Golfer Made the Right Call
11/3/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
 |
|
(Used by permission)
The best shot Jason Bohn ever hit as a University of Alabama golfer didn't count in a tournament, didn't even go down on a scorecard, and in fact was the worst shot he could have made in terms of playing for the Crimson Tide.
But it was a great shot, never the less, and he gets a check for $50,000 every October 1 to remember it by.
You may not remember his name, but you probably remember Bohn's story. The Pennsylvania native was a sophomore on the University of Alabama golf team in 1992, having played in only a few events, when he entered one of those million dollar hole-in-one contests, a fund-raiser for the Jemison House Historic Building in Tuscaloosa.
Bohn and some of his buddies bought 10 balls, at $1 a ball, and, as luck would have it, Bohn won. Nailed the hole-in-one, winning the $1 million.
But there was a catch. As an NCAA golfer, to accept the money earned from playing golf would end his amateur status, cost him his scholarship and his opportunity to play for the Crimson Tide.
"It was not a tough decision," Bohn said, laughing. "I took the money."
Bohn is back in Alabama this weekend, playing in the $625,000 Nationwide Tour Championship at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Capitol Hill in Prattville. After the final round Sunday, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem will be handing out PGA Tour cards to the year's top 20 money winners. With $231,441 earned in only 17 events in his first attempt at the Nationwide Tour, Bohn ranks eighth on the Nationwide money list, which means no matter what happens this weekend, Bohn will be getting his PGA Tour card, making him eligible to play with the big boys — Tiger and Phil and Ernie and the rest — next year. Not to mention the $50,000 check he received on October 1, just as he has
every year since 1992 and will until 2012 until Bohn has been awarded the full million dollars that ended his college golf career, even though it didn't end college.
"I stayed in school and got my degree (appropriately enough, in finance)," Bohn said. "I saw a lot of great football games. I'm still a huge Alabama fan. When the Tide gets in your blood, you can't get rid of it."
After graduation, Bohn played on the Canadian Tour, winning the 2001 Bayer Championship, but for the most part he was not exactly burning up the track.
"I played the Canadian Tour for about six and a half years, and decided this was going to be my last year of professional golf," Bohn said. "I decided in June I'd do some Monday qualifying and see if I could get on the Nationwide Tour (the step below the PGA Tour), but I was also interviewing at a local golf course near my home in Acworth (Ga.), about a job as a club pro there.
"I'd gone through one interview, but missed the next one because of Monday qualifying on the Nationwide Tour. But this was going to be it. If nothing worked out this year, I was going to get into the golf business, teach or something like that."
Bohn's first event was the Northeast Pennsylvania Classic on June 15, the 10th of the Nationwide Tour season. He tied for 20th, winning $4,875, and was on the money list, but a long way from the top 20, at 157th.
In his fourth tournament, the Samsung Canadian PGA Championship, Bohn lost in a playoff, finishing second for a payday of $48,600. Three weeks later, in his seventh event, Bohn finished first at the Chattanooga Classic and deposited a first place check for $81,000.
Along the way he had a 10th place finish worth $11,250, and another second in yet another playoff at the Oregon Classic worth another $48,600. One victory, two second place finishes, four top 10s, nine top 25s, and now, going into the final tournament of the season, well, Bohn is securely in the top 20 and no matter what happens this weekend in Prattville, his life will take yet another turn as he puts off that club pro business for the PGA Tour.
"I don't know why it worked this way," Bohn said. "But this was my year to get it done. I wake up some mornings with a big smile on my face, realizing I'm going to get to play out there on the PGA Tour next year.
"It will really hit me when Commissioner Finchem hands me that card on Sunday. You can't believe how excited I am about that."
Whether he truly is lucky or made his luck doesn't matter to Bohn.
"I just keep looking for that next big pot of gold," he said. "I just believe I'm a pretty lucky guy. Luck is how you look at it.
"If a bird hits you in the head while you're standing in the middle of the beach, some people look at it as being unlucky. I say, 'What are the odds? I must be a lucky guy.'"
