By Joe Birch
Published: Aug. 4, 2024 at 6:01 PM CDT|Updated: 15 hours ago
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - You could hardly expect a native Memphian who underwent five shoulder surgeries in his 40s and a couple of elbow surgeries just last year to be in possession of a major trophy from the 2024 PGA Champions Tour.
But the Regions Tradition is the latest addition to Doug Barron’s growing trophy case, evidence of a professional golfing comeback story for the ages.
“I couldn’t have imagined a better year and I’m not really in great golf shape yet, so it’s been amazing,” Barron said while tuning up with his son Wiley on the range at Ridgeway Country Club.
The 55-year-old made the cut at the Senior Open Championship on the weekend of July 25-28, 2024, at Carnoustie Golf Links in Scotland, where K.J. Choi became the first South Korean to win a major senior championship.
Barron stunned senior golf at Royal St. Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club in Lytham, England, when he appeared out of nowhere and qualified to play in the 2019 Senior Open Championship.
Barron remembers that week fondly: “I turned 50 on the Wednesday of the Senior British Open and I told my wife that I was going to fly over there, and Monday qualify,” Barron recounted with a smile. “And she looked at me like I was crazy,” Barron said of his wife, Leslie.
“I flew over there and Monday qualified, and with four holes to go, I was tied with Bernhard Langer,” Barron said of the Hall of Fame golfer who is won more senior events than anyone.
Barron ended up finishing fifth that year. With his confidence renewed, Barron returned stateside and two weeks later again Monday qualified for the 2019 Dick’s Sporting Goods Open--but went on to victory this time, defeating Fred Couples by two strokes.
Barron collected yet another senior victory at the 2021 Shaw Charity Classic in Calgary, Alberta, where he let his joy flow in a victory dance on the 18th green.
The man had some serious steam to release! Barron grew up at Windyke Country Club where his beloved father Buster built a house on the 15th tee on the west course when Doug was a little kid.
Barron broke par on nine holes at age ten and played competitively throughout his youth. After less than All-American results at Mississippi State, Barron hunkered down and played on mini tours, arriving on the PGA Tour just as Tiger Woods took over in the late 1990s.
Barron made 111 cuts on the PGA Tour in 238 starts, but his best finish on that tour was third place.
“I think it was the first cut Tiger missed in 144 tournaments,” Barron recalled of his third-place finish with a laugh. “So, it’s like everyone relaxed. But I enjoyed my time on the tour. But I’m a lot different than I was then. I was pretty hard on myself. I never really thought I belonged,” Barron remembered.
Dark times came in 2009. Doctors had prescribed Barron a steroid. Barron became to the first PGA player to be suspended for a year from the tour for its anti-doping policy when he failed a drug test at the then-St. Jude Classic.
“I was never trying to gain an advantage. I’ve never been accused of cheating,” Barron said.
Barron sued and the case was settled out of court. But Barron says he “fired himself” from professional golf and attempted to earn a living another way.
Ultimately, he returned to Windyke where he gave golf lessons and reconnected with his family.
Doug and Leslie Barron have two sons, Buzz (aka John), age 23, now serving in the U.S. Army and Wiley, 17, a senior at Christian Brothers High School.
The family has a front row seat to Doug Barron’s professional golfing rebound that began in his late 40s.
Barron went wire to wire, winning a trio of mini tour events in Florida and decided to make the big jump “across the pond” and back into the pro ranks at Royal St. Lytham and St. Annes in 2019.
Another Memphis senior pro who enjoyed great late career success, Loren Roberts, urged Barron to “swing at his own tempo” and never finish out of the top 15.
“Every time he sees me, he says, ‘that should be your worst finish,’” Barron says of his friend and mentor, Roberts, who now devotes himself to all kinds of constructive programs centered on aspiring young Memphis area golfers.
Doug’s mom and twin sisters have cheered his later in life golfing success as the family rallies around Buster Barron, the pro golfer’s lifelong best friend and hero, who now lives in a long-term care facility enduring Parkinson’s and dementia.
“He knows who I am, but he doesn’t necessarily know that I won a golf tournament yesterday or last week or last year,” Barron said. “But he can remember the 80s like yesterday. But can’t remember what he ate 5 minutes ago.”
Doug Barron flies to the Pacific Northwest this week for the Boeing Classic, a tournament he missed last year while recovering from nagging elbow issues.
He will take on legends of the game August 9-11 at the Club at Snoqualmie Ridge.
Barron says he’s learned how to manage the pain that comes to the over-50 crowd and keep a proper rhythm for his mind, body, and spirit.
“Every successful person has been knocked down,” Barron told me, “And I think it either makes you go the other way or makes you work harder.”
Doug Barron has done the demanding work. Keep watching the PGA Tour Champions leaderboards for the name of the Memphis pro enjoying late blooming success!
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