For the top players in the world, the PGA Tour Champions serves as a continuation.
For former Arizona Wildcats golfers Robert Gamez and David Berganio Jr., it’s more like a resurrection.
The two ex-Cats recently turned 50, making them eligible for golf’s senior circuit. They aren’t in their golden years yet, but they now have a golden ticket: a chance to revive professional careers that flatlined for one reason or another.
After a brilliant rookie season, Gamez got hurt in a car accident, made a comeback, then needed heart surgery. All the while, he fought his short game.
Berganio battled back issues for the bulk of his post-UA career before finding salvation at a San Diego exercise studio.
They’re about to return to familiar turf. Gamez and Berganio received sponsor exemptions to play in the Cologuard Classic at Omni Tucson National Resort. The fifth iteration of the tournament begins Friday.
Gamez won the very first professional tournament of his career at Omni Tucson National. Berganio last played there in 2006, when he finished 69th in what was then known as the Chrysler Classic of Tucson.
Gamez was the National College Player of the Year at Arizona in 1989, twice earned All-America honors and shares the school record for low score (a 62 at the ’89 NCAA Championship). Berganio was a three-time All-American and a key player on the Wildcats’ 1992 national-championship squad. He had a better college career than teammate Jim Furyk, who has won 17 times on the PGA Tour.
Gamez and Berganio will bring fond memories to Omni Tucson National. They’ll see old friends. They’ll probably hear a “U of A” chant at some point.
“I’m excited,” said Berganio, who’s about to make his Champions Tour debut.
“I just can’t wait,” Gamez said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
After all they’ve endured, even a little fun sounds pretty good.
Ups and downs
On Jan. 14, 1990, Gamez completed a four-shot victory over Mark Calcavecchia and Jay Haas at the Northern Telecom Tucson Open.
Two months later, Gamez won what was then known as the Nestle Invitational in spectacular fashion. Trailing Greg Norman and playing partner Larry Mize by a shot, Gamez holed a 7-iron over the water for eagle on the par-4 18th hole at Bay Hill. A plaque sits in the fairway to commemorate the spot from which the shot was struck.
Gamez would be named PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. He couldn’t have asked for a better beginning to his pro career. But with the benefit of hindsight and perspective, maybe it wasn’t the best way to start.
“It might have hurt me a little bit,” Gamez said Thursday after his opening round at the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open, where he missed the cut. “It came easy. I stopped working as hard as I was. Maybe I was enjoying things a little too much.
“That being said, I wouldn’t change it for anything. I learned a lot.”
Gamez had at least one top-three finish in six of the next seven seasons. He won at least $200,000 each year.
But at the 1998 Kemper Open, Gamez got in a car wreck. His liver and spleen were bruised. He suffered injuries to his neck, back and right hand. He spent six days in the hospital.
Gamez returned to the tour about five weeks later — a mistake, in retrospect. His game wasn’t the same. Gamez said it took him “a couple years to start hitting it well again.”
A string of missed cuts followed. Gamez lost his tour card.
He regained it in 2002 by finishing in the top 125. In ’03, Gamez earned a career-best $1.5 million. In ’05, he won the Valero Texas Open, setting a PGA Tour record for the longest gap between victories — 15 years and 6 months.
“I’ve always been kind of a streaky player,” Gamez said. “I can get it going for weeks or months at a time. Then I’ll struggle. Then I’ll come back and get it going again.”
Gamez’s game took a downturn in 2006, when he finished outside the top 150. He’s had only four top-10 finishes since — and none since 2011. Putting has been a persistent problem.
But at least he’s active and upright. Gamez had another major health scare in 2014, when he underwent a quadruple bypass. His wife, Denise, helped nurse him back to health.
Gamez has fully recovered, but he says the heart surgery robbed him of 15-20 yards off the tee. He has difficulty syncing his chest and arms with his lower body. He overcompensates by swinging too fast. It gets him out of whack.
Although he misses being able to bomb it off the tee — and being able to smoke cigars — Gamez’s health is good. He has made seven starts on the Champions Tour, with a best finish of 36th. He’s hopeful the Cologuard Classic, at his old stomping grounds, will bring out his best.
“Overall, I feel really good,” Gamez said. “I’m alive, I’m above ground and I have a second chance at a career on the Champions Tour.”
‘Back’ from the brink
The term “major medical extension” crops up five times between 2003 and ’08 in Berganio’s profile on PGATour.com. Chronic back pain torpedoed a once-promising career.
Berganio recalled a conversation with the tour physical therapist when he walked away from competitive golf after making 15 starts in ’09.
“David, I can’t do any more for you,” the therapist said. “I work on you in the morning, at noontime, in the evening before you leave. It doesn’t seem to be helping.”
A frustrated Berganio left the tour.
“I had bulging disk after bulging disk after bulging disk,” he said. “I never really had a golf career. It was always the injury. I’d get out for a couple months, then I would have to take time off.”
The Southern California resident took up biking and attended spin classes. He had enough money from sponsorship deals and tournament winnings to get by.
Berganio’s nearest misses came in the 2001 Greater Hartford Open, when he finished tied for third, two shots behind Phil Mickelson; and in the ’02 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, when he lost a playoff to … Mickelson. “I just happened to bark up the wrong tree,” Berganio said.
In 2015, while at a golf club in New Jersey, a friend of a friend asked Berganio how his back was feeling. “Not very good,” Berganio replied.
The man, whom Berganio never had met before, gave him the number of Anthony Carey, an athletic trainer who founded Function First in San Diego. Berganio went to see Carey. The first session lasted two hours and cost $450.
“It was the best money I ever spent,” Berganio said.
After an hour-long consultation, Carey advised Berganio that he didn’t have a back problem.
“You have a hip problem,” Carey told him. “The nerves in your hips are causing your back to get tight. When we’re done doing these exercises to break the nerves down in your hips, you won’t have any back pain and you won’t have any more tightness.”
After an hour of stretching exercises — Function First’s website touts its “non-invasive corrective exercise programs designed to address chronic pain and musculoskeletal limitations without drugs or manipulation” — Berganio’s pain was gone. He returned for two more sessions. He left armed with a set of simple exercises that have given him a new lease on golf.
“I was just in awe with the whole ordeal,” Berganio said. “I’m able to play golf when I thought I wasn’t ever going to be able to play golf.”
Berganio has modest goals for his comeback. He played in seven professional events last year — four on the PGA Tour and three on the Web.com Tour — and didn’t make it to the weekend in any of them.
“When I was healthy, I was a pretty good golfer,” Berganio said. “With this injury, I never really knew or fulfilled my full potential.
“I just want to play another five to eight years competitively. That’s about it.”
Berganio never had a grand plan for his career. He grew up in Pacoima, which he dubbed “the worst city in L.A. County.” He would cut class in second and third grade, prompting his great-grandfather to send him to Catholic school. A priest introduced Berganio to golf. He instantly fell in love with the sport and won several major amateur events.
“When I was an amateur, I never thought about being a pro,” Berganio said. “When you come from where I came from, there’s not a lot of dreams that really come true, you know?”
Now he has another chance to chase one.
