From left, Rick Maxey, Jerry Irwin and Steve Braley stand on the first tee at The Cascades Golf and Country Club with Bellwood Lake in the background. The three men helped bring the Texas State Open professional golf tournament back to Tyler.

It was during a reception prior to a charity tournament in early May when Tyler’s Rick Maxey asked if he could say a few words about the honorary chairman.

“Jacky Cupit, I have admired you since I was a kid shagging balls for you at Longview Country Club,” Maxey said.

“You had just come within a whisker of winning the U.S. Open and there was quite a welcome-home party at the club. You did a clinic and it wasn’t hard work since you hit every ball at my feet. But from that day forward, I wanted to be a professional golfer.”

The gathering laughed and Cupit seemed a little embarrassed but appreciative and truly touched by the remarks. For the others gathered that evening, it revealed just how much Maxey loves the game of golf and the people who play it, especially in East Texas.

So when the North Texas Section of the PGA, headed by Mark Harrison, announced recently that its annual State Open would be coming back to The Cascades Golf and Country Club this summer, it was Maxey and two of his friends who were cited for their behind-the-scenes work to make it happen.

Jerry Irwin and Steve Braley both live at The Cascades, as does Maxey, and they thought it would be great to see the State Open come back to their club that hosted the event for six years from 2006 through 2011.

All of the men are involved in the oil industry and thus approached the two sponsors of the 2018 tournament slated for July 30 to Aug. 2 — Tanos Exploration II and Patterson-UTI Drilling.

Both companies are solid corporate citizens of East Texas with Tanos Exploration II a Tyler-based firm and Houston-based Patterson-UTI having a regional office in Tyler.

“There has always been a strong connection between championship golf and the oil business,” Maxey said. “In East Texas, it goes back to the old Premier Invitational near Longview that was played on a course at the site of the Premier Refinery owned by Joe Zeppa of Tyler and J.R. Parten and Sylvester Dayson. So it was a natural to look at Tanos Exploration II and Patterson-UTI as possible sponsors because they are successful and love golf, as do their customers.”

Maxey grew up in the oil patch of East Texas playing football and golf at Pine Tree High School in Longview before concentrating solely on golf at Stephen F. Austin where he played on some championship teams with Tyler’s Terry Brown. Both were All-America selections and afterward chased dreams of playing professionally. Brown became a club pro in Tyler and later Palestine while Maxey has continued to compete through the years.

By playing in the old barbecue tournaments that were once amateur events but now open to pros, Maxey kept his edge. A good example is The Meadowbrook Invitational in Kilgore, the longest running medal play tournament of its kind. Maxey won it four times from 1974 through 2008. And though he never earned his PGA Tour card, Maxey won the Waco Turner Open held for many years at Falconhead Resort in Oklahoma.

The Waco Turner Open is a story to itself as it was the first PGA Tour event won by an African-American golfer, Pete Brown, in 1964. The founder of the tournament, Waco Turner, was an oilman from Ardmore, Oklahoma, often compared to Howard Hughes because of his eccentricities and extravagant ways. He made his fortune during the 1930s and ’40s in the East Texas oil field near Kilgore and was known to give out cash for birdies and drive his new Cadillac around the course during play. He died in 1971 but his tournament continued into the 1980s before going away.

“Dick Goetz of Tyler was the pro at Falconhead Resort in Oklahoma when I won in 1980,” Maxey said. “It had a good field so I was proud to win, especially after learning its history with Jack Nicklaus playing in it in 1962 just prior to winning his first U.S. Open.”

Given his love of competitive golf and East Texas, Maxey was contacted by Braley after Harrison mentioned a possible return of the tournament to Tyler and The Cascades.

It was Braley who brought the State Open to The Cascades in 2006. He worked hard to make the Mark Hayes redesigned course more challenging.

“We were just completing the work on our new clubhouse and the North Texas PGA expressed an interest in having the tournament here,” Braley said. “We decided to go for it and so we added a lot of length with new tees on quite a few holes. The quality of play in this tournament is very close to tour level so we had to make it longer.”

After its initial three-year run, Maxey first became involved in the event by helping the tournament get a second three-year contract by enlisting the sponsorship of Chesapeake Energy, at the time a big player in the oil business.

“I just think the State Open is a great event with a great history, starting with Homero Blancas winning as an amateur in 1960 and then having former winners like Lee Trevino and Ben Crenshaw,” Maxey said. “Steve was the general manager here at The Cascades when the tournament started being played here in 2006, so we both still had a desire to see it return. Jerry felt the same way and the three of us thought we could work together and find the right sponsors to bring it back.”

Braley has a long career in the golf industry, working with the PGA of America as a senior director and then later for the Nicklaus company. He was responsible for bringing the Nicklaus Golf School to The Cascades when the newly designed course first opened in 2004 and more recently has been involved with the Texas Wounded Warrior tournament locally and The Jim Hitch Memorial, a successful junior tournament in his hometown of Guymon, Oklahoma.

Irwin is a Tyler-based geologist who is well connected in the oil business and wanted to see the State Open back at his home course. The three men agreed it would be great to have the sponsorship go to companies in the oil industry.

 “All of us remembered how much we enjoyed the tournament when it was here and sponsored by Chesapeake Energy,” Irwin said. “We agreed it would be great for Cascades, Tyler and East Texas to see it back here again and even better when sponsored by those in the oil business.”

Irwin said he knew the top management of Tanos Exploration II and approached president Mark Brandon and vice president Nick Pollard about the idea. Soon they were on board for one half, and then Maxey reached out to his friend and contact at Patterson-UTI President Mike Holcomb, who agreed to sign on for the other half of the sponsorship.

So the stage is set for championship golf and the oil business to enjoy a great week of fun and fellowship at The Cascades in late July. And the Tyler trio of Maxey, Braley and Irwin couldn’t be happier. 

The Tanos Exploration II / Patterson-UTI Drilling Texas State Open is scheduled for Tuesday, July 31 through Friday, Aug. 3 at The Cascades Golf and Country Club. This will be the 48th playing of the historic event. The 72-hole stroke play event will consist of 156 professionals and amateurs competing for a $200,000 projected purse. The field will play 36 holes before being cut to the low 55 scores and ties. All four rounds will be contested at The Cascades.