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Charlie Gibson, 52 , Windsor, Calif.
"This is my last chance to compete with the best in the world."
Gibson experienced great success in adolescence and earned a golf scholarship to Arizona State where he captured All-American honors along with PGA TOUR winners Craig Stadler, Curtis Strange, Jay Haas and Peter Jacobsen. He went to the PGA Tour's Qualifying Tournament nine times before playing on Tour for four years. In ensuing years, he played on the Asian Tour, the European Tour and the Nationwide Tour. Gibson is currently a golf course and restaurant manager.
Denny Hepler, 50, Warsaw, Ind.
"I’m capable of winning anytime I tee it up!"
A seasoned veteran, Hepler has strong credentials. He played the PGA Tour for two years and recorded two top-25 finishes. While chasing the golf dream, he pursued his golf career with the late Payne Stewart. His highest moment was wining the Malaysian Open on the Asian Tour. After his Tour career ended, Hepler returned to Indiana to teach golf. For all of his accomplishments, he was named to the Indiana Golf Foundation Hall of Fame.
Jeff Mitchell, 51, Frisco, Texas
PGA Tour winner back in action
Mitchell is the only PGA Tour winner in The Big Break VI. In 1980, he won the Phoenix Open and finished 37th on the TOUR’s money list. That same year he tied Seve Ballesteros for the first round lead in The Masters. His career was cut short due to a severe elbow injury. After leaving the Tour, he became the golf coach at Texas Tech and Stanford. In an ironic twist, he coached against some of the women on The Big Break VI.
Kelly Murray, 49, Reston, Va.
Big Break loves the long ball
The key to Murray’s game is massive drives. One of his blasts registered at 684.8 yards and earned a spot in Guiness Book of World Records for the longest recorded drive. The drive occurred on a 100-foot wide airstrip. A native of Vancouver, British Columbia, his resume also includes two victories on the Canadian Tour (1982, 1984) and shares the circuit’s record for lowest score in one round, 60. The last few years he has spent most of his time teaching golf.
Gary Ostrega, 52, Westfield, N.J.
"Life, like golf, is all about timing."
Growing up on the southside of Chicago, Ostrega played a variety of sports until focusing on golf. His desire to succeed in golf came to a head when he was 15 and lost to a group of privileged kids. A year and half later he beat those kids to win the Illinois high school state championship. At Illinois St., he captained a team that included longtime PGA Tour pro D.A. Weibring and earned All-American honors. A Tour member from 1977-79, he became a teacher after losing his playing privileges.
Rocky Rockett, 54, Gastonia, N.C.
"I started out playing high stakes matches just to pay my bills.
Rockett is the Sun Belt Senior Tour’s all-time leading money winner and has won a record 38 events over the last eight years. He started playing golf when he was 5-years-old on the course that his father operated. His talent earned him a golf scholarship to East Carolina University but was forced to drop out when his father became ill. He later played on the PGA Tour with little success.
Gavin Slabbert, 51, Orange Park, Fla.
Trying to make up for lost time
Perhaps no one grew up farther from big time golf than Slabbert, who was born and raised in the outpost of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He first played golf at the age of 4 and won a junior tournament two years later. After quitting golf for 25 years, he played one round of golf and claims to have shot 65 to get hooked on the game again. During his absence from the game he moved to California and was a computer engineer. Currently Slabbert plays on the Heartland Tour.
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