William McGirt turned pro in 2004 and after years of playing mini-tour after mini-tour and then the Web.com Tour for a bit he finally made it to the big show, the PGA Tour in 2011. He’s 36 and kept at it a long time when others would have thrown in the towel.
Coming into The Memorial he had played in played in 164 events with just 14 top tens and no wins. He did scratch out a fair living though averaging around a million dollars in earning per year the past five years.
That’s all different now.
Now, McGirt is The Memorial Champion and his life has changed in a very big way.
He started the day tied with Matt Kuchar and Gary Woodland, a big name and a big hitter. And other big guns made a run at McGirt over Jack Nicklaus’ paradise.
Dustin Johnson had a share of the lead but four bogeys on the back nine did him in. Rory McIlroy made a run but ran out of holes. Jason Day was only three off the lead at the start but imploded.
Kuchar stumbled in a bunker and went four over par in four holes on the back and never recovered. And Woodland who failed to use his power, hitting irons off some tees even topped one like a 20 handicapper.
That left the unheralded Jon Curran who shot a two under 34 on the front and scratched out a clutch birdie at seventeen to pull even with McGirt and force a playoff.
So while all the big names went packing these two “no-names” headed to eighteen to decide who would earn their first PGA Tour win.
A pair of pars on the first trip forced them to play it again. And McGirt’s clutch up and down from the rough behind the green gave him a par to Curran’s bogey.
And with that his odyssey that last saw him win on the Tar Hill Tour in 2007 ends and a new chapter in his life begins.
Along with the $1.5 million check he gets entry into next years Masters and this year’s U. S. Open (he hadn’t qualified) and the PGA Championship. And as the PGA Tour recognizes that The Memorial is a step above the regular tour events he earns a three year exemption to the PGA Tour, not the usual two years.
He could have given up as he took those long car rides to the mini tour events that barely paid enough to cover the travel. But he didn’t.
“Many times. I mean, I wondered for years if I would ever get to the PGA Tour, and then once you get out here, okay, you’ve played 160 events. Are you ever going to win? You’ve put yourself in position a couple of times. But I think you have to get your nose bloodied some to learn how to handle it, and I definitely had my nose bloodied a few times.
I mean, there were times when I would play a mini tour event, finish Saturday or Sunday, drive all the way to a Monday qualifier. If I didn’t get in, which I never did, turn around and drive back and play a mini tour event the next day.
Sarah was with me. We went to Boston to try the Monday qualifier for Deutsche Bank. We drove straight back, and I played a mini tour event that week.”
Asked why he kept doing it he was blunt.
“Because I’m crazy. We’re all nuts. We play this game. We chase a little ball around the grass and do it 18 times. We’re all nuts.
No, I kept doing it because this was my ultimate dream was to get on the PGA Tour and try to win on the PGA Tour. The other thing was I didn’t know what else I was going to do.”
He doesn’t have to worry about what he’s going to do next. He’s taking a week off and then playing in the U.S. Open. And then a few more and then the PGA. And next April he’ll be at Augusta.
Life just got a little bit better for William McGirt.
McGirt’s son is giving Dash Day a run for cutest kid on tour.
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