In the prime of his life, Rocco Bene sold $117,000 worth of tickets to the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championships. That's a dollar sign followed by six digits. Another year it was $108,000.
How good is that? Bene and the other 49 Conquistadores are each assigned to sell $20,000 in tickets yearly.
Bene has much more to do than sell tickets to a golf tournament. He is the vice president of Southern Arizona Paving and Construction Co. He is the director of football at Salpointe Catholic High School, a fundraiser and assistant coach - "linebackers and special teams," he said - and is serving a three-year term as a commissioner for the Pima County Fairgrounds.
He graduated from the Gonzaga School of Law, played college baseball at Northwest Missouri State and for the last nine years has been a Tucson Conquistador, a calling he takes so earnestly that he spent eight years putting on a clinic in the most elementary - "but most important," he said - part of a golf tournament.
People are also reading…
Parking cars, loading buses and getting people through the gates.
"I was usually out in a field somewhere, and I probably saw 30 golf shots, total, in those years," he remembers. "I was driven to get it done right."
But on Wednesday, Bene didn't hit to all fields as he usually does. He was single-minded in pursuit of the biggest name in golf, Tiger Woods.
"We need Tiger to make a commitment to play here next week, and the sooner he does the better chance we have to hit our imaginary budget line," Bene said. "We're at $2.5 million now, but if Tiger commits before Friday, we can hit $3 million in sales. We can hit a home run."
Within the hour, Woods officially entered Match Play VI at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain.
Touch 'em all.
Â
Read Greg Hansen's entire column in Wednesday's Arizona Daily Star.
Â
