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TAMPA, FLORIDA | On a frigid day by South Florida standards, Scott Turner was the only player on property at Palma Ceia Golf and Country Club who was brave enough to wear shorts during the second round of the Gasparilla Invitational.
OK, maybe brave isn’t the proper description.
“I didn’t think it was going to be this cold,” Turner said as he walked toward the warmth of the heaters outside the clubhouse. “I saw the temperature and was hoping it would be sunny.”
You can forgive Turner, a resident of Stuart, Fla., further south on the opposite coast of the state, for misjudging the forecast. The 35-year-old owns and operates the blossoming Minor League Golf Tour, which stages virtually all of its tournaments in the sunshine of Palm Beach and Broward counties. The winter and spring is a particularly busy time of year for the circuit, which means Turner plays most of his own competitive golf from May to October. The Gasparilla is one of the only winter events he has time to play.
There is no shortage of fascinating stories in golf, but Turner’s is uniquely split between the amateur and professional games. He majored in business management at the University of South Florida, and although he didn’t play on the golf team, he subsequently spent about seven years playing professionally on mini-tours before deciding to become a PGA professional. He lives about a half-hour from Port St. Lucie, Fla., where the PGA Golf Club is, so he easily could take classes online and complete other assignments at the course’s learning center.
Turner became the head professional at Palm Cove Golf & Yacht Club in nearby Palm City, Fla., but when the club was sold in 2014, he lost his job and decided to interview with the Minor League Golf Tour for a position running tournaments. He had known the owner, Jay Slazinski, through playing in past events on the tour and had been offered a job a couple of times.
“I wasn’t quite ready to stop playing when he had offered me jobs in the past,” Turner said. “It was perfect timing, because his director had just left a month before I called him. The rest is history.”
“I actually won an event last year and the guys were very impressed that I didn’t accept any prize money. It just wouldn’t be a good look if I did that, and I value running the events in a professional way.”
Scott Turner
Ironically, Turner regained his amateur status not long after taking a position to run professional tournaments. He acquired the Minor League Golf Tour in September 2017 but still maintains his position as director of tournament operations, which means he arrives early to set up all aspects of an event. Even more impressive is that Turner occasionally plays in tournaments himself.
“I actually won an event last year and the guys were very impressed that I didn’t accept any prize money,” Turner said as he went on to explain that he doesn’t feel comfortable taking pro shop credit or gift cards, which would be allowed under amateur status rules. “It just wouldn’t be a good look if I did that, and I value running the events in a professional way.”
Competing as a professional or not, Turner still has substantial game. He finished tied for 37th at the Gasparilla against some of the best mid-amateurs in the country. A year ago, he won the prestigious Palm Beach County Amateur by a stroke after making three birdies in his final six holes.
“It’s definitely a lot less stressful than playing professional (golf),” Turner said. “I enjoy playing a lot more now.”
Starting with Slazinski’s vision that came to fruition in 2004 and continuing under Turner’s guidance in recent years, the Minor League Golf Tour has become a modern version of once-prominent mini-tours like the Hooters Tour or Golden Bear Tour. The circuit reached an all-time high of 733 members last year and has found an interesting formula for success in that every tournament is either one or two days.
Turner explains that more than 90 percent of players on the mini-tour level are earning less than they spend, so his tour has a system of shorter events with significantly lower entry fees. Whereas the Hooters Tour would have multi-day events and pay out the top third of the field, the Minor League Golf Tour pays out a larger portion of the field and offers more flexibility for competitors.
Some players can spend much of their time playing the tour, which stages multiple tournaments each week. That means there are players like Sunny Kim, the career money list leader with more than $272,000, and there are players like Chase Koepka, younger brother of Brooks Koepka, who leads this year’s money list as he attempts to gain traction in his playing career. His four-time major championship-winning brother played eight Minor League Golf Tour events shortly after his college days and won four of them, earning a little more than $16,000.
“He won our Tour Championship in 2012 and we have a big ceremonial check,” Turner said. “It was $10,000, which is a big deal to mini-tour players. When he was handed the check, Slazinski made a remark about how Brooks wasn’t showing a lot of emotion. Brooks looked at him and said, ‘I’m going to win a lot bigger checks than this.’ ”
That’s the dream the Minor League Golf Tour keeps alive for players. Among players who have used the circuit to keep their games sharp before earning status on a major professional tour, current PGA Tour player Bo Hoag and Korn Ferry Tour players Dan McCarthy and Ben Silverman stick out as success stories.
For players just coming out of college, it’s a vital ground to prove to themselves that they have what it takes. Gavin Hall, a former University of Texas player who has struggled at Korn Ferry Tour Q-School the past three years, is a regular Minor League Golf Tour contestant.
“I look at it like I am trying to get in the hunt and win events, which can be really useful down the road,” Hall said. “The quality of field is pretty high. You’ll get Korn Ferry guys, you’ll get European Tour guys, a lot of Canada and Latin America players. Last week, (former European Ryder Cup player) Thomas Levet played in an event. A guy like Jon Curran, he’s played on the PGA Tour.
“I think if you look at everything, compared to other experiences I’ve had, it’s just a professionally run tour. We’re getting paid on time, the courses are good … players definitely notice how much work Scott puts in.”
Hearing how much his tour means to players like Hall is a consistent reminder to Turner of why he got into the business and what type of impact he’s had. His professional success isn’t based on his playing ability, but his experiences in the game have influenced how he runs the tour.
Without Scott Turner the player, there wouldn’t be Scott Turner the owner.
“It means a lot to me because when I was a professional golfer, I didn’t have enough money to travel the world playing,” Turner said. “The (Minor League Golf Tour) was a way for me to chase my dream, and I’ve never forgotten that.”
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