AUSTIN, TEXAS | After finishing his first round at the PGA Professional Championship on Easter Sunday, Jesse Mueller and his wife, Jessie, celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary with Domino’s Pizza. It was late and nothing was open, so it had to do.
They won’t have that problem next month in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the PGA Championship at Southern Hills.
With his wife on the bag, Mueller, a 39-year-old general manager of Grand Canyon University Golf Course in Phoenix and a volunteer assistant coach for the school, dominated the PGA Professional Championship at Omni Barton Creek Resort to win by five strokes on Wednesday. He opened the tournament with rounds of 66 and 67 to take a slim lead before a third-round 66 gave him a commanding five-stroke lead. He stumbled at times during a final-round 74 that dropped him to 10-under 273, but there was no drama to be found. Mueller drove the ball beautifully on the dangerous Fazio Foothills course and avoided disaster. He had a short-game week for the ages as he chipped in three times throughout the week and “got up and down from all over the place” despite finding himself in some awkward spots.
For the small amount of stress Mueller did encounter, he turned to his wife. Mueller’s mother-in-law watched the couple’s two kids back in Phoenix while Team Jess found the perfect formula in Texas Hill Country.
“So much of golf is being comfortable in your own shoes,” Mueller said. “I’m more comfortable with (Jessie) than anyone, and that showed in my game this week. She helped me stay grounded, cool and collected in good or bad moments all week long.”
As for Jessie Mueller, she has seen a calmer, more deliberate version of her husband on the course in recent times, and that showed in his patience throughout the week.
“I used to caddie for him more often in the past, even when we were dating,” she said. “I feel like he plays more methodically now than he did then. He’s improved his course management, and he’s not taking the risks he used to. He never found horrible trouble or made a big number.”
While this was only Mueller’s second start in the PGA Professional Championship, the national championship for club professionals, he arrived at the tournament with more competitive experience than most. Mueller took a lengthy run at being a tour pro, making 19 Korn Ferry Tour starts from 2005 to 2013 and three starts on PGA Tour Latinoamérica in 2012. His greatest accomplishment before this win was qualifying for the 2012 U.S. Open at Olympic Club and finishing tied for 51st, ahead of Jason Day, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson.
Since turning to the club pro route, Mueller has been a dominant player in the Southwest PGA Section. He has won player-of-the-year honors in the past two years and has qualified for four PGA Tour events through his section play. Mueller played in two WM Phoenix Opens and two Shriners Hospitals for Children Opens, making the cut once.
“All events like that are big, big events on that type of stage,” Mueller said. “You definitely learn things. You don't always know exactly what you learned from them, but there are just things that you've learned with staying patient playing the golf course.”
Interestingly, Mueller is the first player from the Southwest PGA Section to win the PGA Professional Championship in the 54-year history of the event.
“I grew up getting lessons from John Jackson and he was a great Southwest section player,” Mueller said. “Just to represent the Southwest section is awesome just because I played all the time out there in Phoenix, so I know the quality of players that we have, so it's good to represent them.”
With the win, Mueller captured the Walter Hagen Cup, a $60,000 check and a spot in the upcoming PGA Championship. Mueller leads a team of 20 club pros who qualified for the major championship.
Sean Fairholm