PORT LUDLOW — Mark Wurtz, a former PGA Tour player who played in two U.S. Opens while becoming arguably the greatest golfing talent the North Olympic Peninsula has ever produced, died at age 55 March 25 in La Quinta, Calif.
An obituary published in the (Palm Springs) Desert Sun newspaper said Wurtz had died at home after a lengthy illness.
The son of Barbara and Ted Wurtz Sr., he moved to Port Ludlow with his family when his father was named the first PGA professional at the brand-new Port Ludlow Golf Club in 1975.
A brilliant junior golfer, Wurtz won multiple amateur events and was Chimacum’s first-ever state golf champion.
“Mark was certainly the best talent to come out of our area,” Wurtz’ Cowboys golf coach and teacher Mitch Black said. “When I started the golf team, with his dad’s help and direction Mark had already won 32 junior tournaments.”
Wurtz pushed those tournament win numbers up by adding state golf championships at Chimacum in 1981 and 1982. He narrowly missed out on a three-peat after finishing second as a senior in 1983.
Dedication and long hours were part of Wurtz’ formula for success, Black said.
“I remember him getting up at 5:30 in the morning and putting by the headlights of his car before school,” Black said. “During his sophomore year we played golf nearly 300 days of the year, finishing winter rounds with colored golf balls in the twilight and dark.”
Port Townsend golf coach Hazli Katsikapes was a frequent playing partner with Wurtz at Port Ludlow while growing up.
“I got the golf bug early and started playing about 9,” Katsikapes said. “We moved and my dad built a house at Port Ludlow. Pretty soon, I heard I should go check out the golf shop because the pro’s son is always looking for playing partners. I got a job on the maintenance crew for playing privileges and we probably played 1,000 rounds together. And in the whole time we played out there, I only beat him one time. He was so intense, loved to compete and loved to win.”
One marathon session stands out to Katsikapes.
“We were just kids in the summer and we wanted to try and see how many holes we could play in a day while walking and we ended up walking 63 holes,” Katsikapes said. “We started right after the mowers finished mowing the greens and finished when it was dark. I remember we just laid down on the last green exhausted.”
Wurtz spent three years playing golf at the University of New Mexico before deciding to give a pro career a shot. He traveled around the world on a number of mini-tours in the early 1990s, winning the Canadian Tour Championship in 1992 and broke through at PGA Qualifying School in December of 1993, triumphing and achieving a life-long dream of playing on the PGA Tour.
Wurtz’s best PGA Tour finish was a tie for eighth at the 1994 Western Open. He also qualified for the first of two U.S. Open appearances that summer, shooting rounds of 71 and 78 to miss the cut by a single stroke at Oakmont Country Club.
He played the 1994 and 1995 seasons on the PGA Tour, dropped to the second-level Nationwide Tour in 1996-97 and won the 1997 Nike Shreveport Open. He spent the latter years of his professional prime bouncing between the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour and qualified for his second U.S. Open in 2003 at Olympic Fields Country Club near Chicago. Wurtz was again close to making the cut, shooting rounds of 76 and 72.
“Yeah, I was nervous,” Wurtz told the Kitsap Sun. “Probably more excited than nervous. Just getting out there and seeing what it was like, that was pretty cool. And every hole is tough. Pick out the toughest hole at [Bremerton’s] Gold Mountain and play it 18 times. That’s what a U.S. Open is like.
“But it is a great experience. It reminded me just how good those players are out there. Every shot is a must. You miss a shot, you pay the penalty. On some courses, you are way off line, you are all right. Most U.S. Opens, you hit a bad shot you are paying the ultimate penalty.”
Black, a golf guru himself, had a similar realization seeing Wurtz come so close to golf stardom.
“Ted built a beautiful swing into Mark, he got the club to the top as easy as anyone I’ve ever seen,” Black said. “He was so talented, a good basketball player, but golf was his life. I’ve always thought that if Mark couldn’t stay on the tour, that it must take unbelievable talent.”
Wurtz stayed active in the game, providing lessons at golf courses in La Quinta, Calif., and becoming a founding member at Plantation Golf Club, a course designed in part by Seattle’s Fred Couples. He enjoyed attempting to improve a player’s existing swing, as opposed to forging a new swing that may not match a players’ physical ability.
Katsikapes met up with Wurtz in La Quinta as an adult.
“I remember going into the clubhouse and looking at the course record which included a running tally through the years of who held the title,” Katsikapes said. “Mark had held the record several different times and the last name I saw on there was Phil Mickelson with a 58 or 59.”
In 2011, Wurtz served as head pro at Discovery Bay Golf Club near Port Townsend and later attempted to qualify for the Champions Tour and in events like the senior tour’s Boeing Classic in Snoqualmie.
Black did get the better of his former player at least once.
“A few years ago we played in Port Townsend, and I was making everything with my putter,” Black said. “I beat him three times in a row, on our $1-a-hole bets. I don’t think he was focusing because he could beat me without breaking a sweat. He kept calling me wanting another match and saying, ‘You just want to say you beat Mark Wurtz.’ “I said, ‘You’re right, I’m never betting with you again,’ and started laughing.
“His loss is so sad, far too young. I feel for his kids, and his parents. I will miss him.”
Wurtz is survived by his parents, Ted and Barbara, a sister, Kim, and his two children, Lindsey and TJ.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-406-0674 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
