Bob Heintz
Three-time Ivy League champion and PGA Tour player
Bob Heintz (Class of 1992) regained his PGA Tour card for the fourth time and will be back in the big show in 2009. This is how he got there.
Heintz was born on Long Island, where his parents had taken their first teaching jobs. However, their jobs were eliminated when student enrollment fell, and at age five Heintz moved to Cape Coral, Florida. There he learned to play golf by tagging along with his father and grandmother. He played a number of sports in high school, but after suffering a minor knee cartilage tear during basketball season, Heintz decided to focus on golf instead of baseball in the spring, because the strain of being a catcher would have been difficult. As a senior, Heintz led the golf team and held the lowest scoring average for high school golfers in Pinellas County.
Because he visited his grandparents on Long Island every summer, he wanted to return to the northeast for college. He applied to Yale after being “lightly recruited for basketball.” He was skeptical of his admission chances until he went for his alumni interview near his home in Florida. Luckily the interviewer was very happy to meet the young man, whose athletic career he had followed in the papers and with whose father he had taught on Long Island.
Heintz came to play basketball, but after seeing the golf course the summer before he entered and the scores posted by college players, he decided to try out for the golf team. “I first met David Paterson in a classroom along with twenty-five other guys who were also responding to a flyer announcing tryouts for the golf team. We filled out a questionnaire, and I said I was a 4 handicap. At the course the first time, I was completely intimidated and didn’t break 80.” Even so, Coach Paterson let him practice with the team that fall and then invited him on the spring trip to the West Coast. Heintz had become discouraged with the basketball program, so he decided to concentrate on being “two-sided,” a student and a golfer, for the next three years.
Heintz scheduled all his classes before 11 a.m. and spent each afternoon at the course. The people at the course, Peter Pulaski, Toni Corvi, Mike “Mow” Moran, and Brad Saunders, were his “family” and the course his “sanctuary.” But his main inspiration was Coach Paterson, who told him at the beginning of his junior year that he should consider being a professional golfer. Heintz thought he was joking, but the turning point came that spring at the Wofford Invitational tournament at the Country Club of South Carolina. Heintz came in fourth with a 68 on the last day. He beat Chris Patton, then the US Amateur champion, and many other southern collegiate golfers who hadn’t spent the winter in New Haven. He won the Ivy League individual championship three years in a row at Bethpage Black (by 13 strokes as a senior). Also as a senior, he made the Academic All-American Team with a 3.20 GPA. He reports that “the NCAA called to make sure the GPA hadn’t been rounded-up to meet the minimum requirement of 3.2.”
Just before graduation Heintz was working on job applications when David Paterson told him, “You have the rest of your life to ‘get a job’; you’re going to try professional golf.” His parents had always supported him, and now they did again, and so did his soon-to-be wife, Nancy. The financial support he needed came from Paterson’s network of friends and from Heintz’s friends and family.
Thirty thousand dollars per year for the period from 1992 to 1994 allowed him to play the mini tours around Orlando Florida. Even when he won a couple of events, however, the prize money he returned to his investors was less than fifty per cent of their investment. He went to the PGA qualifying tournament in 1994. By making it to the final stage, he qualified for the Nike (now Nationwide) Tour. Coach Paterson had told him in 1992 that to succeed as a Pro he would “have to cure his hook and learn to play a fade.” He did that, without instruction, by “pretending he was Freddie Couples.” But, in the final stage of qualifying in 1994, “pretending broke down.” This continued on the Nike Tour where he was “out of his element and a complete failure.” By 1996 his investors were losing interest in losing money, and Nancy was pregnant. Heintz quit professional golf.
Heintz took a real job, with Raymond James Financial, in the back office “counting peanuts” for $21,000 a year. Six months later David Paterson arrived for a Christmas visit. Seeing that Heintz had gained thirty pounds, he declared, “You look like shit. Why are you not playing golf anymore?” When Heintz explained the situation, the only question Paterson asked was, “How much money do you need?” Within three months Paterson had raised the needed $35,000, from eighteen investors (including three Catholic nuns who split one share between them). That money was supplemented, as it had been in previous years, by Heintz working as an assistant golf coach at the University of South Florida in Tampa. By 1998 he was on the Hooters Tour, and his investors were getting a return on their now $50,000 annual investment. He was second on the money list (with over $100,000), which earned him a $50,000 bonus.
Heintz had conditional status on the Nike Tour in 1999, so he had to decide whether he would play there or stay on the Hooters Tour. His Hooters 1998 $50,000 “bonus” was paid out in installments of $1,200 for each Hooters Tour event he entered. His very practical mother advised against his plan to play the Nike Tour (with no such guarantee). Heintz’s response to his mother was, “I didn’t get a Yale degree and turn Pro to play the Hooters Tour. It was to play the PGA Tour, and I can’t get there from the Hooters.” Two weeks later he won the Nike Tour event at Shreveport and $42,000. Later that year he won the Nike Tour Championship at Dothan Alabama in a play-off with Marco Dawson, who had played the Hogan Tour event at Yale in the 1980s. Heintz entered the tournament at sixteenth on the money list, which would have gotten him directly to the final stage of PGA Q School. A good check would have moved him to fifteenth or higher and qualified him for the 2000 PGA Tour directly. Winning was even better.
As a Yale graduate and rookie on the 2000 PGA Tour, Heintz attracted the attention of Sports Illustrated. He agreed to write an online weekly diary. It was immensely enjoyable, but he stopped the time-consuming series after nine months. It was difficult, Heintz admitted, to “relive his failures weekly,” and he also was surprised and discouraged by some “painful” negative feedback from critical fans, amidst the overwhelmingly positive responses. He led the PGA Tour in putting in 2002. Impressive, but he later said that it really meant that he was not hitting greens in regulation and he missed sixteen of twenty-one cuts. Since then Heintz has been on the Nationwide Tour in 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2008 and back on the PGA Tour in 2005 and 2007 for the second time, with no thoughts of a job at Raymond James.
Bob and Nancy Heintz and their three children now live in Dunedin, Florida. When at home, he occasionally plays the Dunedin Country Club (which was the first site of the PGA headquarters), but usually he plays at the Countryside Country Club in Clearwater, which he represents on tour, and where he is a member. Heintz was very excited about returning to the PGA Tour in 2007 because he believed that he was ready this time, with his swing tools in place and an instructor keep him in groove. He was using the same caddie, Jeff Dean, a fifty-two-year-old country boy from “LA” (lower Alabama) — a bachelor who sold a few restaurants in 1999 to try the caddie life. He had earned $50,000 with Heintz in 2005. Dean’s demeanor is laidback, which helps Heintz to “de-stress.” And Heintz could study the focus of Tiger Woods and other stars in dealing with the “circus of the tour.” He could use the fitness trailer and the trainers who are provided on the PGA to be ready to play no matter when his tee time. Finally he singles out his wife, Nancy, as a huge part of his team. Never once, he says appreciatively, has she “told [him] he should be doing something else.” Nancy Heintz is very astute in analyzing his swing and game plan. Together they work out a plan of attack and set goals for the smallest detail of that plan. It’s not just “one shot at a time, it’s even how do I breath over this putt.”
It did seem to be working early in the 2007 season. Heintz had played in 233 PGA and Nationwide Tour events prior to 2007, with an average income per event of $4,964. In twenty-seven PGA and two Nationwide Tour events in 2007 he averaged $22,400. However, competition is intense, and PGA pros are playing for a lot of money. He failed to retain his PGA card for 2008 because he ranked 125th on the money list. In 2008 he fell to 169th while playing on both Tours. Happily, his fortunes have turned again, and Heintz ended 2008 by regaining his PGA Tour card for 2009 at Q-School. His career earnings now top two million dollars. That certainly is better than he was doing at Raymond James, and the story isn’t over yet.
As a Yale graduate and rookie on the 2000 PGA Tour he attracted the attention of Sports Illustrated. Bob agreed to write an online weekly diary. It was immensely enjoyable, but he stopped the time-consuming series after 9 months. It was difficult, he admitted, to “relive his failures weekly,” and he also was surprised and discouraged by some “painful” negative feedback from critical fans, amidst the overwhelmingly positive responses. He led the PGA Tour in putting in 2002. But, that wasn’t a good thing since it really meant that he was not hitting greens in regulation and he missed 16 of 21 cuts. Since then he’s been on the Nationwide Tour in 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2008 and back on the PGA Tour in 2005 and 2007 for the second time, with no more thoughts of a job at Raymond James.
Bob and Nancy and their three children now live in Dunedin Florida. When at home he occasionally plays the Dunedin Country Club (which was the first site of the PGA headquarters), but usually he plays at the Countryside Country Club in Clearwater, which he represents on tour, and where he is a member. Bob was very excited about returning to the PGA Tour in 2007, since he believed that he was ready this time, with “the tools in place and his ducks in a row.” Now he had an instructor [no more Freddie Couples pretend] and the same caddie for 2 years. That’s Jeff Dean, a 52 year old country boy from “LA” [lower Alabama]–a bachelor who sold a few restaurants in 1999 to try the caddie life. He made $50,000 with Bob in 2005. His demeanor is that of one who “could care less”, which helps Bob to “de-stress.” And Bob has had a chance to study the focus of Tiger Woods and how he deals with the “circus of the tour.” Bob will be able to use the fitness trailer and trainers provided on the PGA, but not the other tours, to be ready to play no matter when his tee time. Finally he points to his wife Nancy as being a “huge” positive for his team. Never once has she “told [him] he should be doing something else.” She is very “astute” in analyzing his swing and game plan. Together they work out a “plan of attack” and “set goals” for the smallest detail of that plan. It’s not just “one shot at a time, it’s even how do I breath over this putt.” It did seem to be working early in the 2007 season. Bob had played in 233 PGA and Nationwide Tour events prior to 2007, with an average income per event of $4,964. In 27 PGA and two Nationwide Tour events in 2007 he averaged $22,400. However, competition is severe, and PGA pros are playing for a lot of money. He failed to retain his PGA card for the coming year as he ranked 125th on the money list. In 2008 he fell to 169th playing both Tours. But his fotunes have turned again, and he ended 2008 by regaining his PGA Tour card for 2009 at G-School. His career earnings are now over two million dollars. That certainly is better than he was doing at Raymond James, and the story isn’t over yet.