Print this page  |  Close Window

By Colin Murray
PGA TOUR Staff

LUTZ, Fla. -- Give anyone the chance to walk inside the ropes at a Champions Tour event and they are sure to jump at the opportunity. Throw in musician Huey Lewis and actor/entertainer Bill Murray along with Champions Tour pros Peter Jacobsen and Scott Simpson, though, and you have a dream foursome.

That's exactly what happened for 15-year-old Ivan Ross of Sarasota, Fla., on Saturday during the second round of the Champions Tour's Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am.

Hanging with Bill Murray was merely one highlight of a great day for Ivan Ross. (Stan Badz/PGA TOUR/WireImage)

"I knew all of the groups who were playing today and I was really hoping it would be this one," said Ross, a student at the Out of Door Academy in Sarasota. "It was really exciting when I found out I was going to be following these guys."

Ross had the opportunity to walk inside the ropes through the Champions Tour's honorary observer program and the Children's Dream Fund. Despite being a high school student and member of the golf team, Ross isn't your average 15-year-old -- he's a cancer survivor. After three months of chemotherapy and a complicated surgery, the teenager is now a cancer-free.

The avid golfer can now focus solely on his game and on having fun. That wasn't difficult on Saturday as he followed perhaps the most well-recognized amateur golfer in the country. Murray, playing the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am for the first time, drew raucous crowds and Ross had a front row seat to watch the action.

"It's definitely different getting up close and being able to talk to the guys," Ross said. "It's so much better than being outside the ropes in the crowd."

"That was really great," Jacobsen said. "That's what this Tour should be all about, having Bill Murray here with Huey Lewis and be able to give back, it's great."

The pro-am format is business-as-usual for Murray and Simpson, who have partnered in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am since 1993. Ross was experiencing the antics for the first time, though, and loved every minute of it.

"He's absolutely hilarious," Ross said of Murray. "He's so much better in person, too. He's actually a really good golfer. He's hit some great shots today."

When asked the funniest thing Murray did all day, Ross was hard-pressed to pick out just one. "I don't know, someone in the crowd called him Bill Murphy and I guess he's playing in the next group back. Bill started yelling at him and everyone loved it."

The Children's Dream Fund was founded in 1981 with the single purpose of fulfilling dreams for children ages 3-18 who have been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. The organization worked with the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am staff to get Ross and a friend tickets to Saturday's round. Things got even better two weeks ago when Ross found out he would be an honorary observer, one of the Champions Tour's fan-friendly features which allows spectators to watch the action from inside the ropes.

Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved.