Par for the Course
/Zack Fischer’s Journey to the 2023 Open Championship Featured Highs and Lows
By Ellen Orr
“In reality, golf doesn’t matter”—bold words spoken by professional golfer Zack Fischer, the 33-year-old Texarkana native competing this year in the oldest golf tournament in the world, the Open Championship (also referred to as the British Open and the Open).
“Playing professional golf was always a goal of mine, but I still could’ve had a great life if I weren’t playing golf professionally,” he said. “I think people put way too much emphasis on achievement and less on the process, which is kind of a cliché now in sports, but people just get so wrapped up in expectations. For me, personally, I just love golf.”
Zack was competing in tournaments from age six on.
Zack played his first round of golf at age four, inspired by his dad, a golf enthusiast. At six, he played his first tournament. “Back then, [youth golf] wasn’t anything super formal; there was competition, but it wasn’t like it is now,” he said, explaining that youth competition has become more involved and intense than it was when he was young. His dad took him on day trips to nearby tournaments to compete.
By age 11, he was hooked. “Golf was just so much fun to me,” he said. He and his close pal Cabe Prieskorn were friendly rivals. “He definitely pushed me to be the best I possibly could be, and that’s kind of what made it fun.” When Cabe started training under coach Geoff Jones, Zack watched his friend’s skill level soar, and he knew he needed Jones’ coaching, too.
Zack, in 2006, winning on the Texas Legends Summer Tour.
Today, over 22 years later, Geoff Jones is still Zack’s coach, as well as one of his closest friends. Geoff’s son, in fact, is caddying for Zack in the Open.
Zack attended Texas High School, playing for the Tigers all four years. He dreamt of attending The University of Texas at Austin. However, when recruiters watched him play throughout his junior year, he underperformed.
“When you’re a kid and a teenager, your brain is just developing, and it’s just very difficult to deal with all the emotions and hormones and everything that’s just going through your mind,” he reflected. Many people would have given up the dream of playing pro at this juncture. Zack credits his resilience to his spirituality, his parents, and Geoff.
Zack with his coach Geoff Jones.
“My parents were great in keeping me in church and holding me accountable to read my Bible and be involved in church,” he said, “and I’ve just been super blessed to have so many people—my parents, Geoff, and others—in my life who have been so encouraging.”
Zack attended UT–Arlington, playing for coach Jay Rees. Rees, a decorated coach, put together a standout and winning team. Zack’s teammates, like his childhood friend Cabe, challenged him to be the best player he could be. It was during his time at UT–Arlington that Zack realized his dreams of pro golf were attainable. Following graduation, he sat down with one of his mentors—a fellow Texas High alumnus and the winner of the 1981 British Open, Bill Rogers.
“I’ve just been super blessed to have so many people—my parents, Geoff, and others—in my life who have been so encouraging.”
“He basically told me that I needed to play through my amateur summer and just enjoy playing golf without playing for money,” he recalled. “And if I still found myself wanting to pursue it [professionally], then to do it.”
After a summer of playing as an amateur, Zack felt confident in his chosen career path. His first pro tournament was in Victoria, Texas, in August 2011. He tied for eighth place. “I started in the green, which is always good,” he said.
Zack with his caddy, Grayson Jones, and daughter Hallie in Kansas City for FCA Game Day.
His first and second years as pro, he attempted “Q-School,” the qualifying tournament so named because players advance through four stages before “graduating” and earning a “tour card,” which grants entry into the Korn Ferry Tour. Q-School is widely known as one of the most grueling competitions in professional golf and spans three months. In both 2011 and 2012, Zack did not advance beyond the first stage.
In 2013, he won the entire tournament. He also qualified for the U.S. Open that year. “It was a huge whirlwind,” he remembered.
From 2014 to 2017, Zack played in the Korn Ferry Tour, “with varying degrees of success,” he said. In 2017, however, he faced a mental setback, akin to his high school “slump” almost a decade before.
“I kind of lost my way in golf,” he said. “I lost my swing. I lost my edge mentally, and I wanted to stop playing. I was burned out, and it wasn’t fun anymore.”
His heart wasn’t “in it,” but his pocketbook sure was. “Credit card bills were really piling up, and I thought, ‘I can’t afford this anymore,’” he recalled. “But God just kept giving me glimpses of success,” which, he explained, kept him going.
In 2019, he qualified for a PGA Tour event in San Antonio and finished 14th. He made $135,000. “That is still, to this day, the most money I’ve ever made in a tournament,” he said. “I basically won the lottery.”
In 2021, at Texarkana Country Club, Zack experienced what he calls “the big defining point in [his] whole career.”
On the first day of the Texarkana Children Charities Open, he choked. “In the first round, I instantly feel myself get nervous. I ended up shooting like a 78, which is not good,” he said. “I’m so upset, I’m crying, and I think I’ve just lost my edge.”
He went to see Geoff, to tell him the bad news: it was time to quit.
“I’m sobbing,” he recounted, “telling him that I’ve hit a wall, that I can’t play golf anymore, that I’m not good enough to do this anymore. He just sits there and then starts smiling at me. And I’m like, ‘Why are you smiling at me? I’m literally opening my heart to you!’ And he goes, ‘You haven’t lost your edge. You’re putting way too much pressure on yourself.’”
Geoff convinced him to play the next day of the tournament just for fun, with no expectations. Then he could quit afterward, if he still felt he should. The second day, he shot a 62, the day’s low.
“I went from the worst day to the best day,” he said, “and it showed me that I was putting this devastating weight on myself, which was inhibiting me from doing anything.” That revelation was the catalyst he needed, and he played the rest of the season successfully.
When the 2022 Q-School came around, Zack wasn’t going to enter, simply because of the financial burden: the entry fee is $5,500. A benefactor, who remains anonymous to the public, paid the fee for him, as a loan. Zack again won the tournament, becoming the first person ever to win Q-School twice.
His 2022 Q-School championship earned him a spot in the PGA Tour of Latin America. He knew that the Argentina Open in itself was not an opportunity for significant financial return, but the champion would be granted exemption into the British Open. With the encouragement of his wife, Kaitlin, he booked his ticket.
After a ten-hour flight south, Zack arrived in Buenos Aires, exhausted and unable to get enough rest. He became “super sick,” he said: “like, barely-functioning sick. I called my wife to tell her I wasn’t sure if I would even be able to play.”
Hallie loves getting to spend time with Zack on the golf course.
Nevertheless, he hit the greens, “moseying around as slow as possible,” he said. “I was so tired I didn’t even care.” His stellar performance, then, was nothing short of miraculous. After four rounds, he was tied for third, though he still felt so bad he was seriously considering withdrawing.
Instead, he hired a caddy: Mario. “He didn’t speak much English, but we still communicated really well,” Zack marveled. “Having him carrying the clubs just made the weight so much less. I ended up playing really well that day too, and I ended up taking the lead into the final round.”
Zack’s wife, Kaitlin, is his biggest supporter. In fact, following their wedding in November 2014, she caddied for him on tour. “We got to go to Panama, Brazil, Colombia, Chile—all these really cool places,” he said. “It was basically like going to a different place on our honeymoon every week. It was fantastic.”
As Kaitlin and two-year-old daughter, Hallie, watched on YouTube Live from their home in Little Rock, Zack sunk his final shot and won the Argentina Open.
“The only reason I won that golf tournament is because God was literally carrying me around the golf course,” he said. “I can take zero credit for it.”
Zack will compete in the Open Championship at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, Merseyside, England. The tournament runs from July 16th to July 23rd.