At 41 years old, with about half his life spent playing golf for money and precisely one victory in 408 PGA Tour sanctioned starts, Spencer Levin is often referred to as a “companion”.
But in reality, he is an “ordinary man”.
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He doesn’t go far. He waged war with his flatstick and tinkered with his move by adopting a technique used by Merry Gilmore. In his PGA Tour biography, he lists his greatest pleasure as “making a putt.” Levin has a sense of humor. He also has character. One day he overturned his own golf bag javelin throw the flag on it.
In summary: Tour pros are not much more accessible. And yet, 20 years after turning professional, Levin continues to do things the rest of us can’t do.
Saturday for example, during the third round Q-School FinalsLevin went lower than anyone in the field, shooting a 7-under 63 at Sawgrass Country Club in Ponte Vedra Beach to give himself a chance to regain something he hasn’t had since the end of the 2017 season: a PGA Tour card. Levin’s torrid score, highlighted by five consecutive birdies on the back nine (his first nine of the day), left him at 9 under for the week and tied for sixth, two shots behind co-leaders Ben Kohles and Marcelo Rozo, heading into Sunday’s final round. Only the top five will earn full PGA Tour status – a change from previous seasons where the top five and ties were successful.
The calculation is different this time.
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The pressure, however, is familiar to Levin, who reached the Q School finals in 2022 and 2023 and has been working in the game since many of his classmates were wearing diapers.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” Levin said Saturday. “I’ve kind of seen every scenario that’s out there. What you learn is there are no secrets. You just have to go out tomorrow, execute and play well. And that’s it.”
Easier said than done. But Levin managed to do it often.
A native of Elk Grove, California, Levin played baseball as a child but took up golf seriously at age 13, inspired by Tiger Woods’ victory at the 1997 Masters. By PGA Tour standards, his swing was never a study in mechanical perfection. But he has long been accurate off the tee and was known early on as a blind putter. A two-time All-American at the University of Mexico, Levin turned professional in 2005, a year after finishing T-13 and winning amateur-level honors at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.
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In the 20 years since, he has raked in more than $9 million in career earnings and notched a victory on the Korn Ferry Tour at the 2023 Veritex Bank Championship. But he never won on the PGA Tour and went five years without breaking through on the game’s top tour. When he finally ended that drought, he did so in memorable fashion, playing the weekend at the Shriners Open 2022 with a split hand straight out of Happy Gilmore, with his right hockey stick low on the club.
Levin will need his putter to work on Sunday, among other clubs in his bag. The ranking is grouped, with two shots separating 11 players. Levin is the oldest of the contenders, and he has seen the most, for better and for worse.
Everyone or not, a good Sunday could still change everything for him.
The position Cult hero has chance to get his PGA Tour card back appeared first on Golf.
