When Tom Cornelia tees it up at the U.S. Senior Men’s Amateur Championship in San Antonio at the end of August, he’ll have Reynolds Lake Oconee—where he’s been a member and resident for 20 years—partly to thank for helping him get there.
“Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced player, Reynolds is a great place to get a home and have lots of alternatives for playing, instruction, and practicing. There are different fairway grasses and green surfaces, lots of variations that you get day in and day out. You can play on bent grass on Monday, Bermuda on Tuesday, zoysia on Wednesday… I’m not saying belonging to a small-town country club isn’t nice, but if it’s the same course every day, you might miss out on developing your game.”
Cornelia has certainly honed his game over his 66 years. Growing up on Hilton Head Island, SC, he became a four-year letterman in golf at the University of Texas (1978-81), where one of his teammates was Golf Channel commentator Brandel Chamblee. After graduation, he served five years as a PGA club pro before realizing that what he wanted was to be on the other side of the pro shop counter. For the past 40 years, he’s been a financial advisor, and still works full-time for Morgan Stanley in the firm’s Madison office while maintaining a plus-1 handicap that has led to a very impressive golf resume.
“I’ve won 24 different club championships of some type—stroke play, match play, senior, super senior—including six at Reynolds.” Reynolds was also the site of one of his biggest victories, capturing the Legends Division of the PGA of America’s National Club Championship this past winter, going 6-under over three rounds on the Great Waters, Oconee, and National courses. It didn’t hurt that Great Waters and Oconee are his two favorite home tracks.
His next challenge is a national championship, to be played at Oak Hills Country Club in San Antonio, Texas, August 23-28. (The event was originally scheduled for North Carolina but had to be moved after Hurricane Helene.) Along with the different surfaces and conditions he’s faced on the seven different Reynolds courses, he thinks his experience in the local heat and humidity will help him take on the old-fashioned A.W. Tillinghast design, which has hosted numerous Texas Opens and was the home of the PGA Tour’s AT&T Championship from 2002-10.
“This was my fourth try at qualifying [for the Senior Amateur],” Cornelia says. “It was a real void in my life to have played at a high level at times but never qualify for a USGA event. It’s a nice exclamation point for me, especially at age 66 when qualifying starts at age 55. To quote Monty Python, ‘I’m not dead yet.’”
To get to Texas, he qualified at South Carolina’s Country Club of Lexington back in mid-July, tying for second with a 2-under-par 70 and capturing one of the four spots in a playoff.
“It started with 84 guys competing for four spots. The mathematics were not good. In a three- or four-day event, the cream rises to the top; in a one-day shootout, anything can happen.”
Cornelia says Reynolds helps him prepare for such uncertainties in other ways, too.
“I see the teachers at The Kingdom, mainly Taylor Crosby but also Sean Cain and Blake Adams. All three are exceptional instructors who can coach a Tour player as well as an 18 handicap. I also go to the fitness rooms at 5:30 in the morning three or four times a week and have for 20 years, which I’m convinced has something to do with my game. It helps that my wife is a fitness instructor here, and while she doesn’t teach me, she is a positive influence. We’re big believers in keeping your body in its best condition.”
