Golfers seek their ‘Big Break’

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Published: June 17, 2008

Brian Skatell has a story to tell, and he has his fingers crossed that The Golf Channel’s “Big Break” series will be the avenue.

Skatell, who hails from Greensburg, Pa., and grew up playing the same course as U.S. Open runner-up Rocco Mediate, showed up at Spring Creek Golf Club near Zion Crossroads on Tuesday to audition for some of the Golf Channel’s upcoming shows.

James Ponti, senior producer for The Big Break series and a new Golf Channel show called “Highway 18,” sort of an “Amazing Race” with golf (which debuts July 22), and his co-producers interviewed about 30 prospective golfers during tryouts at Spring Creek. Because the series has had good luck with Tarheel Tour players, particularly guys like Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey, the golf addict’s network wanted to see what this year’s crop had to offer.

The Tarheel Tour returned to Spring Creek this week for its second annual tour stop at the popular course, only in its second year of operation, but already a hit with pros and amateurs alike.

Ponti and his crew were searching for talent, players who could fit the next Big Break series, which begins shooting in September and will air next spring, or the new Highway 18, or possibly even another Big Break down the road. The Golf Channel stockpiles a pool of candidates. One potential prospect even flew in from California for the audition.

Today, the same crew will be at a women’s golf event in Ohio in the relentless search for talent. For the Big Break Mesquite (Nevada), more than 1,000 golfers applied but only 10 were selected for the show, including three from the Tarheel Tour: Kevin Taylor, James Nitties and Matt Vick.

Skatell believes he could be the next guy they’re looking for.

He has endorsements from golfing guru Jim McLean and others, good credentials, a strong golf game and a compelling background.

“I have everything in place to be on Tour but the sponsors,” Skatell said confidently. “And, I have a story to tell. It’s not just about me, but inspiring other people who suffer from the same disease that almost killed me — colitis.”

That was seven years ago at 28 (the average age of people who contract the disease), when he was a healthy, aspiring professional golfer. He lost 47 pounds in a month and suffered physically, mentally and somewhat emotionally as he was saved by doctors at the Mayo Clinic.

“I went through hell,” Skatell said.

Still, he never gave up on his golf career. While in recovery, he still managed to pound out a 315-yard drive even though he weighed in at only 123 pounds.

“I have tremendous ball-striking ability,” he said. “I can hit it wherever I want to. All I want is the chance.”

Skatell played briefly on the Gateway Tour before having sponsor issues, but believes the Big Break could be exactly that for his golf career and for his chance to tell others with colitis that their lives don’t have to change that much.

Ponti hears hundreds of stories and wasn’t about to divulge where Skatell stood on his list of candidates at the end of the day.

“We usually know within five minutes of interviewing someone whether they’re going to be a candidate for the show,” the producer said.

He tries to not rush through the process, hoping to get to know each of them enough to give them a fair shot.

One person that made a huge impression a few Big Breaks ago was a feisty blonde named Kim Lewellen, who is now the University of Virginia’s women’s golf coach.

“Kim was fantastic,” Ponti said. “She was an All-American, played on the Futures Tour but didn’t go to the LPGA. But she had such a great personality. Here she was, a mother with kids, competing against all these 24-year-olds who were still dating.”

Lewellen, he believes, is a great example of golfers who appear in the series that don’t necessarily have to win to get noticed. The exposure probably aided her career and her ability to recruit.

Because Big Break winners get an exemption into a PGA, LPGA, or Champions Tour event, The Golf Channel has to make sure it produces a winner that belongs. So, anyone who auditions must be better than scratch. There’s no room for hacks out there, plus it wouldn’t fly on TV.

“One thing we have learned is that our audience will not watch bad golf,” Ponti chuckled.

A strong personality — like Gainey, who was working in a water heater factory in Bishopville, S.C. — doesn’t hurt. Neither did his strong Southern drawl and his trademark of wearing two golf gloves, thus the nickname.

Skatell may not have had that kind of gimmick working for him, but he owned a world of confidence.

We’ll have to wait until next spring to find out if he made it or not. However, you can catch him in tournament play the rest of the week at Spring Creek.