CONTRIBUTED PHOTO - Marshalltown resident Mike Wagner, right, poses for a photograph with PGA Tour professional golfer Rory McIlroy following their round at the Wells Fargo Championship Pro-Am on Wednesday at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C.

At the beginning of March, Marshalltown native and American Legion Memorial Golf Course member Michael Wagner could barely raise his left arm to shoulder level.

Two months later, he was at Quail Hollow Golf Course in Charlotte, N.C., competing alongside Rory McIlroy.

Wagner was afforded the opportunity to play in the Wells Fargo Championship Pro-Am last Wednesday, where he was paired with the multi-time Major Championship winner from Northern Ireland. He held his own as well, shooting a 6-over-par 77. Considering where he was just seven months ago, even swinging a golf club was a surprise to Wagner.

“I had shoulder surgery at the end of November. I had a deposit removed and had my shoulder scoped and I had Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, all at the same time,” he said.

Wagner had worked with a physical therapist after his surgery, but he hadn’t progressed enough to where he could golf at the Legion, let alone alongside a PGA Tour winner.

“This was in the middle of March that these decisions were being made for the Pro-Am, and I could get my arm to about here,” Wagner said, raising his arm to just under shoulder level. “I was thinking, ‘I can’t do this, I am in pain, I can’t go any higher.’ My wife and family told me, ‘you cannot pass up this opportunity.’

“I had to go into the doctor and say, ‘listen, I’m gonna play no matter what,’ so we got with the physical therapist and changed it up a little bit,” he continued. “We went through a different plan to get me up to having full rotation. I was as ready as I could be. I’m a 3-handicap, I was thinking, ‘I’m probably going to play to a 15 or something if I can’t get above shoulder height.'”

Wagner even getting the opportunity to compete at the Pro-Am was a stroke of luck. His business, SPX Flow, is based in Charlotte and sponsors the Wells Fargo Championship, and Wagner said he was presented with some news from high up in the company brass.

“Our president, Dwight Gibson, reached out to our group and asked if any of us would be interested in playing. There was about three or four of us that said we would be interested, and he said he was only looking for one spot,” Wagner said. “He was looking for a high performer, and I’m pretty good, I’m a 3-handicap, but we also have my counterpart in Florida who actually used to caddie on the LPGA Tour.

“It came down to him or me, but they have two pro-ams that week, one on Monday and one on Wednesday. The other man could make the Monday one but couldn’t make the Wednesday one, so when we asked our president what day it was and he said, ‘Wednesday,’ the other guy said, ‘I’m out,’ and then of course I got the email that said, ‘Mike, you’re in.'”

Not only was Wagner’s opportunity to play a fortunate one, the pairing with McIlroy was also a bit of serendipity. He said in these Pro-Ams, the amateur groups get together for a nice dinner and have a draft of sorts to pick their players, but he and playing partner Cole Isban were given a special advantage.

“I got ahold of [Isban] and he basically informed me that we didn’t need to go to the draft. I asked him why and he said, ‘well, we already have our player,'” Wagner said. “I asked who it was, and he says the tournament director called them a week before and said, ‘you’re a twosome, you’re the only twosome in the entire field and we have a player who has a special guest they are bringing. Can we pair you guys together?’ My partner says sure, why not, who’s the player? The player was Rory McIlroy.

“I about fell off the chair when he told me that. Cole said he screamed like a 15-year old.”

Even with the knowledge of who their partner was, Wagner said they still attended the draft to rub elbows with some elite company.

“We walk into the party and we are at table 20. Sitting next to us is Ron Rivera, head coach of the Carolina Panthers; John Fox, the former coach of the Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos and Chicago Bears; and Felix Sabates, partner in Chip Ganassi Racing,” Wagner said. “It’s like the NFL draft, so they announce the first pick goes to table 20, and it says ‘Cole Isban, Jeff Rhodes — who was Rory’s special guest — and Michael Wagner.’

“They come over to us and everyone is looking at us like, ‘who the heck are these guys?’ I tell Cole he has to announce it because we was going to tick off everyone in the room, so he goes over and goes, ‘Rory,’ and the whole crowd just loses it. I look over and John Fox and Ron Rivera are giving us that look, but it was funny because they didn’t even get the second pick because there was another special group that was there.”

The day started incredibly early for Wagner, with his group’s tee time at 7 a.m., but he said even in the early morning it was an experience of a lifetime.

“Oh my gosh, it was amazing. It was absolutely amazing,” Wagner said. “We were the very first group to tee off at 7 a.m. and there was still a huge crowd there.”

At first, Wagner said McIlroy wasn’t the most interactive person on the course, but as the day went on he realized he was in a group that had some skills.

“He has done these hundreds of times, he’s been with every single golfing ability of people known to mankind, and once we played the first three holes, Cole birdies the first hole, I birdie the second hole and the third hole with handicap, and he kind of figured out, ‘oh my gosh, these guys are here to play!'” Wagner said. “He didn’t even warm up, I mean we were playing at 7, the sunrise doesn’t even come up until 6:30. We get to about hole four and he really starts to open up and he starts to talk and you start to be able to ask him questions.”

Wagner admitted he wasn’t as willing to ask McIlroy many tough questions, though he said Isban didn’t shy away from the touchy subjects like losing at the Masters. While McIlroy could have bristled at the subject, Wagner said he answered and was chummy throughout.

“There’s just so much you could go through, but most of it was just kind of like talking with your buddies going down the fairway,” he said. “We actually stopped at one point, just he and I, because I kind of have a little flaw in my swing where I slide my hips a little bit, and he stopped me and gave me a couple of tips. He goes, ‘you and my dad have the exact same problem,’ and his dad was actually walking around with us. Me just turning 50 at the end of April and him just turning 30 on Saturday, I kind of talked more with his dad than I did anything else. It was fun to be like, ‘hey dad, the boy here is throwing some jabs at you about your swing.'”

There were two takeaways Wagner said he had from the experience, the first was seeing what players like McIlroy and other big names on the PGA Tour go through in their everyday life.

“From walking from the practice green to the very first tee, there are people lined up on those ropes asking for autographs,” he said. “In between every single hole, people are asking him for autographs or wanting him to give them a high-five, which he did. He was consistent in how he would tell them that he’s signing after the round, and it’s just he attention that he gets and having do deal with that.

“Also having the inside path, walking in between the ropes, you see how hard these guys actually work. After a round, all the players are still out there grinding away. We walk over to a chipping area and you see all the players just practicing and grinding away. You name it, I saw them. For me, you always want to get better as a weekend hacker, but to get better you see what these guys do and I think, ‘I need to put in more effort.'”

Almost more important, Wagner said, was the opportunity to see McIlroy as more than just the great golfer he is.

“Watching him as a golfer was great, but getting to know him as a person, getting to know his family, learning his interests and charity work outside of the game, that made me a fan for life,” Wagner said.