It was 15 years ago, maybe more, when Phil Mickelson walked into a small diner in La Jolla, Calif., with his wife Amy, sat down, and immediately was greeted by the proprietor, who looked sort of familiar to Mickelson. He soon discovered why.

The man, Harry Rudolph III, owner of Harry’s Coffee Shop, once was a golf prodigy every bit Mickelson’s equal, and he had a photo to prove it. He pulled down from the restaurant wall a photo of the two of them together from some long-ago junior event and told the popular PGA Tour player and major winner, “That’s you with the smaller trophy.” Rudolph told that story in 2010 to the USGA’s David Shefter while competing for California in the 2010 USGA Men's State Team at Mayacama Golf Club after being reinstated as an amateur. 

Not much of consequence has happened to Rudolph on a golf course since then, not until June 14 when he emerged from a six-hole playoff at San Diego Country Club to qualify for a berth in this week’s 41st U.S. Senior Open at Omaha (Neb.) Country Club. Rudolph, 51, has returned to the pro ranks, and hopes that maybe there’s still a little life in his game, still a chance to fulfill, to whatever degree he can, his once immense promise.

“It’s a long journey,” he began when talking about a career that never took off as he imagined it might after he helped the University of Arizona to its only NCAA golf championship in 1992, as an All-American playing beside the likes of Jim Furyk, David Berganio and Manny Zerman. Furyk, who is also making his U.S. Senior Open debut this week, went on to win the 2003 U.S. Open and is the only player in PGA Tour history to shoot 58. Meanwhile, Berganio was a two-time U.S. Amateur Public Links champion and Zerman a two-time U.S. Amateur runner-up.

“Here I am ready to tee it up and just kind of see what happens for my after-50 career,” Rudolph said. 

His before-50 career is an amazing tale of triumph and disappointment. It started when he was a junior, and he was very good. The La Jolla native battled Mickelson, from San Diego, straight up, and they locked horns repeatedly all the way through college. As kids, the two used to have putting contests, and, because Mickelson was involved, there had to be a wager on it. Their games were for 10 tees – tees being the coin of the realm in those days because players had to buy their own.

They were the top two college recruits, Mickelson opting for Arizona State and Rudolph for powerhouse Oklahoma State before transferring to Arizona. They were fellow All-Americans in 1992 along with David Duval and Justin Leonard. “I was just the kid with the funny swing that shot some decent scores once in a while, and no one really paid much attention to me,” said Furyk, noting he was not yet as accomplished.

“Looking back, playing against Mickelson, had I known then he would be one of the best players ever, I might have cut myself some slack for losing to him often,” said Rudolph, who played well in several USGA events, including reaching the Round of 16 in the 1987 U.S. Amateur as a high school junior. He also won the 1991 California State Amateur. 

In the 1992 NCAA Division I Championship at the University of New Mexico Golf Course, Mickelson opened with a 63 and went on to win the individual title. Rudolph finished runner-up. They turned professional weeks later, and that’s where their paths diverged. Mickelson, of course, became a star, winning six majors, including this year’s PGA Championship at the age of 50, and is a Hall of Famer. Rudolph, after seven frustrating years of never gaining status on the PGA Tour, left the game in 1999.

“I was constantly qualifying for my job, and that just wore me out at the end of the day. It just kind of wore me out emotionally,” said Rudolph, who played in Canada, Asia, Australia, South America, plus mini-tours and some Korn Ferry Tour events. But he never made it to the PGA Tour, once missing out by a single stroke. 

Rudolph got married, had two children, worked in the family restaurant – which he eventually bought from his parents – and not only stopped playing golf but stopped caring about it or paying attention to it. He knew that another California native of note, Tiger Woods, was taking golf by storm but that’s about all he knew.

“When I quit, I quit. I didn't watch golf. I didn't read about golf. I didn't play golf,” Rudolph said. “I was done with it. It was kind of when Tiger [Woods] was really taking off, and honestly, I didn't really watch Tiger play a whole lot because I wasn't watching any golf to the point where I didn't recognize a lot of guys' names that were on the Tour.

“One time Stephen Ames came into our restaurant with his coach,” he continued. “I probably shouldn't admit it, but … I knew he was a golfer, and I made some dumb comment like ‘So are you out there playing any Tour this year? And I didn't realize that the previous year he had won The Players Championship. And I'm asking him if he's got any eligibility on Tour. That's how far out of the game I was that I didn't even know.”

In late 2008, after several times contemplating whether he should seek to regain his amateur status, he played some golf with longtime pro Gary Hallberg, himself a decorated collegiate player, and got waxed in one of their matches.

“That night I went home and submitted the reinstate amateur button and just decided to start playing for fun,” he said, “which kind of got me back into the game and just enjoying the game a little bit, got me back into competition.”

Which led to him qualifying for the 2010 U.S. Amateur at Chambers Bay, where he advanced to match play, losing to current PGA Tour pro Hudson Swafford in 19 holes in the Round of 64. But he couldn’t keep the amateur flame alive, not with a restaurant to run and kids to raise. His list of responsibilities at the coffee shop run the gamut, from “general manager, boss, managing every aspect from inventory, hiring, firing, payroll, you name it, banking, everything. I did it all,” he said. “Customer complaints, customer compliments, cash register, taking money, everything. So that was my job.”

As he approached 50, however, the itch to compete was still there. A lot of his game was, too. So he started preparing for the PGA Tour Champions and did well enough in Q-School to where he is eligible for Monday qualifiers. He hasn’t gotten through yet, so the U.S. Senior Open will be his first official start in a senior event.

Guess who has helped him along the way in preparing for this week? A certain talented left-hander, who on Tuesday was playing in a made-for-television event in Montana with Bryson DeChambeau and a pair of NFL quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers and is skipping the U.S. Senior Open as he continues to play almost exclusively on the PGA Tour. Mickelson and Rudolph have become occasional golf partners at home in San Diego. No report on if they play for tees still.

“He and I have had a good relationship,” Rudolph said of Mickelson. “Back then it was a rivalry, and now we play a lot of golf together at home, so he's helped me with my game. Just getting out there and playing with him and competing against him.”

Rudolph played a practice round on Tuesday with his former teammate, Furyk, who is one of the pre-championship favorites. On Monday, he reconnected with another former college peer, Mike Weir (BYU), for a practice round, and he has seen plenty of other players who he grew up competing against. But he is not in Omaha for a reunion tour or for hitting and giggling and “aw shucks” moments.

His goal? “To play with Jim Furyk on Sunday afternoon,” he said flatly.

Realistic? “I think it's realistic. I could play with him.”

“It was great to see him catch up,” said Furyk, who has kept in touch with Rudolph through the years. “He's always been a fun, happy-go-lucky, kind of like that California surfer kid. Nothing really seems to bother him too much. So, it's always fun to be around Harry.”

Though he hasn’t had much championship experience since the U.S. Amateur, Rudolph said he hasn’t lost his understanding for the game. “You've got to block everything out,” he said. “It's not like I forgot how to play, even though I was away for a while.”

Then there’s his job, which he said is quite a bit like competitive golf.

“The number one thing in the restaurant business is, I'd say, work ethic. It's very much like golf in the aspect that it just never ends,” Rudolph explained. “You could have the best day ever in sales in any restaurant, and you still have to open up the next day and be ready to go again. In golf, you could shoot 62, and tomorrow it doesn't matter. You've got to go out and perform the next day. So, there's a lot of parallels in terms of that.”

While getting tips on the golf course from his former rival, Rudolph hasn’t gotten many running a restaurant; he said he would give them to his staff if he did. When he was asked about the biggest tip he might have received while working at his restaurant, that familiar name came up yet again.

“That's probably Mickelson-related, when he would come in,” Rudolph said. “He was a very popular customer with the waitresses when he would come in. I didn't get any tips.”

But he has that photo of the two of them on the wall of his establishment. And Rudolph is the one holding the bigger trophy. It’s not a green jacket or a Claret Jug, but it’s still something. It’s a small kernel of validation, and once earned, it never fades away.

Dave Shedloski is an Ohio-based writer who frequently contributes to USGA websites.