General | 7/19/2016 2:18:00 PM
DURANT, Okla. – When The Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex begins Thursday in Carnoustie, Scotland, Bernhard Langer of Germany will be there. Langer, the leading money winner on the PGA Tour Champions this year, will be joined by the likes of Tom Watson, Colin Montgomerie, Miguel Angel Jimenez, John Daly, Craig Stadler, and Kent Samuel.
Kent Samuel?
Samuel is an accomplished 63-year-old amateur who plays out of The Woodlands, Texas. He grew up in Durant and graduated from Durant High School and Southeastern Oklahoma State University. Still active as an investment advisor, he plays golf competitively, averaging 25-to-30 tournaments per year.
In open qualifying Monday at Monifieth Golf Links in Dundee, Scotland, Samuel fired an even-par 71 to tie for fourth place. He was one of only 10 golfers in the field of 100 to qualify for the Senior Open event, which is a major championship on the PGA Champions Tour (age 50 and over). Among the past winners are Watson (three times), Langer (twice), and Gary Player (three times).
Open qualifying for the event was held at four different sites Monday, with 402 golfers vying for 38 spots. Among the other 10 qualifiers Monday at Monifieth were former PGA tour winners Willie Wood and Guy Boros, son of the late Hall-of-Fame golfer, Julius Boros.
Samuel's up-and-down par round featured an eagle, four birdies, six bogies, and seven pars.
The field of 144 will begin play early Thursday with The Golf Channel providing complete coverage. The field will be reduced to the top 70 and ties after 36 holes on Friday.
Samuel will tee off in the second group of the day at 7:10 a.m. (Scotland time). His playing partners are Walt Chapman and Jose Manuel Carriles.
Samuel, who was inducted into the Southeastern Oklahoma State University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012, played golf at the University from 1972-75. He
earned his Bachelor of Science in Accounting/Management in '75.
In an interview with the
Durant Democrat in 2012, Samuel said, "perhaps the most important thing I learned playing golf at Southeastern was how many great golfers there were and that I'd better learn something in class because I wasn't going to make a living playing golf."
While at Southeastern, he earned the program's first-ever all-conference award, earning All-Oklahoma Intercollegiate Conference honors after finishing runner-up in
the OIC Golf Championship as a freshman.
He was selected as the golf team's most valuable player in three straight seasons in 1973, 1974 and 1975.
Samuel was named Southeastern's Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year three times in-a-row, joining just two others on the men's or women's side to have achieved
that feat.
After graduating from Southeastern, Samuel earned his CPA certificate and spent 25 years in the oil and gas business in Tulsa, Dallas, Omaha, Nebraska, and Houston.
Samuel married his high school sweetheart, Sue Seago, whom he dated through most of high school. They have been married for more than 40 years.
Their daughter, Kendle, is a teacher in the Conroe (Texas) School District.
His mother Ouita, still resides in Durant.
