Pinehurst, N.C. – Four days ago, Conrad Ray was getting ready for the summer golf camp at Stanford University, where he just finished his first year as the golf coach.
Monday, he was on the first tee with Tiger Woods, getting ready for the U.S. Open.
“What a crazy week it’s been,” Ray said on the practice range at Pinehurst No. 2, where he got into the 156-man field as the first alternate when Darren Clarke withdrew last week.
The week is just getting started at the major championship known as the toughest test in golf, famous for its narrow fairways and brick-hard greens that require as much patience as shotmaking and putting.
Ray was just thrilled to be part of the show.
A former teammate of Woods’ at Stanford who never made it past the Nationwide Tour, this was Ray’s 12th time to try to qualify for the U.S. Open, and he figured he had missed again when he made par in a playoff and was eliminated at the 36-hole sectional qualifying last week in Tarzana, Calif.
But when Clarke withdrew to be with his ailing wife, Ray became the first alternate.
“I thought it was one of my kids on the team playing a joke on me,” he said.
The first people Ray called were his parents. Then he called Woods.
They were teammates for two years at Stanford and tried to keep in touch over the years. Ray last saw him at the Stanford-Cal basketball game in February. He said Woods put in a good word for him when Ray applied to replace longtime Cardinal golf coach Wally Goodwin.
“I said: ‘Hey, the broke-down coach is in. Can we play?”‘ Ray said. “He called last night and said to meet him on the first tee at 7 a.m.”
Ray soaked it all in.
The 30-year-old played with Woods in the morning, then spent the afternoon squeezed between Bob Tway and Ted Purdy on the practice range, getting full service from a Nike Golf rep who was helping him with a new driver and shaft.
After calling his parents to celebrate and calling Woods, Ray had one last call to make.
“It was to the women’s golf coach at Stanford,” he said, “to thank her for handling those golf camps for me.”
