A Golden Rematch
By Hank Gola
The last time Mark Tinder and Dave Nevatt had seen each other, they were shaking hands on the 15th green of Brooklawn Country Club. Tinder was congratulating Nevatt for his 4-and-3 win in their championship match of the 1974 U.S. Junior Amateur. Although they had played a lot of junior golf together in California, they would go their separate ways.
Thanks to Gia Watkins, they will be seeing more of each other from now on.
Watkins, a former Brooklawn Ladies Club Champion and the head of its Heritage Committee, was responsible for putting together a rematch on the tournament’s golden anniversary. Nevatt and Tinder joined a foursome that was filled out by the current Brooklawn junior champ, Jack Emra, as well as the stroke play medalist that week, who registered as Charles H. Beck Jr. Better known as Chip, he would go on to win four times on the PGA Tour and play on three Ryder Cup teams.
“Being a lifelong member, I have a broader understanding of the history of the club than most of the members do. I love doing the research and writing articles about our history,” Watkins explained. “I think it was last November. I realized that 2024 was coming up and thinking, ‘What do we need to do?’ I started looking at the photos and then I thought, ‘Well, wouldn't this be fun to do a rematch? David and Mark jumped at the chance.”
“It certainly exceeded my expectations, I think Mark’s as well,” Nevatt said. “Simply getting back together was in itself amazing.”
“Ever since that first telephone conversation with Gia, I was thinking about it every single day and it was the same for David,” Tinder said. “It's well to be remembered after 50 years. That’s an honor, but to be invited back? Amazing.”
Nevatt, Tinder, Beck and Watkins were all 17 years old at the time. Watkins’ mother served on several committees and gave Gia a specific task as the Junior Am approached.
“We were having pool party for the guys. There were 160 young men, and we had to find a lot of teenage girls to attend,” Watkins explained. “I was involved in finding friends and their friends and their friends. It was super exciting.”
Watkins, who would go on to play Division 1 golf for the University of Florida, was part of a gallery of 2,000 that followed the final match out of a field that included Payne Stewart, Joey Sindelar and Donny Hammond. Tinder was favored. He had won the Northern California Golf Association Junior Championship, beating Nevatt in the final, and had cruised through his previous matches, including a 6-and-5 takedown of David Abell, the No. 1-ranked junior at the time. Nevatt was sick all week, with a 102-degree at the start. The medication left him weak.
But as Tinder noted, “In golf, there's a saying, ‘Beware of sick players,’ and so I think he kind of focused more and it made him more relaxed.”
Nevatt said he was totally relaxed during the final. “Maybe some of the medication calmed me down. I was more nervous during this little exhibition,” we had.
In any case, Nevatt’s shotmaking was incredible throughout the match. He was 2-under par on the front nine to take a 3-up lead. Tinder could have turned the match around on the par-three 10th, where Nevatt pulled off one of the shots of his life. Tinder was eight feet away for birdie with everyone searching for Nevatt’s ball, which was finally found buried in the thickest of rough behind the green.
“This was during the days when we didn't have lob wedges. He had to hit a sand wedge and so he hit a one-out-of-50 shot, just perfectly, right on top. It trickled on to the green and just rolled down there by the cup. In my mind, I'm thinking, ‘I got him. I got him.’ Guess what? I didn’t have him.”
Tinder won the rematch, although he noted, “we’re both about 40 yards shorter now.” Nevatt agreed. “The golf course got a whole lot longer and trees got a lot bigger,” he said. Brooklawn did a great job with the details, posting the results as they stood on each hole.
Nevatt made sure he took home the one on 15, where the match ended. Mostly, they marveled at Beck’s play. Beck, who retired after a successful Champions Tour career in 2015, missed just one green all day and that was because of a difficult chip after almost driving a par-5 green.
“I really enjoyed it,” said Beck, who was upset in his first round match in ’74. “It made me feel really fortunate. You think about how many people haven’t made it. Playing that week, there wasn’t anything else I wanted to do with my life. I just couldn't believe the 50 years went so fast.”
Nevatt played one year on the PGA Tour and was a club pro and GM in the Philadelphia area for many years. Tinder just missed out at PGA Tour Q-School and left pro golf for a career in teaching and coaching. None of that mattered, though, as Tinder and Nevatt reunited. Tinder hosted Nevatt at his home near Philly and they played three rounds of golf together before getting to Brooklawn.
“From the moment I knocked on his door, it was like it was 50 years ago,” Tinder said.
“Mark and I are going to try and develop a tournament annually back at Pebble Beach, just to get together the people of the Northern Cal Junior Golf Association from 50 years ago,” Nevatt said. “That would be neat. So we're definitely going to stay in touch.”