Iowa Dentist in The McGladrey Team Championship Goes the Distance

PINEHURST, N.C. -- Dr. Joe Bates, a dentist from Albia, Iowa, who carried a scratch handicap, didn't come home Thursday from the third McGladrey Team Championship with a trophy.

In fact, he and his teammates -- captained by PGA Professional Darin Fisher and representing the Iowa PGA Section -- really didn't have a good chance at a top finish in the grassroots best-ball championship conducted by The PGA of America.

The problem was that Bates and amateur teammates Kevin Pickerell, 33, and Jim Campbell, 59, came into Pinehurst Resort as having too many strong handicaps in an event where higher handicaps are a team's salvation and ignition.

Bates carried a 1.4 handicap, Campbell, a part-owner of Albia Country Club, had a 4.4 and Pickerell, a computer components sales manager, played at scratch. That made them one of the two lowest overall handicapped units in the 41-team field at Pinehurst. They finished tied for 20th at 26-under-par 406.

The threesome are all Albia Country Club champions and finished 1-2-3 in this year's club championship that was two days prior to the Section Championship.

"The story I heard was that Jim played the best, it was Joe's to win and Kevin ended up with the trophy," said Fisher, the PGA head professional at The Preserve at Rathbun Lake in Moravia, Iowa.

Despite the tough scoring challenge and trying to get used to Bermuda grass on Pinehurst's greens, the good doctor wore a big smile on his face for other reasons.

A week earlier, Bates had completed a greater team mission.

The 44-year-old Creighton University graduate had barely 48 hours to catch his breath for a trip to Pinehurst after having spent two weeks in China as part of a goodwill medical mission.

Since 2007, Bates and nine other dentists from around the country traveled to China to administer free dental care to underprivileged children and adults. The dentists are joined by a plastic surgeon and two hygienists, and reach into their own pockets for the trip.

"It is truly a great experience and it has taken on a life of its own," said Bates. "I had taught oral surgery with a dentist from near Salt Lake City, Utah -- Dr. Karl Koerner -- and he had completed a mission in Taiwan.

He made the arrangements in 2007 for us to make the trip to China. We set out in March 2007 to Suqian [pronounced Soo-shin], a city of about four million. We returned in May 2008 and made our third trip this month."

Bates and his dental comrades left noon on a Friday and arrived in China on Sunday afternoon. From Iowa, it was an eight-hour trip to Los Angeles, followed by a 13-hour flight to Beijing.

One stretches the legs in Beijing before boarding a 1½-hour flight to Nanjing, from where there is a three-hour bus ride to the heartland of the country and Suquian.

"You don't recognize much except Coke and Pepsi," said Bates. "You remember to drink bottled water and you will have no trouble."

The dentists set up shop in a dental hospital that Bates said has few modern conveniences compared to his facility in Iowa.

"We saw kids in an orphanage from middle school to teenagers, and a few adults. We brought our own supplies and instruments, and we would also spend time teaching Chinese dentists our methods. We developed a good rapport and some good relationships. They treated us very well and to be politically correct, I took care of the mayor. I filled a couple fillings for him."

The Chinese threw a banquet for the dentists, hailing them as "American dental experts."

Bates said that he has a deep appreciation of the American way of life after his three Chinese missions of mercy.

"We have it pretty good here, and our medical standards are extremely ahead of China. It is great that we have had medical and dental companies donate some supplies for the trip. What we can't receive, we bring from our own offices."

As The McGladrey Team Championship concluded, Bates said that he would remember a year in which teamwork in golf reflected much about what takes place in his life and career.

The teams were able to mix with "Team McGladrey" celebrities Natalie Gulbis, Zach Johnson and Chris DiMarco during Monday's first round. Johnson, a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, tied with two others for the title in the rain-shortened 1998 Albia Pro-Am. It was Johnson's first professional victory.

"We had great camaraderie here at Pinehurst; we made new friends and everything was first-class from Pinehurst to The PGA to McGladrey," he said. "We caught up with Zach Johnson at the Sunday reception, and he recognized Jim Campbell right away, which made Jim's week. Jim has run the Albia Pro-Am for 40 years.

"You know, we would have all had to shoot in the 60s to make any impact on the scoreboard. But, how many amateurs can say that they played in a national championship?"

For Doctor Joe, there's another unofficial "trophy" resting on a mantle in his office. He's one of the few golfers in the world who can say that they made a difference in someone's life in China.