Derek Lowe grew up just west of Detroit in Dearborn, Michigan. In high school, he played every team sport he could, including baseball, basketball, soccer, and golf. At 6’6” in his senior year, his first love was basketball, so much so that Eastern Michigan offered him a full basketball scholarship. He had won only two games in high school as a pitcher, but in 1991 the Seattle Mariners drafted him in the 8th round to play baseball. It was the beginning of a 17-year career in major league baseball. He got his first major league win in his Detroit in front of a hometown crowd in June of 1997, ironically Jason Varitek was his battery mate at the time.
You would have had to be living under a rock to not get wrapped up in the amazing Boston Red Sox World Series win in 2004. For 86 years, the so-called “Curse”, had plagued this team and left fans in despair year after year. While there were so many great players on the 2004 Sox team of “idiots”, there was one player that no one expected to deliver in such a remarkable way. Not once, or even twice, but four times under the most pressure-packed circumstances any player had faced at any time in Red Sox history, Derek Lowe delivered. Former Red Sox All-Star pitcher Derek Lowe was the winning pitcher in the 2004 series-clinching victories over the Anaheim Angels in the ALDS, the New York Yankees in the ALCS, and the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. Lowe is the only pitcher in MLB history to be credited with the victory in three consecutive postseason series. Lowe was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2017.
Derek remembers growing up playing golf in Michigan with friends at a very young age. It was no surprise that he played on his high school golf team. He continued to play golf as often as he could in both the minor leagues and his major league career. He noted,” Being a pitcher meant I worked every 4 days so, there was a lot of time to play golf between starts. He said golf was the most difficult sport he had ever played and has always had a huge amount of respect for professional golfers who play week in and week out traveling with no guarantees unless they make the cut”. Naturally, with his love for the game, he began to focus more on golf once he retired from baseball in July of 2013.
Like many professional athletes today who play the game of golf, it’s competition and pressure that draws them to events. With so many celebrity events held today throughout the country, you can play as many as your schedule allows. For Derek, who has played at or below scratch for some years now, it was a natural transition and a great opportunity to compete at a high level. In 2017 at the American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe, CA, Lowe had the tournament lead after one round. But Mark Mulder, who has made a career out of winning celebrity events came back to win. Lowe finished tied for second in the event but was gaining great experience under pressure by playing in the events.
In 2022 at the Hilton Grand Vacations LPGA Tournament of Champions he carried a strong fourth round finish to a tie, with Golf Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam. On the first playoff hole, Derek pulled out the win for the $100,000 first-place purse. He will defend that championship next January at the 2023 Tournament of Champions, once again at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando, Florida. Later this month Derek will be playing in a new Pro-Am event in Las Vegas, hosted by LPGA Golfer Blair O’Neal. Life on the links seems to suit Derek well for the time being, and there is no doubt golf has become his passion after baseball.
While in Boston, Derek Lowe often played at Thorney Lea in Brockton, Massachusetts, and at member-guest events at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. He also spoke highly of the Old Sandwich Club, The International, The Boston Club, and other courses in the region. He currently plays out of The Club at Renaissance in Ft. Meyers Florida where he resides. In the summers he returns to his native Michigan.
Derek Lowe Handicap +2
*Fit at Club Champion
- Driver TaylorMade Stealth
- 3 Wood Titleist
- 2 Iron Callaway
- Irons EPON Forged
- Wedges Dell
- Putter Matt Kuchar Bettinardi
- Ball Titleist PRO V1
