“Remember who you are …,” the advice of a legend

For the 73rd year, golfers from around the region are in town this weekend to play a local course.

This spring is a little different.

The 11th hole at Westwood Hills Country Club always featured a large tree in the middle of the fairway. It was out of place, alone in a sea of well-manicured grass towering between the tee box and the green, like a speed bump on the highway.

The tree made No. 11 one of the toughest holes on the course and the tournament. Players who hit their tee shot to the left of the tree ran the risk of going out of bounds. A drive too far right meant landing in the rough under more trees.

With only four shots to make par, avoiding the tree, and danger, made a simple 422-yard hole not so simple.

This spring is a little different.

The Tom Hoover Ozark Invitational teed off Saturday morning without the tree in the middle of the 11th fairway. It was cut down last fall.

The course and tournament also lost Tom Hoover last fall following a battle with cancer. He died Sept. 6 at age 76.

An All-American basketball player at Poplar Bluff High School, Hoover was recruited by Adolph Rupp to play at Kentucky. Instead, he went to LSU to play golf. He won the state junior championship and earned three all-state medals playing for the Mules.

After college, Hoover returned to his hometown and was a teacher, coach and administrator. Poplar Bluff High School named its entry road in his honor. (In driving down Oak Grove Road, one can either take the highway or Tom Hoover Way.)

Hoover was as much a part of Westwood Hills as that tree on No. 11.

He was a caddy growing up, became a board member in 1968, won six club championships over four decades and became the unofficial club historian and assistant superintendent. He was also our golf columnist.

The year before he took over as tournament director in 1984 the Ozark field featured barely 40 players. Hoover returned the tournament to its former glory with 120-plus players coming to Poplar Bluff each year and more waiting to earn an invitation.

The 36-hole, two-day event is like Missouri’s amateur version of The Masters. It’s always played the same time each year (the last full weekend of April), on the same course (with the exception of 2002) and with many of the same familiar faces returning.

Hoover did everything from paint the out-of-bounds markers and select hole locations to adding up and posting scores.

When the tournament was named in his honor, Hoover pointed out at the time that one day it will be the Tom Hoover Memorial Ozark Invitational.

To which he quipped, “That’s a mouthful.”

The name and the tournament have not changed, but this spring it is a little different without Mr. Hoover.

Across town today, more than 1,000 people walked in the eighth annual Sarah Jarboe White United Cancer Assistance Network Walk. The group annually provides $100,000 in direct services to cancer patients.

Hoover didn’t suffer from cancer, he simply tolerated it. His outlook and humor was probably better than any treatment or drug doctors could offer.

Whenever a student-athlete went out of town, Hoover told them, “Remember who you are and where you came from.”

To everyone in town for the Tom Hoover Ozark Invitational, welcome to Poplar Bluff and keep Mr. Hoover and his family in your thoughts and prayers as you enjoy the annual golf invitational at Westwood Hills.