GLIGIC’S PATIENCE IS FINALLY PAYING OFF
Canadian golfer is a PGA Tour rookie at ripe old age of 29
PGA Tour rookie Michael Gligic arrived at The Greenbrier in
West Virginia Saturday afternoon, six days before the season-opening tournament was set to begin at the storied resort.
No, the 29-year-old Canadian wasn’t boiling over with anticipation to get his new life started, although nobody would blame him after an 11-year professional career trying to get to the PGA Tour. The golfer had arrived early for a “long, but informative” two-day rookie orientation.
On Monday, Gligic gladly traded pencil and notepad for his golf clubs and got to work at the resort’s Old White TPC course preparing for his first tournament as a card-carrying member of the PGA Tour.
“It was a long couple of days, but I was excited and it was nice to get up early this morning and get back to work,” Gligic told Postmedia over the phone from The Greenbrier.
Eleven years ago, after graduating high school, the Burlington, Ont., native turned pro and began his journey to the PGA Tour. It was a journey that was becoming more and more unlikely as years went by.
After 88 events spanning 11 years on Canada’s developmental Mackenzie Tour, which had three different names during his time spent there, Gligic finally made it through qualifying school last December to earn a spot on the Korn Ferry Tour (formerly the Web.com Tour), one rung below the PGA Tour. A career-changing win at the Panama Championship in February made his dream a near reality before it became official after a top-10 finish in Colorado in July.
“I’ve been at it for quite a while and I think all my experiences — from the Mackenzie Tour and then the Korn Ferry Tour and a couple of Canadian Opens that I’ve been fortunate to play — I can kind of feed off those experiences,” Gligic said. “At the end of the day, it’s just golf and I feel pretty comfortable.”
Just days from making his dream of playing on the PGA Tour come true, he sounded nothing like a rookie when discussing his plans for playing on golf’s biggest tour. With career earnings of a little more than US$300,000, he calmly explained the vagaries of a life in golf and why he plans to do nothing differently when he starts playing for million-dollar cheques Thursday.
“I’ve just kind of learned that a lot of the things you can’t really control,” Gligic said. “I’m not a huge goal person, to be honest. I think I just kind of want to keep getting better each day.”
As exciting as life is about to become, Gligic’s wife Natasha won’t be joining him on tour full time, instead staying home in Kitchener, Ont., where she works on her burgeoning pet-accessory business. The couple and Natasha’s company (Walk in the Bark) were profiled earlier this year in an article on pgatour.com. Gligic said Natasha will periodically make trips to watch him play, including at the end of the month at the popular Safeway Open in Napa, Calif. (“Surprise. Surprise.”)
Gligic’s coaches won’t be joining him full time on tour, either. Swing coach Ryan Corbin and popular short-game guru Gareth Raflewski will periodically be at tournaments throughout the year, but for the most part it will be Gligic and caddie Dave Markle.
“I’ve never really had coaches out, so I don’t want to make a huge change and have them coming out every single week,” he said. “I’ve never really had that before, so I don’t want to change it up too, too much.”
One longtime coach he is sure to see more of is Canadian Sean Foley. Gligic worked with Foley for years before the swing coach moved south to work with such stars as Tiger Woods and Justin Rose. He said Foley was instrumental in his success and is looking forward to seeing more of him out on tour.
Although not generally a goal-setter, Gligic is intent on bettering his status on the PGA Tour and making it into the Fedex Cup playoffs. In his category as a Korn Ferry Tour graduate, his schedule will largely be determined for him by the tournaments he can get into. But if Gligic has proven anything over his career in golf, it’s that he has the patience to succeed. And that’s a trait the level-headed golfer is determined to take to the game’s biggest stage.
“It’s been a long road for me to get here and if it takes me one year, three years to get through to the Tour Championship, it’ll be all good,” he said.
As for getting a PGA Tour win? Of course he wants one. But he’s in no rush. Remember, he’s learned that in golf some things are out of your control.
“Someone could lip in a putt on the last hole to beat you, versus a lip-out. You know what I mean?”