Simi golfer takes the trip of a lifetime
Tom Mouzis and his buddies played the finest courses in Scotland
By Thomas Gase tgase@theacorn.com

LIKE A PRO- Simi Valley's Tom Mouzis warms up at Royal Troon.

On July 19, the world's greatest golfers will tee up at the Carnoustie Golf Club in Scotland to try and win the British Open. If any of them need advice on the course, they may want to ask Simi Valley resident Tom Mouzis.

Last month Mouzis and four of his former teammates from his 1974 Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks High School golf team went on a trip to Scotland to play some of the most prestigious golf courses in the world.

The seven-day trip included 10 rounds of golf at links such as the old and new course at St. Andrews, Muirfield, North Berwick, Turnberry, Royal Troon, Musselburgh and Kingsbarns, as well as Carnoustie.

According to Mouzis, the trip was everything he could have hoped for.

"For me it was a trip of a lifetime," Mouzis said. "All of us got along very well on the trip, and it was great to play all those famous courses."

The trip to Scotland originated when Mouzis got a call last year from his exNotre Dame teammate, Tim Lawlor, describing the trip put on by Hidden Links golf tours.

"My first thought was that I would love to do it but I couldn't afford it," Mouzis said. "I had just put on a new addition to my house and figured I wasn't going anywhere for a while.

"However, the whole rest of the day I thought about it and how great it would be. It was a year from then, so I would have some time to save up, but I still had to ask my dad for some help. My dad decided to help, and without him the trip doesn't happen for me."

For the next year Mouzis counted the months, the weeks and then the days until he left.

Mouzis researched every golf course and read "Where Golf is Great: The Finest Courses in Scotland" by James Finegan.

Finally, on May 26, Mouzis and Lawlor, along with former teammates Rob Creaser, Bill Cardone, Vic Pascarella and three other friends, made the long plane trip to Glasgow Airport. Although it was raining when they arrived, the party of eight wasted no time hitting the links.

One of the first courses Mouzis played was Carnoustie, the site of this year's British Open. According to Mouzis, the weather was good for most of the trip except the first two days. At Carnoustie, Mouzis wore four layers of clothes and had to battle 30 mile per hour winds.

"It was a great course to play; there seemed to be ruins of castles all over the place," Mouzis said.

"One guy told me that Sir Robert the Bruce, ex-king of Scotland, used to occupy territory on the golf course. I also liked that course because they already had the stands set up for the Open, so I would just imagine that I was playing in it."

Mouzis said that he and his friends were especially in awe when they got to the 18th hole, which is the site of the famous meltdown by Jean Van de Velde in the 1999 British Open. "When we got there we were all saying to each other, 'Wow, this is where it happened. This is where it all went down.' So then we each tried to see if we could beat (Van de Velde's) score on that hole, and some of us did."

After Carnoustie, Mouzis then played Muirfield Golf Course, which he called the most difficult course on the trip.

"I parred four of the first six holes and foolishly wondered what the big deal is about the course," Mouzis said with a laugh. "But the length of the rough is extremely high on that course, and on the back nine I played so bad I lost count of my score."

Mouzis went on to describe North Berwick as "very hilly," Kingbarns as "Pebble Beach times a hundred" and Musselburgh as "the oldest golf course in the world, but not that great by today's standards."

Although Mouzis enjoyed every place he played, he said his favorite was the old course at St. Andrews.

"It was like walking into golf church," Mouzis said. "I mean, it's like the Holy Grail of golf courses. We saw Hell Bunker, and our caddy told us how to play that hole without going in it. I mean it's like a massive bombshell hit the course, about 15 feet deep."

When Mouzis got to the 18th green at St. Andrews, he was overcome with emotion.

"I have this picture of Jack Nicklaus waving to the crowd on the bridge of the 18th during his last British Open," Mouzis said.

"I kept that picture with me, and when I got to the bridge I kind of felt numb. I was like 'I'm really here. I did it.' After that I thought of my parents and how they helped me get here. Not just with them paying for some of the trip, but also my dad taking me to pitch and putt in Van Nuys growing up."

Mouzis said he plans on getting together once again with his buddies to watch this year's British Open on TV.

"Oh yeah, it should be fun to watch it," Mouzis said. "It will be neat to analyze what the golfers do and compare it to what we did."