Gligic was that close to quitting
But, he didn’t. And, next year, he will be playing on the PGA Tour
As he walked off the green following his final round of the 2010 season, he couldn’t wait to get away from the golf course. The whole thing had been pretty miserable. He wasn’t having fun. The results he expected weren’t there. And he sure wasn’t anywhere close to the PGA Tour.
Two years grinding away as a pro in the lower levels of the game hadn’t quite broken him, but it was getting close.
“I was broke,” Michael Gligic says. “My family is in real estate. I thought that would be my backup plan.”
So, as the snow fell that winter, the Burlington native took two of the three courses necessary to sell homes with plans to finish the third and embark on a career selling properties soon.
If his face wasn’t going to appear on a PGA Tour card, it would at least be visible on a sign in a neighbourhood near you.
Golf was done. For almost 18 months, he didn’t once touch his clubs.
He may have continued his golfing fast had some buddies not convinced him to come out and play a round with them. Nothing serious. Hit some balls, have a couple beers and maybe a few laughs. He shot a 63. That was more fun than he expected, so he agreed to play again a day or so later. He shot a 64 or 65.
Same thing happened again the next time, too. Suddenly, his friends were pleading with him to give competing another shot. He could clearly still play. And he still had status on the Canadian Tour, which allowed him to play events.
He hedged. That winter Gligic had spent pretty much all his remaining money on the real estate courses. He’d finally put the emotional toll of golf behind him. He wasn’t sure he was ready to reopen that door and didn’t have the cash to travel to events.
But they were persistent. They convinced him to fly to Edmonton for the ATB Financial Classic to give it one last try. If you don’t enjoy it, so be it. Come home and sell houses.
“I showed up and won,” he says.
After collecting his cheque for $175,000, he realized what this meant.
“Oh boy,” he told himself. “Here we go again.”
He’d been prepared to step away for good. Instead, he was right back in it. Thus began a new six-year grind to carve out his big break. First on the Mackenzie Tour (the new name for the Canadian Tour) and then qualifying to move up to the Korn Ferry Tour (formerly the Web.com Tour), which is the level right below the PGA Tour.
This February, his big break finally arrived. At the Panama Championship, the 29-year-old won by a stroke. That earned him 500 qualifying points. Reach 830 for the season and he’d be locked in as one of the top 25 on the tour. Do that and he’d earn his PGA Tour card.
Over the next few weeks, a 24th place, an 18th, a 12th an 11th and a 29th gave him 806. Meaning if he could just collect 24 at an event in Colorado the other weekend, he’d be in. He got 70.
“It was a pretty cool moment,” he says. “Later that night and the next morning it sunk in.”
He couldn’t help but look back and think about what if ? If he hadn’t won that tournament in Edmonton ...
Instead, next year he’ll be eligible to compete with the world’s best. He’s now won the right to play in the biggest tournaments at the nicest courses for the mostlucrative purses. To be treated as a star in the lavish clubhouses and get the kind of endorsements that can set a guy up for life.
In the entire world there are only a couple of hundred people in this position. He’s one. Gligic understandably calls it surreal. Three years ago, nobody from around here was playing on the Tour. Now he and Dundas’ Mackenzie Hughes will both be there.
On top of everything else, this achievement has probably changed Gligic’s TV viewing habits. At least for one day.
Every year he sits in front of his TV and watches the final event of the Korn Ferry Tour season, which is always highlighted by those who’ve made it receiving their PGA Tour cards on the 18th green. It’s a wonderfully moving, emotional moment.
“For so many years I was wondering if that was ever going to be me,” he says.
It always seemed so far away. So unlikely. Turns out it wasn’t at all. It just took some time.
One strange note to all this. The thing he’s chased forever is completely unfamiliar to him. In all the years he’s played — including Canadian Opens and with some guys who’ve been in the big time — he’s never actually seen a Tour card in real life.
He will soon.