THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 17, 1995 TAG: 9507170128
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Ted Tryba's victory Sunday in the Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic wasn't about six-figure paychecks or four dozen pieces of Waterford crystal or the adulation thrust on him by Kingsmill's paying customers.
It was about masking tape, buckets of fireplace ash and tiny trophies hand-carved by a Cub Scout.
It was about the love of parents who knew early on that their son was something special and did all they could for him to realize his destiny.
``From the time he was 6, he was driven to be a pro golfer,'' Tom Tryba said from behind the 18th green Sunday, yards from where his son received his first career winner's check. ``He always said that should he make it, he would consider himself the luckiest guy in the world.''
Had he never won this or any tournament, never earned more than just enough to meander from one tour stop to another, Ted Tryba would have been right to consider himself lucky.
He was lucky to have a dad who handed him his first golf club and brought him to Wyoming Valley Country Club, near Wilkes-Barre, Pa., to learn the basics.
He was lucky to have a mother, Lorraine, who would leave him at the club at 8 in the morning, return at 9 p.m., then cater to what some might consider bizarre requests when they hit the front door.
``He would ask if I would put masking tape down in the house,'' Lorraine said. ``He wanted to follow how long his putts would roll straight before veering off. Once Ted got into golf, he had to know everything about the game.''
Including how to run his own tournament.
Ted Tryba was lucky to have parents who didn't mind when, as a 7- or 8-year-old, he went across the street and hacked out three makeshift golf holes, including bunkers, which he filled in using ashes from the family fireplace. Lucky to have had a father and grandfather who lent a hand to his beautification efforts.
The neighborhood kids would compete for prizes Ted would fashion in the wood-carving he did for Cub Scout merit badges.
When Ted Tryba was 15, he set the record at Wyoming Valley with a 7-under-par 64. Two years later, he trimmed three more shots off the mark.
By then he was something of a high school phenom, his reputation in part created by leading Hanover Area High School to a monumental upset of rival Coughlin High, stopping Coughlin's 29-match winning streak.
Despite the pain, Coughlin's coach, Tom Tryba, had to laugh at the irony.
Ted Tryba was sought by college golf coaches everywhere. He was inches from signing with North Carolina when Ohio State let him know it suddenly had a scholarship to offer.
``Dad, you've got to call North Carolina and tell them I've changed my mind,'' Ted told Tom on the drive back from his official visit to Columbus.
He was lucky enough to have a dad who saw the wisdom of that request.
In the three years he has been on the PGA Tour, Lorraine and Tom have traveled to any tournament within a 10-hour drive of Wilkes-Barre. They were often with him as he made the climb from $10,000 his first season to $136,000 two years ago, to $246,000 in 1994 to Anheuser-Busch champion and World Series of Golf and Masters qualifier.
Tom and Lorraine had been provided a sense that this trip to Williamsburg, their third, would be charmed.
``When he called on the phone last week to make sure we were coming, he said, `Dad, I'm going to win it,' '' Tom Tryba crowed. `` `I'm playing good, and I'm rolling it good.' Maybe he had a premonition.
``This is his dream come true.''
``And it is one of our dreams that we'd at least be there,'' Lorraine interjected, the way mates often finish the other's sentences. ``He's not married, you know. When it happened, when he won, we didn't want him to be alone.''
Moments later, her voice would crack and a tear or two would roll from under the edge of her sunglasses.
Tom Tryba reached over and gently pulled his wife close to him.
You could feel the love. And a family that was enjoying every instant of their luckiest day together. by CNB