Ryan Bingham doesn’t have much on Mark Dusbabek.
Bingham was the fictional character played by George Clooney in the 2009 movie “Up in the Air.” Bingham spent years flying to various cities where he informed workers their services were no longer needed—because the company brass didn’t have the guts to do it themselves.
Dusbabek, the Faribault native and former Gophers and Vikings defensive player, turns 50 today and he chuckled last week when a stranger compared his life with Bingham’s. It’s not that Dusbabek’s job is to terminate employees; the similarity is perpetual travel.
Today Dusbabek will travel from Hartford to Los Angeles on a plane, a place where he is more than comfortable. The Las Vegas resident spends 30 weeks a year travelling in the United States and internationally as a PGA Tour rules official.
He enjoys the nomadic life and offered no complaints about experiencing his birthday on the road. After his pro football career ended in the early 1990s he worked in finance but golf was never far from his mind. He wanted a job change and told Sports Headliners, “I always loved golf.”
So much so that Dusbabek wanted to develop a career in the sport. He didn’t expect a high paying opportunity to be handed to him, and it wasn’t. He spent a year as an unpaid volunteer working for the Southern California Golf Association.
Then came the opportunity to become a PGA Tour rules official. Dusbabek might spell opportunity in all capital letters. There are only 11 PGA rules officials and he earns a “comfortable salary” travelling to some of the most famous golf courses in the world.
How rare are openings for rules officials? “When people retire or die,” said Dusbabek who is now in his ninth year as a rules official.
The job title of rules official partially explains Dusbabek’s responsibilities. “Rules are probably about 10 percent of what I do,” he said. In addition to making sure tournament players know and adhere to rules, he assesses golf courses, works with tournament partners and sponsors, and may even “set holes one day.”
The PGA schedule starts in January and goes into December. That’s a lot of 14 to 16 hour days and doesn’t leave much time for Dusbabek to even play golf (seven handicap), or see his college-age daughter in California. But that schedule might take his mind off the aches and pains from his football career.
“I’ve had 17 surgeries. It gets a little worse every year,” Dusbabek said.
His career with the Gophers included two seasons playing for coach Lou Holtz in 1984 and 1985. The two reconnected several years ago and Dusbabek learned Holtz cared enough about him to be knowledgeable about his former player’s life.
Dusbabek, who has worked tournaments like the Masters and U.S. Open, admires Gophers coach Jerry Kill. Dusbabek is passionate about the best high school football players deciding to attend the University of Minnesota instead of going away to school. “It sounds great (leaving home) but what are you going to do afterword?” he asked while referring to the job opportunities in Minneapolis awaiting University of Minnesota graduates.
It’s going to take commitments by the state’s best players to turn the Gophers into a special program. Dusbabek knows too many of the elite players have left the state since his time at Minnesota. “Quite frankly, it pisses me off,” he said.
Worth Noting
When the Twins swept the White Sox yesterday it was their first four-game sweep since June 2-5, 2011 against the Royals. The Twins won 6-5 as Joe Mauer drove in two runs and had back-to-back RBI games for the first time this season.
Starting and winning pitcher Phil Hughes, now 8-3, lasted five innings and gave up five earned runs. Coming into the game the Twins’ collective ERA of 2.71 for starting pitchers was the fifth lowest in the American League since June 9.
Note on the Target Field message board during Saturday’s game: If Mauer, the Twins $23 million hometown first baseman, wasn’t in baseball he would pursue a career as a carpenter.
Message board note No 2: White Sox first baseman and slugger Adam Dunn had a cameo role as a bartender in the acclaimed movie “Dallas Buyers Club.”
Former Gophers defensive back Brock Vereen wasn’t selected until the fourth round of the 2014 NFL Draft but there’s speculation he could become a starting safety next season for the Bears. ESPN.com reported last Thursday the Bears like what “they have seen from rookie safety Brock Vereen,” and that he’s been takings reps with the first team defense.
The June 23 issue of Sports Illustrated includes a story on the Big Ten with disclosure the 12 existing league members will each receive $44.5 million in annual revenue starting in 2017-2018—“Up from an already national-best $25.7 million last year, with TV accounting for a whopping $33 million of that.” Maryland and Rutgers, new members later this summer, won’t receive full shares until 2020-2021, the magazine said.
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