Quick Nine with Jim Albus
We caught up with with former Piping Rock golf professional Jim Albus, a two-time Met Open winner who competed on the Senior PGA Tour (now known as the PGA Tour Champions) following his victory at the Senior Players Championship in 1991. Albus won his first Met Open in 1970 at The Ridgewood Country Club and then fourteen years later in 1984 at Old Oaks Country Club.
MGA: You’re a two-time Met Open winner and played in the championship for a number of years, what was the first year you competed in the event?
JA: The year I won in 1970 at Ridgewood was my first time. I played over my head that I wasn’t good enough to win. I beat Jimmy Wright [defending champion] in a playoff. Jimmy was a much better player than me but I had a good day, which happens sometimes.
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MGA: Twenty years after that wine you played your first U.S. Senior Open, back at Ridgewood. Did you have a feeling of comfort knowing it was there?
JA: In 1970, I was paired Craig Shankland, who became the Metropolitan PGA’s President a few years later. I had never met Craig before playing with him then and then 20 years later, we were paired together again at Ridgewood. So I had that comfort [laughs].
Ridgewood is one of those really good golf courses. I became friends with Harry Dee, the pro there at the time and played it several times leading up to the week. It’s one of the really good golf courses in the Met Area.
MGA: In 1984, you won your second Met Open, defeating Rick Meskell by two strokes, what are your memories from that win?
JA: Old Oaks is the same sort of course like Ridgewood. Not as long but it has a lot of rolling hills. On the final hole near the end, I had the lead, and there’s a tree by the green. I pulled a 9-iron and hit the tree and it fortunately dropped down on the green, which helped me win. At that point I was a better player and felt like I could win. At Ridgewood it felt more of a surprise, but this win I was a better player and felt like I could win.
MGA: Earlier that year, you competed in the U.S. Open was at Winged Foot, which was local for you. What was that week like, having friends and family around?
JA: It was like a homecoming for me. I had two kids at Piping Rock that I taught caddie for me, one on Thursday and one on Friday. When I made the cut, my son, who was still in school, caddied for me on the weekend. That was really the only U.S. Open that I did well in. (Albus finished in tie for 30th)
MGA: Two years later, the U.S. Open was at Shinnecock, which you also competed in. Any similar stories?
JA: I had two different kids caddie again that week, which was a learning experience for them. It was just barely playable that week with the wind and rain.
MGA: A few years later in the early 90s, you decided to play on the Senior PGA Tour (now the Champions Tour), what was that though process like leaving your post as a club professional?
JA: I was a Monday qualifier all year. When I won [the 1991 Senior Players], I had no status. The week before the Senior Players Championship, I Monday qualified for a tournament at Sleepy Hollow Country Club. It was one of the best weeks I ever putted and I finished inside the top-five. That gave me enough money to qualify me for the Senior Players Championship based off of the money list. It was a weird set of circumstances.
Other professionals were telling me I was going to get a multi-year exemption for winning the Senior Players Championship since it was a major. That was the rule on the PGA Tour, but it wasn’t on the Senior PGA Tour.
I never thought I was going to leave Piping Rock. When I won the Senior Players Championship, the money made me feel better about getting my kids through school, but I was going to try and play when I could while still working at the club.
About a week after I won, they told me it was only a one-year exemption. They did me a backhanded favor by doing it for only one year, because they made me go full-time and try to finish inside the top-30 every year.
MGA: When you won that year, you were still at Piping Rock. What was the response from the membership?
JA: Everybody was happy and excited. We had a cocktail party when I got back. Tom Nieporte, who was at Piping Rock before me (1963-1978), had won a few times on the PGA Tour. A lot of the older members were tuned into it and they appreciated a pro that could play.
MGA: Did you ever think you were going to be able to have the success that you did for several years on the Senior PGA Tour?
JA: If you stayed exempt, you knew you were doing good enough to make a living. On my second year, one of the reporters asked me what my goal was, and I said that I wanted to win more than one tournament in a year to verify that I could be a consistent player.
MGA: Your resume includes winning the Met Open, Long Island Open, New York State Open, and six victories on the Senior PGA Tour. Looking back, how do you assess your career?
JA: There were times where I had a Met Open or a local tournament and I couldn’t work on my game how I wanted to because I had to teach and work. Every local pro goes through that. I have no complaints. I feel very fortunate to do it the way I did it and still be able to watch my family grow up.