Southern Hills Head Professional Cary Cozby didn’t have his best stuff on Thursday – he made a quadruple-bogey 8 after his approach spun off the green at the par-4 10th, and shot 79 – but he still had an experience he will cherish for a long, long time.
His 13-year-old son, Banks, was on his bag, and Cozby had his own family and his Southern Hills family along for the ride, giving him great support. Given that he drove the ball beautifully, Cozby knew 79 wasn’t representative of how he played. He did birdie his favorite hole on the course – the par-5 13th – and managed to smile after the round.
Cozby had a terrific pairing – Jay Haas and Tom Lehman – and though he was focused on his game, he also was able to soak in the setting. It’s not too often a PGA Head Professional has the chance to play a major championship at his own club.
“Loved it. No, it was great,” said Cozby, 52, who was the PGA Golf Professional of the Year in 2016. “I grew up from younger than him (motioning to Banks) wanting to do this, right? So the path took me into the club professional stuff, but I wanted to be a Tour pro. So to stand out there – my glass has always been pretty full, not half full, and so I have pretty good perspective on what an opportunity this is. To walk with the greats of the people that I grew up watching play, off the charts.”
Cary Cozby wasn’t the only family star on the grounds on Thursday. His younger brother, Chance Cozby, tournament director at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, has become a TikTok culinary star and was scheduled to display his cooking talents in the KitchenAid demo kitchen inside the KitchenAid Fairways Club until weather postponed the session. Cary, middle brother Craig and Chance Cozby all played golf collegiately for the Oklahoma Sooners.
