“I met a couple members’ kids, started playing with them and got the bug,” Samborsky said.
It was his eighth-grade year, and he embraced the process of hitting balls every morning before his shift. His dad was at the range giving lessons to members and often stepped aside to instruct his son.
“For two straight summers, I got basically a lesson every day,” he said.
Samborsky grew into a college golfer at Wright State and later coached the Raiders for nine years through 2016. He qualified for two U.S. Amateurs, two U.S. Mid-Amateurs and one USGA state team championship.
Gene Samborsky retired in 2006 and caddied for Pete every time he played in a USGA event. And when Pete turned 45 six years ago, Gene gave him the goal of qualifying for the U.S. Senior Open when he turned 50.
On Monday at Piqua Country Club, in his second try and five days before turning 51, Pete Samborsky shot a 3-under par 69 to claim the third of four qualifying spots in the U.S. Senior Open June 26-29 at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
“This was one of his dreams,” Samborsky said. “It’s special because it’s a USGA event, it’s a major. But it’s special in that it’s fulfilling a dream for him.”
The sad part for Samborsky is that his dad wasn’t carrying his bag. Gene Samborsky died four years ago. Pete remembers the 18 holes they played every Sunday after church and the golf trips to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. But the persistent practice habits the son learned every day on the range paid off the most.
“I fell in love with the process of hitting balls and trying to get better — that’s what he loved to do,“ Samborsky said. ”That’s what we did a lot of. We hit a lot of balls."
Samborsky wasn’t learning from just any pro. His dad qualified for and played in the 1976 PGA Championship at famed Pebble Beach in California. He routinely won tournaments in the Cincinnati area and was the city’s player of the year numerous times.
“I played a lot of golf with him and wanted to be good, to beat him,” Samborsky said. “That was a driving factor to get better.”
Samborsky tapped into that drive Monday. He arrived in Piqua playing well. He was one of 11 to advance out of one of 32 local qualifying events on April 30 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He shot a 1-under par 70 to finish third. The previous weekend he and a partner won a three-day event at Moraine Country Club. But at Piqua, one of 12 final qualifying sites, he started poorly.
“Hit a good tee shot in the fairway, hit a wedge to about 15 feet, missed the putt and then forgot how to play golf,” he said.
What followed was a wayward drive through a bunker and a punch out, a bladed wedge over a green, a missed fairway, etc. The bad shots added up to two bogeys, a single birdie and a 1-over par 37 through nine holes.
“I hit two greens ... it was embarrassing,” he said. “But I was only one over and able to scramble and keep in it.”
Samborsky didn’t panic. He refocused, and all those practice times since the time he was 14 began to pay off on his second nine, which is the course’s front nine. He also relied on his nephew and caddy Hayden Zimmerer, a former University of Dayton golfer, to help him read the greens.
The motivation, even if the task wasn’t, was simple. To fulfill his dad’s dream, he figured he had to shoot at least a 4-under par 32 on his second nine to have a chance at a playoff for the fourth and final qualifying spot.
He started famously with four birdies in the first five holes. The second birdie on hole 11 was the big spark. He hit a bad drive underneath a tree but managed to punch out with an 8-iron to about seven feet from the hole.
“Hayden gave me the read,” Samborsky said. “I didn’t see it, and I trusted his read, and it went in. And then we were off.”
Samborsky, who was in the final pairing, wasn’t clear of all difficulties. He bogeyed 15 and 16 because of a bad swing of a 7-iron into a bunker and three-putt from 40 feet on a par 3 to fall to 1-under par.
“I started saying, ‘I shot myself out of it,’” he said. “So I asked Hayden where we were at, and he said, ‘You really want to know?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Well, got two holes left. Everybody’s in. You make a birdie, you’re going to a playoff, you make two birdies you’re in.”
On the par-5 17th hole, he reached the green in two, missed a 10-foot eagle putt and tapped in for birdie.
Now all Samborsky needed to avoid a playoff and make his dad’s dream come true was to birdie the final hole, a 145-yard par-3.
“Knocked an 8-iron to about 18 feet on 18 and horseshoed it in,” he said of the putt. “It caught the high lip, spun to the low lip and then ... Dad kicked it in.”
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