Jim McGovern is full-time on the PGA Tour for the first time in a decade and The Record interviewed the longtime golf pro from Oradell on Friday night at a dinner in his honor.
McGovern, 43, talked about his performance thus far, how he prepares physically, the difficulty of being a bottom-tier PGA Tour member and several other topics. (There will be a story on him in Sunday's Record.)
Click below for the interview with McGovern, who has made the cut in three of his first five events, but did not get into two other tournaments because he was stuck on the list of alternates:
Before we begin, a little background on McGovern: He is a 1983 Bergen Catholic graduate who turned pro in 1987 and was a full-time Tour member for most of the 1990s. He has spent most of the previous nine years on the lesser Nationwide Tour, while also enjoying limited status on the PGA Tour. He is married with four children ages 6 to 13.
On the 'congrats' he received after earning his Tour card in early December at Qualifying School:
"December was a whirlwhind. I'll say there was about a thousand phone calls, messages, e-mails, texts - it was great, fantastic. I didn't get back to everyone. I'm trying - still - to this day. But it's one of those things where it's been a fun stretch, and people saying, 'I can't wait for you to come to Atlanta,' or 'I can't wait for you to come to Houston,' or wherever."
On how he has played in his first five Tour events:
"I feel like I'm playing good in stretches, but the overall experience is great. I'm excited. I feel like I'm playing pretty good, but I'm not playing great. It's close at times, but then I see a little distance to be made up between me and some of the guys."
On the challenge of a short offseason break:
"I didn't have my normal two-month break. I actually felt like I didn't have an offseason, because we finished [Qualifying School early] in December, and then a couple of weeks later it's the holiday, and then we went right on the road [in mid-January for the start of the PGA Tour seaason]. So it was a little different this year."
On how he prepares physically:
"I stretch a lot, I chase the kids a lot. I don't think I eat crazy - but I never have - but I feel like physically I'm in pretty good shape. I'm pretty strong. There's a couple of aches and pains everywhere, but that's normal aging. But I feel good."
"I walk a lot, I swim a lot with the kids, and I feel great. I run with the kids, I play basketball, I throw the football. I'm running around and doing whatever I'm told to do when I'm home."
"I stretch to stay limber and I do a lot of it out there [at the tournaments] with the guys in the [Tour exercise] van. And in my hotel I do a little more stretching. And sometimes I spend a little more time stretching or swimming in a pool just to get my bones moving a little better. I haven't done much lifting. I do do the weights a little bit."
On being a low-tier Tour member who often starts the week as an alternate and hopes that one or more players drops out so he can get in:
"It sucks. It's the nature of the beast. ... It's part of the business. Sometimes, the [alternate list] moves a lot, and sometimes it doesn't move at all. It's one of those things were it's a wait-and-see game. And you're almost pessimistic when you're an alternate, in the sense that you still do your practice, but it's almost a little more nonchalant. And you're thinking in the back of your mind, 'I could be home with the kids.' But it's paid off a couple of times."
On his prospects for playing in the next three Tour events, which are good and includes the Houston Open (April 3-6), which he won in a playoff in 1993:
"I think I'm going to get in [to the Houston Open], because it's the week before [The Masters at] Augusta. That's the feeling that I have, only because it's different grass [Bermuda vs. bentgrass] than Augusta, so a lot of the guys are going to pass that up."
On his current mindset:
"I'm looking forward to the year, I'm looking forward to this three-week stretch. It should be good."
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