Why a 28-year-old with 0 Tour wins — may be someone you should root for

Jimmy Stanger, a 28-year-old PGA Tour rookie with zero PGA Tour wins, isn’t formally Jimmy Stanger. 

He’s Raymond James Stanger, a 28-year-old PGA Tour rookie with zero PGA Tour wins. 

And Raymond James Stanger was named Raymond James Stanger as a tribute to his grandfather. Only Raymond James can be a huge title in Tampa, Florida, the place Raymond James Stanger is from. For one, Raymond James is the title hooked up to Raymond James Financial, as these hip to monetary providers know effectively. But Raymond James Financial has additionally affixed Raymond James to the house of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It’s known as Raymond James Field, and it opened in 1998. 

And Raymond James Stanger was born in 1995. 

And Raymond James Stanger, for, oh, about 10 or so years, believed in one thing maybe a little odd, but additionally a little great, and, hey, you by no means know. 

“So my dad had me convinced until I was about 10,” Jimmy Stanger mentioned, “that he was able to pull some strings and get the stadium named after me.”

Dad!

Any trauma was temporary, although. Stanger loves his Bucs. He thinks he can nonetheless rattle off the names of the 2002-03 bunch that received the Super Bowl. (Derrick Brooks was his dude.) He bought a story out of it, too, which is a factor about Stanger: He’s bought tales, together with ones just like the charming anecdote about his title. And then there are ones that strike as exhausting as his driver. They’re revealing ones. Telling ones. He was dishing on some Tuesday, two days forward of the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida, about 20 miles from Tampa. A Stanger homecoming. 

Then once more, what may a 28-year-old PGA Tour rookie with zero PGA Tour wins actually should say that may make you care? 

That would possibly make you wish to root for him?

OK, right here’s one. It’s concerning the grind. 

Stanger had been a star. Tuesday, he remembered successful a Tampa match of champions at 8. Beat a junior legend, he mentioned. He performed 4 years at Virginia, the place his online bio is scroll-inducing. Victories. All-American standing. His time in Charlottesville overlapped with Tour participant Denny McCarthy. 

But golf careers, like golf balls hit off golf golf equipment, typically don’t take a linear line. Stanger stalled. About a 12 months after commencement, he reached the Korn Ferry Tour, the rung under the PGA Tour. But he remained on the Korn Ferry Tour. In 2018, he was 78th within the season-long standings. In 2019, forty first. In the 2020-21 season, fiftieth. In 2022, fortieth. There have been heartbreakers, too. In 2017, at Q-School, he lipped-out a putt that may have given him a card. In 2018, he missed a 6-footer on the finish of the season to lose standing. Last June, needing a par to succeed in a playoff at an occasion, he took a quintuple bogey. 

Only, the following week, he received. Birdied the ultimate gap to do it, too. Things generally simply occur like that. Just a few months later, he was off to the massive leagues. This 12 months’s been respectable, too. Seven occasions. Five cuts made. A tie for third in the beginning of the month in Puerto Rico. An look final week on the Players Championship, the place he was in after Tiger Woods opted to take a seat out, then tied for thirty fifth. (“I was probably one of the happiest guys in the country that Tiger decided not to play,” he mentioned.) This week, on the Valspar, it’ll be his first begin at house as an official Tour member, and there’ll be dozens of Stanger of us all around the joint. (“Man, it’s cool,” he mentioned.) 

All of it has made him assume. A reporter requested him if he felt “on schedule.”

He began his reply by saying what number of professionals “would kill” for a Korn Ferry spot, respecting how far he had gone. He talked about persistence. He talked about management.   

“Obviously, I wanted to be up here faster than I did coming out of college as a top-ranked player,” Stanger mentioned, “however I had some holes in my sport that I wanted to repair, and doubtless some mentality issues that I wanted to work by means of. 

“I understand, once more, that I may be taking part in skilled golf for, I hope to play for the following 20 years of my life, however I may be on the PGA Tour for the following 12 months, I may be on the PGA Tour for the following 20 years. I’m probably not answerable for the outcomes, I’m answerable for doing the very best factor I can do day-in and day-out as a way to get the ball within the gap with the least quantity of strokes potential. 

“So that’s where I put most of my focus, where, today, what can I be doing to help myself play the best golf Thursday through Sunday. I think if you can stack that mentality week-in, week-out out here you can — I’ve learned that I can compete out here, and that’s amazing. To be able to compete against the best in the world was my dream growing up and now I get a chance to do that.”

OK, right here’s one other story. It’s about giving again. 

Stanger, a 28-year-old PGA Tour rookie with zero PGA Tour wins, has began a charity that he’s known as Birdies for Hope, which, because the title suggests, is birdie primarily based. He donates $20 for each one. Since beginning it in 2019, he’s raised about $150,000. 

The cash goes to serving to construct church buildings and hope facilities in third-world nations.  

But why these particularly?

“These churches obviously are a place of worship on Sunday,” Stanger mentioned, “but additionally Monday by means of Saturday, they’re serving to the neighborhood out in no matter method is important. So much these villages don’t have the normal charities that we’ve got right here, so these buildings double as orphanages, they double as hospitals, they double as colleges for kids, they usually actually fill these obligatory wants that give hope to these communities, that preserve children out of drug commerce, that educate immigrants learn how to perform in a civilized society. 

“It’s been really special to do that. We’ve built nine churches so far and hoping to continue to build on that number here in the future.”

OK, however why in any respect?

“Yeah, so once more, a lot of that comes again to my religion and the concept what Jesus mentioned, it’s actually higher to provide than to obtain. The golf life is superb, there are such a lot of perks to being a skilled golfer on the PGA Tour, however ultimately, like, it’s much better to provide again to the neighborhood than to obtain all these presents. 

“I fully believe that I am profiting by giving back, I’m profiting by impacting the lives of others in a better way, and I really hope that I can look back on my golf career and say that my golfing career was used for more than the glory of Jimmy Stanger, but that it was used to further the glory of God and to help other people in whatever ways that can happen.”

OK, yet one more. It’s about how you’ll by no means know the impression you’ll go away. 

Stanger beforehand spent a while at Innisbrook, the host course this week. As a child, he labored the vary. He additionally served as a normal bearer at earlier Valspars. One 12 months, he toted across the scores for Jerry Kelly. Stanger remembers the spherical effectively. 

Kelly requested him if he performed golf. Where he performed. If he had Tour hopes. 

It caught. You’ll hear the questions once more Thursday. 

“Like I remember thinking to myself,” Stanger mentioned, “if I ever get a probability to be out right here, I wish to be like that to the usual bearer, I wish to be like that to the fellows who work the vary and do all these issues. 

“Again, I keep saying it’s special, but it is special to be able to have that opportunity to do that to whoever my standard bearer is this week and to be able to talk to them and ask them those questions, so maybe make an impact in their lives.”

Thursday, Stanger tees off at 9:36 a.m. 

Should you have a rooting curiosity. 

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his position, he’s accountable for modifying, writing and growing tales throughout the golf area. And when he’s not writing about methods to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native might be taking part in the sport, hitting the ball left, proper and brief, and ingesting a chilly beer to scrub away his rating. You can attain out to him about any of those matters — his tales, his sport or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.