Former Kent State Golfer Dr. Doug Hanzel Continues Spectacular Amateur Season
9/28/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
www.kentstatesports.com
Dr. Doug Hanzel has been enjoying a very good 55th year.
The decision to ease up on his schedule as a lung specialist in Savannah, Ga. has given the co-captain of Kent State's 1979 men's golf team a little more time to focus on his golf game.
So far, the payoff has included a medal for finishing as the low-amateur in the U.S. Senior Open and qualifying berths in the match-play brackets of both the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Mid-Amateur championships.
On Saturday, Hanzel will be in West Caldwell, N.J., for the start of his fourth USGA event of the season – the USGA Senior Amateur Championship at Mountain Ridge Country Club.
"For me, this week is the biggest one," said Hanzel.
That's quite a statement considering the dream scenarios Hanzel has already accomplished in the last two and a half months.
Finishing as the top amateur at the U.S. Senior Open at Indianwood Golf and Country Club in Michigan meant being honored in a post-tournament ceremony on a stage that included former major-championship winners Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman and Corey Pavin. Hanzel wore a white shirt featuring the Kent State logo in his final round while playing next to Loren Roberts.
A few weeks later, playing in a young-man's game at the U.S. Amateur at famed Cherry Hills Country Club in Colorado, Hanzel finished in a tie for 25th in medal play, then won his first match to reach the round of 32. He was finally eliminated by eventual champion Steven Fox.
"Those tournaments were great," according to Hanzel, but the likelihood of winning in either a field featuring some of golfs legendary names or another peppered with college stars was "remote at best."
"But this tournament, this week is the one I think I can win," said Hanzel, who has a win this year in a 16-shot runaway at the Georgia Senior Champinship. "I'm a true amateur, I've never turned pro. I've never been reinstated. I'm a career amateur, and to do that takes someone who has the interest to stay competitive despite having a job ... And now if I can win a USGA event, that would be a career-maker."
Nobody would be less surprised to see Hanzel hoist the trophy as the USGA Senior Amateur champion on Oct. 4 than his old college coach.
"He will win a USGA event someday. I believe it," said Kent State men's golf coach Herb Page, whose first year as the Golden Flashes coach in 1978-79 just happened to be Hanzel's senior season. "I think Doug is good enough to turn pro and play on the Senior Tour. But I don't think he will … Here he is, age 55, standing all of 5-foot-7 and weighing only around 140 pounds. And he just kills the ball. He kills it. He hits it as long as anybody on my team. He won a (Ohio) state championship in high school. But he'll tell you, he is better now than he has ever been in his life."
Becoming a doctor was always Hanzel's top priority when he attended Kent State. Page still remebers Hanzel deciding to skip the most important tournament of his senior season because he had to take his admission test to medical school.
While Hanzel realized that dream of becoming a doctor, golf was always a big part of his life. In 2006, the USGA ranked all of the golfers in different professions by studying their handicaps. Hanzel was rated as the No. 1 golfing doctor in the country.
"There are CEO's who wanted to keep their names off of that list and professional athletes who were dying to be on it," said Page. "And Doug was No. 1 among all doctors."
Hanzel keeps raising his game to higher levels despite battling Type 1 diabetes. On the course, he wears an insulin pump attached to his shorts to maintain his blood-sugar level.
"That actually became an issue for the first time yesterday when my pump failed," Hanzel said on Friday after his final practice round at Mountain Ridge. "It just stopped working, but I was lucky enough to have the 800 number to get the company to FedEx me a new one, and it has already arrived."
Now Hanzel is free to focus just on the task at hand. He tees off at 7:39 a.m. on Saturday – the second group off in round one. Medal rounds are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday with the top 64 players advancing to match play. A champion will be crowned on Thursday.
"I think the course benefits me in that it is fairly long for a senior event," said Hanzel. "It's playing at 6,800 yards, and it has been raining so the course is wet and will play even longer … Out here, I am literally one of the youngsters at 55. I hit the ball probably further than a majority of the people in the field. If I keep it in play and putt well, I think I'll do very well."
Hanzel can be sure his Kent State family will be following his progress online. The Golden Flashes' golf program is an extended family with relationships spanning generation to generation. Even Hanzel's immediate family is filled with Kent State grads in wife Nancy, son Andrew and daughter Katie. Andrew also played golf for the Golden Flashes.
"I've stayed in touch with Herb over the years and I've been very impressed with what he has done with the program," said Hanzel. "He has brought in good kids, he has had good results, and he has done something nationally for Kent State. People who know golf, they know Kent State.
"I still stay in touch on almost a daily basis with my old college roommate, Ned Weaver, who is a club pro in Pittsburgh (at Newcastle Country Club), and I've made other friends over the years from Kent State that I will literally keep for a lifetime. We have a special bond. We are all Kent Staters."
That bond is why Hanzel has established the Dr. Doug Hanzel Scholarship Endowment.
"We are not producing golfers here. We are producing great people," said Page. "Doug graduated back in 1978, he is a physician, and now he has created an endowment. And the interest off of that helps one of our kids currently go to Kent State"
This winner of this year's Dr. Doug Hanzel Scholarship was sophomore Taylor Zoller.
"Kent has been good to me, and I want to give back," said Hanzel. "I'm blue and gold, tried and true."
UPDATE: 10:35 a.m. Monday, Oct. 1
Hanzel has reached match play after shooting 4-over (75-71-146) and finishing T-26 in the first two rounds this weekend. He is on the course today in match 22, where he will face Brady Exber of Las Vegas in the round of 64.
UPDATE: 4:37 p.m. Monday, Oct. 1
The Hanzel vs. Exber match is all square and has reached the 20th hole.
Update: 6:05 p.m. Monday, Oct. 1
Hanzel defeated Exber on the 21st hgole to advance to the round of 32.
Update: 9:59 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 3
Hanzel defeated Mark Bemowski of Mukwonago, Wis. 3&2 on Tuesday to move on to the round of 16. The run ended there with a 4&3 loss to Randal Lewis of Alma, Mich.
Advancing to match play in three USGA events and finishing as low amateur at the Senior U.S. Open makes for one great year.
