Quigley in Greenwich

By Greg Midland

I had the pleasure of spending some time with PGA Tour player Brett Quigley at an event last night at the Vineyard Vines store in Greenwich, Conn. Quigley, who has a sponsorship deal with Vineyard Vines, was in town to help promote the company's spring line and play in an outing today at the Country Club of Fairfield. (I hope he brought thermals for the round).

Quigley, who grew up in Rhode Island but now lives in Florida, is part of a great golf family. His uncle Dana is an 11-time winner on the Champions Tour and his father, Paul, has won a ton of amateur events in New England. Brett, who turns 40 later this year, is still looking for his first PGA Tour victory (he has two Nationwide Tour wins), but he does hold a notable Met Area distinction: He was the medalist at the 2006 U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying Round at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, N.J., shooting 68-63. Of course, he joked last night that his performance was "completely forgotten," because another player in the field that year, Michelle Wie, received 99.9 percent of the attention from the 5,000 spectators and more than 250 members of the media who descended on Canoe Brook.

Even though Tour pros are among the most accessible athletes in sports, it's always nice to see just how down-to-earth someone like Quigley is. Here's a guy who has won just over $10 million in his professional career, and yet it's obvious that he simply loves to talk golf. Like any golfer, he tends to linger more on his disappointments (two chances to win tournaments in March that resulted in second-place finishes) than his successes. Surely he would have preferred to be in the Masters field this week, but he still seemed to be enjoying himself.

The talk turned to future major championships, and Quigley, who didn't make the field for the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage and has never played there, would love a crack at the Black this year. There's a good chance he will have to qualify to make the Open field, and if so, those of us here at the MGA are hoping he'll be in the field at the June 8 Sectional Qualifying Round at Century Country Club in Purchase, N.Y. Here's hoping that Quigley continues his success. He's an easy guy to root for.