Luke McGhie
PERSONAL – Luke is single with no kids and lives in Roseville, California. He works for a small cyber-security firm. His grandpa tried to convince him to play golf when he was a kid but opted to play other sports instead. He’s now trying to get back into it. No better way for that than a big buddies tournament in Arizona!
TIE TO THE MONTEMAR – Luke is one of the older brothers of Drew McGhie and I met Luke kind of the same way I met Drew. For the sake of not having to rewrite the entire paragraph, please revert back to Drew’s bio to see how Luke ended up in this field for the Montemar. Drew moved up this way first and I assume that had some sort of impact in Luke moving to Roseville as well. Luke is a super chill guy and a great contribution to the Montemar!
ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MONTEMAR – Nothing yet but I’ve got a feeling he’ll come up with something cool for a prize.
WHAT NEEDED TO HAPPEN IN 2024 – Golf is a game of streaks and Luke needs to figure out how to get on a good one. When you open a tournament with a birdie on one of the most famous holes in golf, you would expect a quality run to follow, but Luke followed up his deuce with an 8 on a 300 yard par 4 and two holes later defied the quad max rule by carding a 10 on the straightforward 1st. Safety first, my friend – Eliminate the big numbers! Luke needs to find danger from the tee box then do everything in his power to avoid it. He’s going to draft well, he’s going to have a blast, but will he come to the realization that he doesn’t always have to go for it? Same as in 2023, if Luke can find a way to turn those triples into doubles and doubles into singles, there’s no reason to think he can’t pull out a top ten finish in 2024.
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED IN 2024 – Much like he did in 2023 when he opened the tournament at Scottsdale with a birdie on the Stadium Hole, Luke started the 2024 Montemar by having his wet dream round. An opening round 96 was phenomenal given his lack of skill and enormous handicap, and he went to sleep after round 1 in 2nd place out of 80 players. The scramble round was good to him as well and after day 2 he was only a handful of points behind eventual winner Jimmy Crider. Then, much like what happened in 2023, Luke imploded. He gained 22 strokes from his opening round and finished up the Resort Course with a score of 118. The implosion dropped him from 2nd to 17th in the standings. Still a respectable finish, but oh what could have been… especially with a final day pairing of Darrin Cripe.
WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN IN 2025 – Luke will have a difficult go of it in 2025. That wet dream round is now his handicap and unless he’s gotten significantly better since last year Reno will be tough. Luckily Luke only shows up to thing for a great time and Reno has everything necessary for that.
ODDS TO WIN – 98-1
FUN FACT – It feels like I’ve met about 16 McGhie brothers. There may only be 3 or 5 or 8, but it seems that every time I see the guys there’s a new brother around. Great guys and fun to talk sports with!
MONTEMARS PLAYED – 3 (2022 – Sacramento, 2023 - Scottsdale, 2024 - Coeur D’Alene)
MONTEMAR ROUNDS PLAYED – 7 (2022 - Darkhorse, 2023 – TPC Scottsdale, TS Piipaash, TS O’odham, 2024 - Circling Raven x 2, Coeur D’Alene Resort Course)
LIFETIME POINT TOTAL – 633
JACKETS WON – 0
TOP 3 FINISHES – 0
TOP 5 FINISHES – 0
TOP 10 FINISHES – 0
RECORDS – 0
TOURNAMENT HANDICAP - 24
INVITED BY – Drew McGhie
PLAYERS INVITED - 0
PRIZES DONATED – Luke is going to donate a couple boxes of balls and something else.
