  | Dana Quigley ’69 holds the Champions Tour record for most consecutive events played. | |||
Golf's Iron ManBy Shane Donaldson It’s been a long road for Dana Quigley since he left URI in 1969 after a collegiate golf career that earned him induction into the Athletics Hall of Fame. But what a road he has traveled. Quigley, who turned 56 this April, is known as golf’s Iron Man. He holds the Champions Tour record for most consecutive events played, which stood at 209 following the Emerald Coast Classic in late April. The previous best was 177 by Mike McCullough. To call golf his passion is an understatement. He literally plays every single day. Earlier this season, while the Champions Tour was on a break leading up to the MasterCard Classic in Lomas Altas, Mexico, Quigley spent two weeks playing courses in the country every day to get ready. Quigley is a self-taught player who doesn’t spend time at the range. His approach to the game is best summed up by his quote on his PGAtour.com player page: “You can build a swing and create a repeating action on the range, but you do not learn how to play without being on the course. That is an absolute must.” Quigley does more than just show up at tournaments, and 2003 has been especially kind to him. He won the season-opening MasterCard Championship in Hawaii with a two-shot victory over Larry Nelson. It was his eighth tour win, and it earned him $250,000, the biggest check of his career. Since 1997, his first year with the seniors, he has won at least one Champions Tour event every year except 1999. The MasterCard win was his second in three events, dating back to 2002, when he won the SBC Championship to win $217,500 in his 200th-straight event. Not that his career hasn’t been without battles. His time on the PGA Tour was rather pedestrian; he won no tournaments from 1978 to 1982, with his best finish coming in 1980, a sixth in the Greater Milwaukee Open. Quigley became addicted to the sport he first learned while working as a caddie at Rhode Island Country Club. He joined the Senior PGA (now the Champions Tour) in 1997 and earned his first win on August 10, 1997. The win was bittersweet. While still on the 18th green, he received word of his father’s death from cancer. Still, that event began Quigley’s record-setting streak, which was pushed to 209 straight after he finished in a tie for fifth at the Emerald Coast Classic in late April, pocketing a cool $63,437.50. Through the first eight events this year, his total earnings is $502,108, good for second on the tour. The money isn’t what drives Quigley. In his career he has earned more than $8 million, and that total keeps rising. It’s the game that hooks him. “My friends think I’m crazy, but this is my life,” he said after winning the season-opening MasterCard. “My passion for golf, you cannot believe it.” Shane Donaldson ’99 is a sports reporter for the MetroWest Daily News based in Framingham, Mass. |
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