Some people view the new year as a fresh start. And among those who are no doubt happy to see the calendar flip over to 2013 is Brandt Jobe.
The Colorado Golf Hall of Famer, who has gone through a roller-coaster of highs and lows in his PGA Tour career over the last decade, certainly won’t look upon 2012 fondly from a professional standpoint.
After regaining his PGA Tour card for 2011 and capitalizing by winning more than $1.6 million that year — the second-best total of his career — 2012 was a letdown in a couple of respects.
The Kent Denver High School graduate didn’t play a Tour event after the AT&T National in early July, shutting it down after falling victim to a herniated disc in his neck.
Then, to add insult to injury, MyFoxDFW.com in Dallas-Fort Worth reported that Jobe’s home in Westlake, Texas was burglarized on July 4 — along with the houses of a dentist and Heisman Trophy winner and former Dallas Cowboys standout Herschel Walker.
Media outlets said the burglar(s) took cash and jewelry from Jobe’s residence, including a watch worth $34,000 and a bracelet valued at $26,000.
The good news going into the new year is that Jobe has been granted a major medical extension from the PGA Tour, meaning he can keep his full Tour exemption if he meets the requirements of that medical extension.
Jobe, 47, needs to earn $303,178 in his first 10 Tour events of 2013 to retain his full Tour status. In 2012, Jobe played in 18 tournaments before ending his season, earning $344,332, good for 168th place on the season-long money list. He managed just two top-30 finishes, including a ninth-place showing at the Puerto Rico Open last March.
Jobe is certainly no stranger to playing on medical extensions from the Tour. Just in the last decade, he’s received two other such extensions — one for a left wrist injury and another after severing the tip of his left index finger and the base of his left thumb when a broom handle shattered while he was sweeping his garage.
Jobe is one of the most successful PGA Tour players Colorado has ever produced. After winning three CGA Match Play titles, one Stroke Play and the 1992 Colorado Open, he won a dozen international championships, mostly in Asia, and moved into the top 50 in the world golf rankings. Though he’s never claimed a PGA Tour title, he’s racked up almost $8.7 million in career earnings. In 312 PGA Tour starts, he’s placed second four times and third twice.
A resident of Colorado from 1970 to ’99, Jobe came the closest to a Tour victory at the 2005 International at Castle Pines, where he once resided. At that tournament, he held a substantial nine-point lead going into the final round of the modified Stableford event. But he skulled two bunker shots on the final 18, shot a 4-over-par 76 and finished second, one point behind champion Retief Goosen.
On the strength of two second-place finishes and a third that year, Jobe won a career-best $2.13 million in prize money in 2005. But since his broom accident in November 2006, he’s played in 20 or more PGA Tour events in a year just once. That was in 2011, when Jobe finished second at the Memorial tournament.
Jobe is hoping to regain that 2011 form this year, but he’ll need a strong first 10 tournaments to keep that hope alive.
