MacKenzie settles into career after early mid-life crisis  PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents GREENSBORO, N.C. -- His mid-life crisis came early for Will MacKenzie.  Will MacKenzie is back in his native North Carolina, this time focused on golf. (Jonathan Ernst/WireImage)
He was just shy of his 25th birthday, and MacKenzie had spent a good part of the previous decade kayaking, snowboarding and surfing. He had worked as an EMT in the Wyoming wilderness, and he imported hammocks from Costa Rica that he tried to sell. Then MacKenzie saw Payne Stewart win the U.S. Open in 1999. Suddenly he had a purpose in life again. "It inspired me," the Greenville, N.C. native said. "Home state. Pinehurst No. 2. I love it. I just adore the place. Payne Stewart was sort of a childhood idol. I saw the competitive flair involved. "I was tired of beating myself up. I didn't know if I wanted to go back to Montana or Alaska or go to France or Bali. I was like, 'Well, that's cool.' I hit some balls and I was like, 'Wow, this is fantastic. Maybe I want to play again.'" MacKenzie hit the range, just like he had when he was a teenager playing in American Junior Golf Association events. He tried his luck on the Nationwide Tour and survived q-school twice to get his PGA TOUR card. His mid-life crisis averted, the free-spirited MacKenzie found a home on TOUR. He proved he can win, capturing the Reno-Tahoe Open last year, and provided some comic relief along the way, too. "People might think that since I quit golf for awhile and lived the life of an outdoor enthusiast that, you know, I break the mold, and I sure do," MacKenzie said. "But you know, I want my peers to respect me as a golfer, and I think most of them do. "But I also like to cheer them up a little bit and do silly things like stand on my head from time-to-time, because that's what I like to do." MacKenzie may not have made anyone stand on their heads Thursday, but the rest of the golfers playing in the Wyndham Championship certainly did stand up and take notice when he shot an 8-under 64 to claim the lead. That was one better than Steve Marino, Lucas Glover, Brian Davis and Jeff Overton. Seven players -- Carl Pettersson, John Merrick, Todd Hamilton, Todd Fischer, Greg Kraft, John Huston and 2003 winner Shigeki Maruyama -- were two strokes back. After the opening round, 79 players -- or, more than half of the field of 156 -- were 3 under or better. MacKenzie jump-started his round with a wedge that settled 39 inches from the pin at the par-5 second hole for the first of his nine birdies. He had just made bogey at the first hole and hit his drive at No. 2 into the rough. "So that was five shots (and) I was already a little stewing," MacKenzie said. "I hit that wedge in there really close. I think that just turned my day around." Indeed, it did. MacKenzie made a 7-footer at the fifth hole for another birdie and then erupted with a string of four straight beginning at No. 8, where he hit the flagstick and almost made an ace. He tapped in there and made his next from 9 inches to make the turn in 33. MacKenzie then added a 6-footer at No. 10 and a 24-footer at the 11th to complete the surge. A par at the 12th was followed by a four-hole stretch that he played in 3 under. MacKenzie made a 3-footer at the par-5 13th and needed just 13 inches for his next birdie at No. 15. He closed out his round with a flourish, making a 21-footer at the 16th hole. "I rolled it really nice," MacKenzie said. "(I) drove it OK. I'm just playing solid golf but I made some putts. I made a couple 25-footers and made all my short ones." MacKenzie had been on the fast track to the kind of career he's now settled into when he was a youngster growing up in eastern North Carolina. He burned out on junior golf, though, after a particularly frustrating playoff loss at the age of 14. "I was real angry," recalled MacKenzie, a seemingly laid-back fellow who calls himself a "perfectionist in his sports," but not in his personal life. "I was like, 'This is not fun,' and I had a lot of other opportunities to go to the beach and go to the river, water ski, surf and hunt, (things) that I love to do. I just slowly went away (from golf)."
MacKenzie entertained the idea of going to East Carolina in his hometown and walking on as a kicker. Instead, he headed west and lived in his van. He became a Class 5 kayaker, got into rock climbing and even took a 30-day course to become a wilderness emergency medical technician. "I thought I was one day going to be a flight paramedic of some search and rescue paramedic," MacKenzie said. Turns out, he needed to heal himself. "I was injury prone," MacKenzie admitted. "About twice a year, I took humongous diggers to my body where I would barely be able to walk for a while. (I) blew out my ankle and knee, almost shattered my back and neck." After a three-month respite in Costa Rico, where he went surfing, MacKenzie returned to eastern N.C., ready to sell those hammocks he imported. Business wasn't all that good, though, and when MacKenzie saw Stewart win his second U.S. Open, he began to think. "I talked to my father, who, of course, like all fathers never wanted me to quit in the first place, but he let me do whatever I wanted," MacKenzie said. "And of course, with his grace, he said, 'We'll figure out a way to get you to start playing golf again and we're going to get some money rounded up and you can start going out on the mini-tours.'" MacKenzie started calling friends of his. Remember me, he'd ask. Remember when we played way back when and I was 14? Invariably, the answer would be, yeah, where did you go? MacKenzie would tell them his story and found people to back his dream. MacKenzie has two top-10s this year, including a tie for fourth at the season-opening and winners-only Mercedes-Benz Championship, and he has earned more than $900,000. He could nearly double that total should he win the Wyndham Championship Sunday. Equally important is what a victory -- and the 4,500 points that go with it -- could do to MacKenzie's standing in the FedExCup race. He's currently 82nd, but could move into the relative security of the top 30 entering the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup with a win at Forest Oaks. "There's four big events," MacKenzie said. "Great golf courses, the best competition and I like that it's a playoff system because it's knocking people out every week. I think that's really cool, you know? "It helps the people who have played well throughout the whole year. I'm a little bit on the outside looking in right now, so I need to play well these next couple (of tournaments) to keep playing as long as possible in the playoffs." |
