Fifty is the magic number for Harry Rudolph III.
As a kid, beginning at 6, he went head-to-head in local golf contests with fellow San Diegan Phil Mickelson and triumphed more than once.
As a college student, he and teammate Jim Furyk, helped drive the University of Arizona to the NCAA Division I national championship in 1992. Rudolph won the NCAA West Regional championship that year.
Considered a golf prodigy by many, the La Jolla native won the California State Amateur championship in 1991 and was looking forward to turning pro after college.
But it didn’t quite come together. He missed making the cut at the finals of the Professional Golfers’ Association Tour Qualifying School by one shot. He played golf’s Nike Tour (now called the Korn Ferry Tour) and golfed in Canada, Asia, Australia and South America, but the PGA Tour remained elusive.
“I was everywhere and started getting burned out,” Rudolph says. “I just couldn’t crack that final stage, which pretty much knocked me out of the game mentally, emotionally and financially.”
Life also intervened. Rudolph got married, bought a house, had a couple of kids. To make more money to pursue his golfing dream, he took some time off to work in his family’s restaurant, Harry’s Coffee Shop, which has been a La Jolla landmark since it opened in 1960.
It was named for his dad, a lifetime sports enthusiast who was once a batboy for the Brooklyn Dodgers and had framed sports photos on the diner walls. But his parents needed help running the restaurant, and Harry’s brief golf hiatus turned into years of ing two of his siblings in running and then buying the coffee shop.
In 2009, 10 years after he quit touring, Harry dusted off his golf bag. He was reinstated as an amateur and represented California in the USGA Men’s State Team Championship in 2010.
In 2011, two decades after he won the California Amateur Championship, he nearly took home the same trophy again, coming in second.
A U.S. Golf Association writer referred to him as a “former prodigy” and called his triumphant return to the sport a “golf Renaissance.”
Rudolph, at age 41, decided to turn pro again and make a second run at the PGA Tour by competing in mini tour events, qualifiers for the nationwide tour and the PGA Tour Qualifying School. Then came more frustration with the game and another hiatus — until recently.
Why return now?
“I turned 50, and you’re the young guy on the old-guy tour,” he says, referring to his eligibility to compete with touring seniors. As his 50th birthday approached, he started practicing for the qualifying school for the PGA Tour Champions, its division for senior pros.
Along with giving private lessons part time at the Grand Del Mar Golf Club, he works on his game eight to nine hours a day and fits in a workout routine.
“I advanced to the finals and nearly made it,” he says. Rudolph did well enough to become an associate member of the Tour Champions, which allows him to compete in qualifying rounds early in the week of a major tournament for a few open spots.
In his latest meteoric comeback, he won the 2020 Colorado Senior Open, then qualified for the 2021 U.S. Senior Open in July after a six-hole playoff that caught the attention of The Washington Post. Its article on Rudolph was headlined: “Golf’s brutality chased him away. Then six playoff holes rewrote his story.”
In the U.S. Senior Open, Rudolph, 51, ended up in a respectable 35th place, collecting $19,000 in prize money. His U. of Arizona teammate Jim Furyk won the tournament, and their college golf coach watched them compete. They celebrated later that evening.
Rudolph went on to play in the British Senior Open. Then last month, he competed in the 2021 Colorado Senior Open and became the first golfer to achieve back-to-back wins. He was one stroke short of tying the tournament record of 15 under par.
Rudolph’s performance was even more remarkable, given the cancelation of his flight from Flint, Mich., the day before. He spent the night trying to sleep on the airport floor by the baggage carousel with PA announcements about wearing masks blurting out every few minutes.
He caught a plane in the morning that got him to Denver only 60 minutes before tee time. “I got about one hour’s sleep,” he says. “I changed my clothes in the parking lot and brushed my teeth in the locker room. It was kind of crazy.
“There’s no way I could have done it when my kids were younger,” Rudolph says. “It just doesn’t work on the mini-tours. The numbers just don’t make sense. All of a sudden, they’re older and I’m older.”
His oldest daughter is now a college freshman and his younger daughter, Shay, 16, has her own career as an actress. She co-stars as treasurer Stacey McGill in the Netflix series, “The Baby-Sitters Club,” now going into its second season.
Rudolph readily its that he was burned out by the constant need for money on the tour, the disappointments and the grind. “I was pretty beat up by it all. I’m made of Teflon now.”
But, he is realistic: “I’m still knocking at the door. If you can keep paying the bills, that’s what it’s about — survive this portion.”
Traditionally clean shaven, Rudolph started growing a beard about four months ago and vowed he wouldn’t shave it off until he got his qualifying card for the Champions Tour.
“I’m really ready to shave it,” he says.
