When Jim McGovern heard the news of yesterday’s plane crash tragedy involving fellow PGA Tour player Payne Stewart his sorrow ran much deeper than most who were affected by the incident. McGovern’s life intersected with three of the victims of that fateful plane crash.
Not only was Stewart a close friend and colleague, but Robert Fraley and Van Ardan, Stewart’s representatives from Leader Enterprises, were also agents and friends of McGovern’s.
How they all came together is truly a “Six Degrees of Separation” story.
This was about six years ago, in the summer of ’93. McGovern, an Oradell, N.J. native and an aspiring PGA golfer, was having a bite of lunch at Hagler’s, a local tavern/restaurant up Kinderkamack in Oradell.
In walked Bill Parcells, whom McGovern had never met even though he’d caddied for Parcells’ father as a youth at Hackensack Golf Club and had his ball games as a kid umpired by Parcells’ brother, Doug.
“I’ve known the Parcells family since I was about nine, but I’d never met the Coach [Bill],” McGovern said last night. “I used to caddie for his dad, Chubby Parcells, up at Hacksensack. They used to say Chubby Parcells was one of the greatest athletes of his time at Georgetown University. They still have a Chubby Parcells gin tournament every year at Hackensack Golf Club.”
That summer day in ’93, Parcells helped change McGovern’s life when he introduced him to Fraley.
“I ran into Coach Parcells at Hagler’s in Oradell,” McGovern recalled. “He came in as I was going up to dinner area and he went to his downstairs room with Mr. Hagler. Then he came up to the dinner part and sat with me. We talked about a half hour that day.
“He asked me who my agent was. I told him I didn’t have one, that my dad was doing some stuff for me. I didn’t know anything about having an agent or corporate outings; I just wanted to play golf.
“Coach Parcells told me about Robert Fraley and his company, Leader Enterprises, that he was with them. He told me they’d open some doors for me. Two months later I was with them and that’s exactly what they did. They were unbelievable. They opened up a lot of gates for me.
“I just don’t believe they’re gone,” McGovern continued. “I can’t imagine them gone. And Payne. That’s just not realistic almost. I know it hasn’t set in. I haven’t stopped thinking about it. It’s such a tough way to go. Robert and Van did so much for me outside of tournament golf and Payne did so much for me during tournament golf. It’s just a terrible, terrible loss.
“My heart hurts right now. They were such good people.”
McGovern, who’s now represented by a couple of Fraley’s former assistants, said when he first signed on with Fraley, Stewart and Paul Azinger (both Fraley clients) went out of their way to help him.
“Payne would sit down and have lunch with me if I was already sitting at a table,” McGovern said. “It’s hard to believe I’m talking about him like this. He was always first class. He never put people down. He always seemed to put people ahead of himself.”