Flying High: Qualifying Pilot Married To Shuttle Commander

By Ken Klavon, USGA

Ardmore, Pa. – Pat Youngs may be the only husband in America that can tell his wife she’s a little spacey and get away with it.

After all, he’d be right.

	Pat Youngs watches a drive during his first round of stroke-play qualifying Monday at Merion Golf Club. (John Mummert/USGA)

Youngs, who shot a 6-over 76 at Merion Golf Club Monday, is married to Eileen Collins, the crew commander on the recent Discovery Shuttle STS-114 that went on a space mission. It launched July 26 and landed on Aug. 9. It makes for an interesting marriage since Youngs graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1980 and has been a commercial airline pilot the past 18 years.

"It’s kind of fun to talk shop instead of ‘How was your day?’" said the 47-year-old League City, Texas, native.

The two met 22 years ago in a flying squadron in the Air Force at Travis Air Base in northern California. They were married 18 years ago on Aug. 1, which coincidentally was the day this year Youngs was trying to qualify for his third U.S. Amateur at Deerwood Club in Houston, Texas.

Collins, in the meantime, was in orbit.

"There was no card, nothing," joked Youngs. He added that Collins normally receives a $1.50 per diem per day for food while on a mission and told her to save the money for a lavish anniversary dinner when she got back to Earth.

Had his qualifier been scheduled on the same day of the launch, Youngs would have had a decision to make. To him, it would have been a no-brainer. He’d be at the Kennedy Space Center to support his wife, like he was on July 26. However, as Collins and her crew were busy orbiting and testing new techniques to make space shuttles safer, Youngs was absorbed in trying to earn medalist honors at Deerwood Club, which he did, with a 145. Afterward he sent her an e-mail to let her know he had qualified using ellipsis to spare her the details.

The communication is far more advanced than her first mission in 1995, in which Youngs corresponded via fax when he was playing in the Deerwood Open. His fax would go through NASA, which would then forward on to her. While orbiting on this mission she’d e-mail Youngs back, and not necessarily with classified information.

"She said, ‘Hey, everyone is doing a great job here. Things are fine.’ Then, ‘Be sure to tell Bridget to brush her teeth and tell Luke not to hit his sister.’ She was still being a mother," laughed Youngs in reference to his 9-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son.

In all, the 48-year-old Collins has been on four missions and went down in history as the first woman to pilot a space shuttle in 1995. A commander on her last mission in ’99, Collins and crew were responsible for taking up the Chandra X-Ray telescope, which is used for discovery purposes. Collins became an astronaut in ’91 after NASA sought her out a year earlier. This past January she retired from the Air Force with the rank of Lt. Col.

A lover of golf, Collins took the ball Youngs scored a hole-in-one with on the ’95 assignment. He said that they try to play as often as they can, noting that sometimes it’s difficult if she’s chosen for a mission because of the one-year training regimen she must entail. But when on vacation, they’ll splurge to play if need be.

With the American flag as a backdrop on the 18th hole, Pat Youngs strikes his approach shot. (John Mummert/USGA)

Since the Discovery Shuttle STS-114 landed safely, Young said his wife has been going through debriefings and post-flight check-ups. It’s been a long time coming because she had been picked four years ago to lead the operation. But more than 20 launch delays, some of which were tangential to the space shuttle Columbia tragedy in 2003, had been announced.

"There’s no doubt it’s in the back of your mind," said Youngs when asked whether he worries about a similar calamity ever happening. "You’re aware of it. It’s a risk we both take."

He lamented that he wished she could have been with him during the Amateur, but he understands.

As for the task at hand, like getting the opportunity to play Merion? Two double bogeys and five bogeys against three birdies couldn’t spoil his day.

"It’s an awesome experience," he said. "It’s so rich in history."

He gushed how much it meant to see Ben Hogan’s marker on the 18^th fairway, the one that signified his incredible 1-iron approach shot in the 1950 U.S. Open.

"Pretty good drive for me. Put it right by Hogan’s marker," he beamed.

When he tells his wife, the bet here is that this time he won’t have to use ellipsis.

Ken Klavon is the USGA’s web editor. E-mail him with questions or comments at kklavon@usga.org.