderson, who retired in 2015 after 40 years at Valero. “Definitely one of my bucket list items was removed with the British Open.”

Enhancing Anderson’s experience was the fact he got to share the golfing journey with son Trent and brothers Steve and Brett.

It all began by chance when, after 20 futile years of entering, Anderson’s name was drawn out of the Masters lottery for practice-round tickets. As with most first timers, he was blown away by the beauty of Augusta National and the hills that had to be walked.

Stop No. 2 was in Jacksonville, Florida for the Players Championship.

Doug and Trent had attended in 2017, and had so much fun they decided to return and take Steve and Brett. While there they got to follow and visit with Landry and fellow PNG alum Chris Stroud.

The coup de gras was Carnoustie in late July, an opportunity that totally blindsided Anderson. While giving Doug a Father’s Day card, Trent said, “Pack your bags, dad, we’re going to the British Open.”

Inside the envelope was an itinerary for a week that would begin in London, move on to St. Andrews, then conclude with the final three rounds of the British Open.

“Unbelievable,” says Anderson of his son’s surprise. “We stayed a few days in London, flew to Glasgow, Scotland and caught a train for the 90-minute trip to Carnoustie. The countryside was beautiful.

“We stayed an an Airbnb in Carnoustie, then headed over to St. Andrews on Thursday. St. Andrews brought chills to us because of all the history as the home of golf. Later in the day, we watched the first round of the Open at a pub next door to St. Andrews. People from all over the world were in there.”

On Friday, they followed Landry, who was struggling and missed the cut, then became part of Tiger Woods’ massive gallery. And they almost wound up with the dubious distinction of taking a direct hit from one of Tiger’s Bridgestones on the second hole.

“He came over twice to ask us to back up,” recalls Anderson. “But we didn’t listen. Thank goodness we ducked.”

So, with a practice round at the Masters and the British Open checked off, what’s next on the Anderson bucket list? The obvious choices for 2019 are the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black outside New York City or the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

Not an easy choice to be sure. But, since he’s been to Pebble Beach, Anderson is zeroing in on Bethpage.

Decisions, decisions.
CHIP SHOTS

Depending on what players ahead of him do in this week’s BMW Championship, Andrew Landry looks to need at least a 15th place finish to climb back into the top 30 and advance to the PGA Tour Championship.

Landry, with a tie for 58th in the Dell Technologies Championship, dropped out of the top 30 in FedEx points for the first time since January. He fell five places to 35th and is 60 points behind No. 30 Gary Woodland. A 15th-place finish in the BMW Championship would be worth 220 points.

The best news for Landry is that he finished the Dell at TPC Boston with his best round in weeks — a four-under-par 67. That came two days after he made the cut on the number with a birdie on the final hole …

Two thumbs up to the Texas Rangers baseball organization. With encouragement from the Northern Texas PGA, the Rangers had Bruce Lietzke’s family as special guests for their game Saturday night. The purpose was to help raise awareness for glioblastoma — the cancer that took the 14-time PGA Tour winner’s life 15 months after he was diagnosed.

Lietzke’s son Stephen threw out the first pitch. The rest of his family was invited into the dugout to meet with players …

The team of Earl Richard, Cap Hollier, Ron Mistrot and a ghost player posted minus-4 to win the front in the Friday Senior 2 ball at Babe Zaharias. On the back, the foursome of Rick Pritchett, Gary Fontenot, Larry Foster and Craig Castille prevailed with plus 1 …

Format for the Thursday Seniors was 6/6/6. Richard and Hollier shot 71 to win First Flight by two strokes over James Musgrove-Larry Foster and Joe Gongora-Ron Mistrot.

Closest to the pin winners were Gongora (No. 7) and Mike Lansford (No. 12) …

Rain and soggy conditions kept the other senior games from being played …

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