In the 2013 Walker Cup at National Golf Links, Bobby Wyatt was the man of the match.
He earned a team-leading three and a half points for the Americans in their runaway victory, being relied upon more than teammates Justin Thomas, Max Homa, Michael Kim and Patrick Rodgers. Those four players have gone on to combine for 17 wins in 650 starts on the PGA Tour, the oldest of the foursome, Homa, having just turned 30 last year.
Wyatt, to the surprise of many, never found his footing in the professional game like those others did. The Mobile, Alabama, native looked every bit the part of a future star all throughout his amateur career – shooting a 57 in the Alabama Boys State Junior Championship as a 17-year-old, winning the prestigious Sunnehanna Amateur in 2012, medaling in the 2012 U.S. Amateur, leading the Alabama Crimson Tide to two national championships, capturing the 2014 SEC Championship and ending his senior college campaign with first-team All-American honors.
There are no sure things in golf, but Thomas himself said he used to sit and watch Wyatt, his Alabama teammate, on the range as he hit five-yard draws on repeat.
Thomas reached No. 1 in the world and won a major within five years of leaving school. Wyatt’s time in professional golf ended three years ago.
“I just didn’t enjoy it the way you have to,” Wyatt, now 29, told Global Golf Post. “You have to eat, sleep and breathe it. It wasn’t that for me, unfortunately. … I knew it was over for me when you could have handed me a PGA Tour card and I wouldn’t have wanted it.”
Wyatt made 34 starts on the PGA Tour, holding full status for the 2016-17 season, but he quickly faded away from playing the game for a paycheck. Since March of 2019, Wyatt has worked in private wealth management for Goldman Sachs. He spends his time at home chasing around his daughter, Finlay, who is just a year and a half old, building a life in Atlanta completely unlike what he and many others envisioned.
But he is still playing competitive golf, and Wyatt calls his renaissance the most fun he has had on a golf course since his college days. He was reinstated as an amateur in October 2020 and guess where his first true mid-am event was held this past June? National Golf Links, his first time back on property since the 2013 Walker Cup. He won medalist in the C.B. MacDonald Invitation Tournament before losing in the semifinals of match play.
Last week, Wyatt partnered with his brother-in-law and former college teammate Lee Knox at The Anderson Memorial, a well-known four-ball tournament at Winged Foot that welcomes some of the best mid-ams in the country. The pair shot a 63 in the second round and ended up losing in a playoff to Stewart Hagestad and Mike McBride.
“I grew up competing my whole life, and it’s something that always made me happy,” Wyatt said. “Golf has always been a focal point for me, so it was a no-brainer (to get reinstated).”
There aren’t many mid-ams with Wyatt’s pedigree or ability. With work and family keeping him busy, he only plans on playing a few events per year outside of member-guests but said he could envision building out a schedule of eight to 10 events down the road. When asked about the possibility of getting back to the Walker Cup – if it ever happened, it would have to be one of the best stories amateur golf has seen in recent memory – Wyatt is optimistic he could eventually take a run at it.
“It’s a definite possibility and I would be lying to you if I said it wasn’t on my brain,” Wyatt said. “Maybe one day.”
Knox – the son of long-time Masters marker Jeff Knox – is convinced Wyatt could win a U.S. Mid-Amateur and play on a Walker Cup team and in the Masters. That same tempo that made everyone admire Wyatt on the range during his college days is still there.
“His tempo, it’s like Adam Scott,” Knox said. “It draws you in when you watch him swing. It’s unbelievable. If I was ever struggling with my swing in college, I would just watch Bobby hit balls.”
“I’ve had more fun playing golf in the past two years than the previous four or five years combined. Anything can become a job and not be as fun, and golf had kind of become that for me."
Bobby Wyatt
There are a plethora of reasons why the game turns so hauntingly difficult for those who are seemingly pre-ordained for success at the highest level. Do you remember Philip Francis? By the age of 14, he won four straight Junior World Golf Championships and spent 65 consecutive weeks as the top-ranked junior in the game. He went to UCLA in 2007 as easily one of the most ballyhooed recruits in college golf history, but the short game savant was bothered that other players were hitting it 30 yards past him.
Francis changed everything about his game to find more power. His scores suffered, he endured grueling back pain and his professional career was cut short. He isn’t the first to struggle after chasing distance, and he won’t be the last.
Wyatt didn’t chase distance, but he did go away from what made him great. He switched coaches, relocated from Mobile to Sea Island, Georgia, and started trying to hit a power fade instead of the baby draw those around the college game were enamored with.
“I kind of strayed away from who I was,” Wyatt said. “I didn’t incrementally improve Bobby. I tried to reform myself into a better version. That was a mistake.”
He had a hard time upon turning pro in 2014, failing to finish better than a tie for 63rd in six starts. Wyatt couldn’t get through Web.com Tour Q-School, and at that point he was in the wilderness of pro golf, relying on Monday qualifying, sponsor exemptions and playing well on mini tours.
Wyatt did have one special moment on the PGA Tour. Playing on a sponsor exemption at the 2016 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, he made an eagle and six birdies over his first 13 holes in the final round to briefly take the lead. The next two holes, he three-putted for bogey. Despite birdies on two of his last three holes, Wyatt finished one stroke shy of a playoff won by Brian Stuard.
That performance earned him enough non-member FedEx Cup points to qualify for the Web.com Tour Finals where he earned his card for the following season. But after only making four of 20 cuts, Wyatt was once again searching for status.
Far worse than that, he felt a fading interest in pro golf.
“I struggled with the selfishness of the career,” Wyatt said. “You’re traveling alone, you build out a team – and I had better support than most – but it still, in the end, felt a little selfish. Everyone’s schedule revolves around yours and that’s something I could never quite get comfortable with.”
For a brief time, Wyatt went back to Mobile and his old coach, Tony Ruggiero, where he restarted hitting his baby draw. His game got better, but the desire to play tour golf had completely left him. It was hard to let go of it at first. Wyatt had spent his whole life thinking about being a professional golfer.
In the end, he knew stepping away was the right call.
“I’ve had more fun playing golf in the past two years than the previous four or five years combined. Anything can become a job and not be as fun, and golf had kind of become that for me,” he said. “I ultimately got to the PGA Tour, and that was huge for me because I could walk away with a little bit of relief knowing I had played on the PGA Tour and didn’t enjoy it. If I didn’t have that experience, I probably would have always been looking over my shoulder.”
Do not mistake Wyatt’s move away from professional golf as a lack of gratitude. Wyatt is quick to point out that his pro experience impacted him in positive ways and is something he wouldn’t trade away for anything, although the word he used to describe the end – failure – gives a glimpse into how hard Wyatt was on himself at the time.
He’s not in that place now. Wyatt is officially a mid-am, and proud of it.
Top: Bobby Wyatt played one full season on the PGA Tour but was unsatisfied with the professional experience.
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