When the water taxi from downtown Jacksonville to Timuquana Country Club for the PGA Tour Champions' Furyk & Friends tournament was halted due to high waves on the St. Johns River on Sunday, we should have known that the leaderboard was headed for a rocky ride.
Against the golfers were the conditions, blustery winds that showed no sign of relenting and threatening skies. In their favor were the conditions. Lift, clean, and place.
Matt Gogel was struggling to become successful as a golfer again after a career at Golf Channel. The legendary Vijay Singh, with his 34 PGA Tour titles, three majors, and five Champions Tour wins, was making a charge. Two Aussies, Cameron Percy and Brendan Jones, the latter in his first year on the PGA Tour Champions, worked their way up. And even David Duval, whose father was once a pro at Timuquana, was also on the leaderboard.
Then, there was Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey, who has been on and off every tour imaginable. But Sunday, in the challenging conditions, a short birdie putt at 12 and then a monster eagle putt on the 13th gave him the lead. He never let it go, adding one more to it at the 18th with a birdie.
“I finally won out here,” he said after the victory. “It's been a lot of pressure doing these Mondays because let's face it, these guys are still legends so they still can play.”
The turning point was the 13th hole.
“I thought I left it short,” he explained about the putt that changed his life. “I had a really great line on it, and I knew if it got to the hole, it was going in. Then I dropped to my knees and then it finally fell. So, it was like a God-answered prayer.”
He estimated that the putt was approximately 30 feet.
Gainey shot a 64 in the Monday qualifier to get one of the top three spots, which allowed him to enter the tournament. He explained what typically happens at them.
“You've got to figure that if you've got 40 or 50 or 60 players, you're going to have one or two guys go low,” he said. “So, you've got to shoot 6-under or better to have a chance at getting one of those three spots, and that ain't easy.”
He said his goal was to play well enough to get into the top 10 this week because that would allow him to play next week at the SAS.
“That was the No. 1 goal,” he said. “It's always to win, but just me doing all these Mondays and having no status, I mean, I've got to take it as it comes. I've got to be really on my game if I'm going to compete out here because these guys can still play.”
Gainey said his victory was about reaching your dreams.
“It's all about hard work paying off. I mean, if you've got dreams, go for it,” he advised.