John Paul Cain is a licensed, certified stockbroker for Smith Barney in Houston. Go ahead. Give him a call. They'll tell you that sure, he works there. But call him tomorrow. Right now he's out playing golf.
In his own quiet way, J.P. Cain, while playing golf two weeks ago in Grand Rapids, Mich., struck a blow for every guy in the world who pulls out of the driveway every morning and turns right, for work . . . and thinks about turning left, for the first tee.At the Greater Grand Rapids Open, John Paul became the first man in history to win a Senior Tour golf tournament who had spent the better part of his life otherwise working for a living.
Just like that, he broke the age barrier. He proved that playing on the PGA Tour is not a prerequisite to winning in the 50-and-over league. He gave hope to untold legions; to people who wear ties all week long and play weekend amateur tournaments and figure there's a Senior Tour event out there with their name on it.
If Cain was able, why not them?
Up till now, it had been assumed that you couldn't do it backward and make it work. You couldn't spend the first 50 years of your life leading a regular kind of workday existence and then launch into an athletic career that would make you rich, and famous, and allow you to tee it up daily on many of America's finest golf courses.
Cain and the Greater Grand Rapids Open changed all that.
People are calling him now, in the wake of that breakthrough, asking him how he did it; how he negotiated this abrupt change of life.
"I guess I'm Walter Mitty," he says, "come to life."
He tells them that it was all really rather easy.
After he turned 50, just over three years ago, he started playing as an amateur in the U.S. Senior Open. At the Open at Medinah in '88 he was talking with some pros, who remarked that A) Cain could hold his own against them and that B) If he was going to spend his own money traveling to these tournaments as an amateur, why not qualify for the Senior Tour and try to make some of it back?
As an investment broker, Cain understood such logic. He also understood that he'd never grown even a little bit tired of golf, and . . . well . . . why . . . not?
He only had to ask for permission twice.
Once from his wife, Carol.
She said go for it.
And once from his employers at Smith Barney.
They said they'd cover for him.
The rest is, as we're already aware, golf history.
J.P. went to the Senior Tour qualifying school last fall, where, placing 16th, he won the last card for the 1989 season. He made the cut in seven of nine Monday qualifyings before the breakthrough at Grand Rapids, where he won by a shot over Charlie Sifford and Dave Hill, two men with a combined experience edge over him of 36 years on the PGA Tour, with 14 victories, and another seven titles between them as seniors.
When the TV commentator at Grand Rapids asked Cain how he felt, he couldn't speak for a minute. This had been a long time coming.
Granted, it might have come a lot sooner. But when Cain graduated from Texas Tech in 1960, with a degree in finance, he made a calculated decision to leave professional golf well enough alone. At least for the next 29 years.
He had been an accomplished college golfer at Texas Tech, competing for teams that won the conference title three straight years. He played against some of the biggest future names in golf - Don Massengale, Charles Coody, Butch Baird, Bobby Nichols, Al Geiberger, Phil Rodgers and Homero Blancas among them. When Cain played in the 1960 Texas State Amateur, he had to beat many of the above to capture the championship.
He won that title on a Sunday.
On Monday morning he reported to the offices of E.F. Hutton in Dallas, as a trainee.
Cain decided against the PGA Tour because, for one thing, he didn't know if the travel would agree with him; for another, he was married; and for another, Arnold Palmer and Dow Finsterwald were the leading PGA money winners that season, with a mere $40,000 and $38,000 respectively.
The stock brokerage business looked like a better gamble.
He did well in business in Dallas, and even better in Houston. He kept his golf habit fed by playing in weekend amateur tournaments, finding college kids to beat up on if he could. He took Ben Crenshaw to the finals of the 1976 Trans-Mississippi tournament before losing in 36 holes; and he won the Broadmoor Invitational in Colorado in 1977, at the age of 41.
All of which kept him primed for what's happening now.
"I am having the time of my life," said Cain this week while getting ready for the Showdown Classic at Jeremy Ranch.
He then felt obliged to add, "But I'm still servicing my accounts for Smith Barney. The win at Grand Rapids got me out of Monday qualifying, so that gives me another day at the office each week."
Spoken like a true career businessman. A genuine lifer. After 29 years, there's bound to be lingering guilt about being on the first tee every morning. Just not enough to get you off it.