{{ubiquityData.prevArticle.description}}
{{ubiquityData.nextArticle.description}}
By Ron Green Jr.
As life curveballs go, Brett Quigley is dealing with a good one.
He played 14 largely successful seasons on the PGA Tour, finishing in the top 25 approximately 20 percent of the time and winning more than $11 million before segueing into a nice part-time career as an analyst on Fox Sports golf telecasts.
When he’s not playing golf, of course. Because that’s what the Quigleys do. They play golf. Every day.
But Quigley’s career distinction is that he played 408 PGA Tour events and never won one.
In that regard, Quigley’s record is unmatched.
Now that he’s 50, Quigley needed exactly two starts on the PGA Tour Champions to do what he never did on the regular tour. He won the Morocco Champions in February, instantly transforming himself from a non-exempt player into one with a suddenly clear career path.
From 0-for-408 to 1-for-2.
And now the coronavirus pandemic has brought an extended pause, sidelining Quigley (and everyone else) after he posted three top-10s in four starts this season. Having finally captured something he has chased most of his life, Quigley has been put in time out.
“I’ve waited this long so it’s no big deal. I can wait another six months if I have to,” he said.
Quigley is a native of Barrington, R.I., where he grew up playing with his uncle, Dana Quigley – the longtime club pro who struck gold on the Champions tour starting in the late 1990s – and his friend Brad Faxon. Now he spends his down time at home in South Florida, still getting up every morning to hit balls, play or do both, because that’s what Quigleys do.
“The last three weeks on the Champions tour people were texting me saying I was having too much fun even after I made a bogey. I feel like I’ve hit the lottery. I’m doing something I love and competing against the best players in the world. Why should I contain it? I’m smiling just thinking about it.”
BRETT QUIGLEY
“He’s a complete grinder and he has fun doing it,” said Faxon, who lives nearby and still plays regularly with Quigley. “He’s not a guy who does it for a job. He does it because he loves the game.”
It’s tempting to say the game didn’t love Quigley back for the longest time because he never held a PGA Tour trophy but he doesn’t see it that way. He loved playing the tour and though he spent several years dealing with injuries and having no tour on which to play while approaching 50, Quigley made certain he was ready when he hit one of golf’s magic numbers last August.
Mentally. Physically. Emotionally.
Quigley tried to check all of those boxes in advance of his 50th birthday. Unlike others, he didn’t have an automatic spot on the PGA Tour Champions circuit. With little status – he got into the Morocco field by virtue of his place on the PGA Tour’s all-time money list when several top players opted not to play – Quigley was prepared to qualify or rely on sponsor exemptions.
All of that changed one weekend on the northwest edge of Africa.
“I felt like I had a decent career on the PGA Tour,” said Quigley, who finished second five times. “I don’t know if underachiever is right but I felt I could have accomplished more.
“I took a hard look at what held me back and the thing that kept coming up was I was just too hard on myself. I don’t know if toughen up or let go is the right word. I just had to not be as hard on myself.”
Faxon saw it.
“He knew he was his own worst enemy at times,” Faxon said.
Age brings perspective but so does having two young daughters and an inside-the-ropes view of the best in the world trying to win the U.S. Open. Both helped Quigley.
His daughters are 11 and 12 years old.
“I’m not reacting to every little thing they do, whether it’s spilling water or whatever,” Quigley said. “I’m learning not to react (negatively) to what frustrates me and using that in golf.”
Quigley is not the first pro golfer to find illumination by stepping away from competition and watching it from a TV analyst’s perspective.
“The big thing for me was to not put my head down after a bad shot,” he said. “If a guy I’m watching makes a bad swing or makes a double, don’t compound it.
“Watching from the outside, you learn that you have to remember that you’re still playing well, you can keep doing this. Internally, I’d say to myself, ‘You made a double, now you can’t win,’ instead of thinking I still have six more holes to go or two more days. You see it’s not the end of the world when you mess up.”
From the time Quigley boarded the plane to Morocco, he felt a sense of calm. He needed a top-10 finish to get into the next event and knew he had been playing well at home.
It’s different in competition but for reasons Quigley still can’t explain, he felt comfortable. Maybe it was being an ocean away from home that eased the pressure. Maybe it was just his time.
Starting the final round three strokes behind leader Stephen Ames, Quigley figured he would need a fast start to have a chance of winning. What he hadn’t counted on was a little extra inspiration before he teed off.
“Stephen Ames on the first tee on Sunday had a three-shot lead and said to Brett if you have a top-10, you get in the next tournament,” Faxon said. “Under his breath, (Quigley) said, ‘Top-10? I’m going to kick your ass.'
“Brett was 5-under par through seven and he had a three-shot lead.”
On the finishing hole, needing two putts to win, Faxon said Ames told Quigley, “Now it’s up to you.”
Quigley holed a 5-footer to win and was congratulated by about 10 of his friends on the 18th green. Inside the clubhouse, another 20 or so players were waiting for Quigley.
The joy and satisfaction have remained even as Quigley has adjusted to not having tournament golf for the foreseeable future. As he said, he waited this long, he can wait a few more months if necessary.
“The last three weeks on the Champions tour people were texting me saying I was having too much fun even after I made a bogey,” Quigley said. “I feel like I’ve hit the lottery. I’m doing something I love and competing against the best players in the world.
“Why should I contain it? I’m smiling just thinking about it.”
E-Mail Ron