For as long as he can remember, Live Oak High grad and
professional golfer John Ellis’ dream was for his 80-year-old
grandfather Joe Arrigo to watch him compete in a PGA tour
event.
It was to be a thank-you to the man who had watched Ellis play
since he first picked up a golf club at the age of 4.
By JIM JOHNSON
For as long as he can remember, Live Oak High grad and professional golfer John Ellis’ dream was for his 80-year-old grandfather Joe Arrigo to watch him compete in a PGA tour event.
It was to be a thank-you to the man who had watched Ellis play since he first picked up a golf club at the age of 4.
But Ellis, who just turned pro in September and now lives in San Jose, never dreamed the first tournament his granddad would get to see him play in would be the prestigious AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. And, that it would happen this soon.
Ellis, who recently finished a stellar collegiate career at Oregon, qualified for one of the final four spots in the professional field at Pebble Beach on Tuesday. Rain halted play after Ellis had played nine holes in the qualifier Monday. But he came back Tuesday to complete his round and ended up shooting a fine 3-under 69 at the former Fort Ord’s Bayonet Course. He emerged from a field of about 120 pros attempting to qualify for the event, his first on the PGA tour.
In Thursday’s opening round, Ellis shot a 1-over-par 73 at Poppy Hills. For today’s second round, Ellis and amateur partner Frank Pena were set to tee off at 8:40 a.m. at Spyglass Hill, and on Saturday at 10:20 a.m. at Pebble Beach.
If Ellis can make the cut, he would play in Sunday’s final round at Pebble Beach.
With the slightest quiver in his voice, Ellis said the opportunity to play in front of his grandfather against the top players in the game exceeded his loftiest expectations.
“My grandfather has seen me play since I was real small,” Ellis said, “and it is pretty cool to play in my first (PGA tour) event here in the area, and that he’ll be there watching. He’s always gone whenever I’ve played. He’s 80 years old and he’ll walk every hole. He may complain a little about being tired but he’ll be there.”
Ellis’ father Dave, an instructor at Gavilan College, said the news that his son had qualified for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am shook the family to its core.
“We were just ecstatic, very honestly to the point of tears – just briefly – because we know how hard this young man’s worked,” Dave Ellis said. “We’re so proud of him.”
It has been a meteoric rise for the 24-year-old Ellis, going from junior golf to the collegiate links to playing against defending champion Davis Love III, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh, to name a few, on one of the best-known courses in the world.
Growing up on the 13th fairway on the Santa Teresa Golf Course at the San Jose Country Club, the son and grandson of golf enthusiasts, Ellis began smacking golf balls at the tender age of about 4 with his younger brother Chris, who is two years younger. The brothers played in their first golf tournament before they were 10, played junior golf together all over California, and won their share of state and national amateur titles.
Ellis continued to show promise as a golfer at Live Oak. He led the Acorns to state championships in 1995, 1997 and 1998, and was a four-time all-Monterey Bay League first-team selection during his high school career. Ellis also played basketball at Live Oak.
Ellis graduated from Live Oak in 1998, and attended Gavilan to spruce up his academic credentials, but didn’t play golf there, before transferring to Oregon.
During his amateur career, Ellis was named the Northern California Golf
Association’s junior golfer of the year in 1997, when he won seven tournaments and finished second six times, and was the No. 2-ranked amateur golfer in Northern California during the 1999-2000 season.
In three years at Oregon, Ellis became one of the program’s top golfers and made the All-Pacific-10 Conference first team as a senior last year, leading the Ducks to their first NCAA Championships appearance in four years. Ellis had six top-10 finishes in collegiate tourneys, including a first-place tie at the Oregon Duck Invitational.
Oregon coach Steve Nosler said Ellis earned a reputation as a talented player, a hard worker and a clutch player while with the Ducks, both of which likely helped him qualify for the big-time local tourney.
“It’s a marvelous accomplishment this soon to do this, but it doesn’t surprise me,” Nosler said. “It’s his work ethic and he has a lot of game. He plays his best under the toughest competition.”
In fact, according to Oregon spokesman Greg Walker, Nosler once said that Ellis developed faster than Ducks star Ben Crane, the PGA tour player who has already won a few tour events.
Not that everything came easy for Ellis, who had to labor in the classroom, Nosler said.
“John came in (to Oregon) with a lot of game, but the academic side of it took a lot of effort on his part,” Nosler said. “But he worked hard at that, too, and graduated. He had a very successful college career here. And, I believe he has the drive to reach his dreams, to become a fixture out there on the (PGA) tour.”
After graduating from Oregon last summer, Ellis tried the PGA qualifying school at Bayonet, but didn’t do particularly well by his own admission and didn’t qualify for the tour.
Having gathered a few sponsors, Ellis set about playing in smaller tour events and practicing, and had signed on to play on the Spanos Tour, a mini-tour of several courses in Southern California sponsored by San Diego Chargers owner and developer Alex Spanos, when he decided to give the Pebble Beach qualifier a shot.
Ellis didn’t even tell Chris, who starred at Live Oak and Gavilan, and now plays golf at Northern Colorado, about his plans to compete in the qualifier.
“I had no idea he was even trying it,” Chris Ellis said.
The younger Ellis said when he heard about his older brother’s accomplishment, he raced home and went to pgatour.com to confirm what he had heard.
“It’s one thing to see all the great players’ names on there like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, but it’s a whole different thing to see your brother on there, for sure,” Chris Ellis said. “This is huge. It doesn’t get any bigger than this. And, there isn’t anyone I’d rather have it happen to than him because he’s worked so hard to get where he is.”
