Seattle’s Jeff Gove has been riding the roller coaster of life on the fringes of the PGA Tour for almost 20 years — and he’s not about to get off.
By Bob Sherwin
Three years ago, Seattle’s Jeff Gove lost his PGA Tour card, having missed the cut in 17 of the 22 tournaments he entered and made just $92,155 in prize money, barely covering expenses. At age 39, the married father of three was peering over the edge of his competitive career. In order to earn his card back, he’d need to return to the Nationwide Tour, golf’s secondary circuit, to play among a mixture of promising 20-somethings and veteran grinders seeking restored glory.
Once again, he was relegated to the back of the line.
“When I lost my card in 2010, I was disappointed in myself. I thought I may never play (the Tour) again,’’ says Gove, who grew up in Kenmore and still has plenty of extended family living in the Seattle area. “There are not many spots available and no one wants to give up his job.’’
Nor were there many golfers at his age willing to endure the qualifying process again, especially after having been in this position before, repeatedly. It started in 1994, when Gove turned professional and played on the Nationwide (now the Web.com Tour) for five years before earning his PGA Tour card in 2000.
That lasted one year — then, it was down and up for the next decade. He played on the Nationwide in 2001. The PGA Tour in 2002. The Nationwide in 2003-05. The PGA in 2006-2008. The Nationwide in 2009 and the PGA in 2010.
Despite facing more crossroads than winning putts in his near 20-year professional career, Gove was undeterred. He made the decision to return to the secondary tour for a fifth time, playing in places such as Panama City, Fla., Valdosta, Ga., and Newburgh, Ind., in front of a few hundred, for a few thousand. His wife, and three children all under 8 years old, stayed behind in San Marcos, Calif.
“As long as I feel competitive, [I’ll continue], Gove says. “I’m healthy. I have great support at home. My family wants me to keep doing it. Every year, at the end of the year, I ask myself, ‘Am I getting better? Do I enjoy what’s going on? I don’t have a five-year plan, just year-to-year.”
But his two seasons on the Web.com were not as fruitful as he had hoped. He failed to make enough money to automatically qualify for his PGA Tour card. So, he took another route, playing in the final year of the PGA Tour’s Q School qualifying format last December at PGA West in Palm Desert. He rallied over his final two of six rounds to finish in a tie for 10th at 21-under par, and earn one of 25 Tour cards for the 2013 season.
“He’s a marvelous player, a fabulous ball-striker,” says Mike Gove, Jeff’s uncle, former PGA Tour player and the head pro at Inglewood Country Club. “He played well in qualifying school. He turned it around in his fifth round when things were not going his way and finished strong. Then he played fabulous down the stretch in his sixth round.”