Jeronimo Esteve didn’t have the competitive season he expected in 2024.
One of the country’s leading mid-amateurs, Esteve had enjoyed a banner 2023, the highlight being a victory in the prestigious Coleman Invitational at Seminole Golf Club. But his home course, Isleworth Country Club, was closed for most of last year for upgrades and renovations, and his playing and practice schedule was curtailed.
As is his wont, Esteve found the silver lining: “I have a 15-year-old son who is trying to play more, so I am really more focused on his golf than my golf,” he said.
Still, when he found time to focus on himself, he did so with his usual zest.
“I went through a set of irons in six months,” said Esteve, who has an Arnold Palmer-like finish to his swing. His labor bore fruit in January, when he finished T6 at the Latin America Amateur Championship in Argentina against a field of mostly college players. With closing rounds of 67-67 at Pilar Golf Club, he posted his third top-10 finish in four years in an event offering a Masters invitation and U.S. Open and Open Championship exemptions to the winner.
“That was a second-shot golf course,” he said. “It was all about flighting your irons, controlling your distance, controlling the spin, holding balls off against the wind. It fit to my strengths.”
“Getting sick was one of the best things that ever happened to me. It changed my perspective on life and what it’s about.”
Jeronimo Esteve
A 43-year-old native of Puerto Rico, Esteve lives in Windermere, Florida, runs a thriving car dealership and has a golf game that stacks up well nationally and internationally. Moreover, his approach to life and golf is formed by his experience as a cancer survivor.
“Getting sick was one of the best things that ever happened to me,” said Esteve, who was diagnosed with stage-1 Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 30 in 2011. “It changed my perspective on life and what it’s about. I was a workaholic. I am super competitive, ask my friends, in anything we do. I wanted to be the best Honda dealership in the world. I put a lot of time and effort into that and when I got sick I reorganized. Yes, that is important, but life is important. Time with your kids is important. And it’s important to help you take out stress in a healthy way. For me, it’s competing. When I am racing cars, I am competing. When I am playing golf, I am obviously competing. Even when we fish, we are competing.”
The vice president and general manager of Headquarter Automotive, a Honda dealer in Clermont, Florida, the 43-year-old Esteve trusts his co-workers to handle the operation in the “Headquarter” way, as his father did when he started the business more than three decades ago.
“As long as that’s being done, I don’t have to be here all the time,” Esteve said in a recent interview from the dealership to describe his work and life balance point. “It doesn’t mean I’m not working. It means I don’t have to be here.”
He also relates a story from his grandfather who told him, as a young manager, that “doing the job is not doing your job.”
With a wife who is a successful social media influencer and three sons, Esteve can enjoy them while also enjoying being cancer-free and pursuing his avocation.
Esteve’s 2023 Coleman Invitational victory underscored his standing as one of the country’s best mid-amateurs. At Seminole, he came from behind to defeat Stewart Hagestad and Evan Beck, who subsequently finished 1-2 at the 2023 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Sleepy Hollow Country Club just north of New York City.
“That was a big deal for me,” said Esteve, who claimed medalist honors in that U.S. Mid-Am with a 36-hole score of 135. He advanced to the round of 32, his best finish in eight appearances at the national championship.
Esteve’s 2025 schedule includes the Gasparilla Invitational (where he finished T44 earlier this month), the Crump Cup at Pine Valley, qualifying for the U.S. Mid-Amateur and the new Giles Invitational at Kinloch Golf Club in Virginia, named for legendary amateur Vinny Giles.
He also plans to help his son, Jeronimo, chart his future by taking him to Pine Valley and to play in national junior events where he can meet college coaches. Esteve graduated from Dartmouth College in 2003 with a degree in economics and played on the Big Green golf team, and his son wants to go to the Ivy League school in Hanover, New Hampshire, too.
“It would be a dream for me, so we have to make it happen,” Esteve said.
Then there are the family trips to Puerto Rico, which happen regularly. Esteve is deeply proud of his roots and represented his native land in four World Amateur Team Championships (2012, 2014, 2018 and 2022). In fact, he recently joined Dorado Beach Golf Club, his childhood haunt.
The Boricua spirit of Puerto Rico was instilled in Esteve by his father and grandfather.
“That’s the way I’ve been,” he said. “I am pretty easygoing. Our business is a people business. The way you become a good salesman is to make people like you quickly. That’s a big part of our job. People buy cars from people they like. It has always been in my nature.”
Esteve’s life is full, but he would have it no other way.
“The last 13 years since I got sick have been incredible,” he said. “I have to get checked every five years but it’s good. I try to max out the day.”
E-MAIL PETE
Top: Jeronimo Esteve finished T6 at the Latin America Amateur Championship in January.
LAAC photo