Jim Meehan: Wallace key part of Scott Almquist’s circuitous route to U.S. Senior Open

Part of the job covering golf for this newspaper is combing through results, tee times and tournament schedules at the prep, amateur and professional levels.

That’s how I came across the name Scott Almquist, of Wallace, teeing off at 10:30 a.m. Thursday and 5 a.m. Friday at the U.S. Senior Open in an email from the United States Golf Association. Cue my double take and curiosity to learn more about another accomplished player from our region.

After exchanging emails with a helpful USGA official, I was soon on the phone for two entertaining hours with Almquist, who described a one-of-a-kind journey from childhood days in Wallace to teeing it up with the best seniors on the planet this week at SentryWorld in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

Almquist, 58, has lived in Coeur d’Alene for just more than a decade, but he has a cabin in the Silver Valley. His late father, Glen, was a standout athlete at Wallace High and played football at UCLA.

“I just identify with Wallace, I love the town and the people,” Almquist said. “My dad won the club championship at Shoshone Golf Club. We had a lot of family there, and we spent all our family vacations with grandparents in Wallace.”

Almquist followed in his father’s footsteps at UCLA, but as a backup shortstop on the baseball team. After one season, he transferred to San Diego State and his roommate, future PGA Tour player Dennis Paulson, encouraged him to try out for the golf team. Almquist had caddied at several courses in the Los Angeles area but didn’t gravitate toward golf until he was 17.

Paulson helped Almquist with pointers and Almquist’s baseball background helped him pick up the golf quickly. He became San Diego State’s No. 1 player and played in numerous high-level amateur events in California.

After his college career, Almquist stopped playing golf for about a decade. He got married right after college, had three daughters and dove into the business world. He owned some Snapple distributorships and eventually built Verinex Technologies, the largest privately owned biometrics company in the world. He sold the business in 2004.

Almquist returned to golf at 35 and found time, despite 80-hour work weeks, to compete in top amateur events. He’s played in every USGA event except the U.S. Open. He lost in a playoff in his only attempt to qualify for Open about 15 years ago.

“I love competition, but I can’t practice any more. Bad neck, shoulder and back,” said Almquist, who plays twice a week at Coeur d’Alene National Reserve, formerly Rock Creek.

He cracks that he’s a “field filler” with a lot of top-10 finishes and not many wins, but he has a lengthy list of accomplishments. He shared the first-round lead with a 68 two years ago at the U.S. Senior Amateur – after completing just one hole in his practice round due to a thunderstorm. He was co-medalist at the California State Amateur 13 years ago.

Almquist has also made the semifinals of the Western and California state amateurs and won the Southern California Mid-Am in 2011 with scores of 71, 70 and 67. Last year at the British Senior Amateur, Almquist’s clubs ended up in Amsterdam, Netherlands, but he had a hole-in-one with a rental 8-iron and made the cut at Royal Dornoch.

Almquist qualified for the U.S. Senior Open in May with a 69 in Newport Beach, California. He finished one shot behind Bob May, who had a memorable showdown with Tiger Woods at the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla before falling by one shot in a three-hole playoff.

Almquist is joined in the 156-player field by Jeff Gove, who played professionally for roughly 25 years, including several stints on the PGA Tour, and now serves as director of golf at The Idaho Club near Sandpoint. The two know each other and have played at The Palms Golf Club in La Quinta. Gove tees off at 12:15 p.m. Thursday and 6:45 a.m. Friday.

Almquist’s first takeaway from Tuesday’s practice round at SentryWorld: Avoid the rough. It’s deep, thick and usually leaves few options, other than attempting to hack the ball back on the fairway. He missed the fairway by 1 yard on No. 10, and it took a search party of five who watched where the ball entered the rough to locate the ball.

“It’s the worst rough I’ve ever seen,” said Almquist, who works about 30 hours a week volunteering, consulting and advising 12 entrepreneurs free of charge.

His game plan is to have fun playing in a senior major, regardless of what he shoots on the demanding course.

“Gratitude and humility, that’s the whole theme this week,” Almquist said. “At this stage of my life, I’m out there and I’m going to enjoy it. I don’t have an ego on this and I definitely do not care what people think. Whatever I shoot, I’ll try my hardest.”