Words without context would sound ridiculous, which is the only way Jason Caron can describe his last five months.
“What am I supposed to do now? This ruins all my dreams. “Now I have to play golf.”
He said this with a heavy dose of sarcasm because Caron still can't understand how he went from loving life as a Lengthy Island club pro to playing the season final next week on the PGA Tour Champions and earning a full card, his first. on any tour in 16 years.
The truth is that there is joy and amazement in equal parts.
Caron, the 52-year-old head professional for The Mill River Membership, tied for fourth at the Senior PGA Championship in late May. He took advantage of that magnificent week in some PGA Tour Champions events, one of them tied for third place. And then he got a few more, including a tie for fourth place.
And on Sunday, he shot 68 to tie for third at the Simmons Bank Championship and narrowly missed making the 36-man field for the Charles Schwab Cup Championship next week in Phoenix. That comes with a full card for 2025, the ultimate side job he didn't even look for.
“To be honest, I never thought about playing anything,” Caron said upon arriving home Monday in Oyster Bay, New York. “I never wanted to go to Q-school, it never crossed my mind. I went to play golf (at the Senior PGA) and turned out to be pretty good.
“I have no idea how this happened,” he said. “It's not supposed to happen to me. When I finished and they told me I was in the top 36 and I thought, 'Huh? 'How could that be?'”
Chasing a tour card is what Caron gave up in 2009 after 10 years and 231 tournaments: two full years on the PGA Tour and the rest on what is now the Korn Ferry Tour. He met LPGA player Liz Janangelo at an art gallery toward the end of his and her career. They got married and both decided to use their skills to teach.
Caron went to the Siwanoy Nation Membership as an assistant, his wife went to the nearby Nation Membership of Buy and it wasn't long before The Mill River Membership hired them both. They have the best of both worlds, two daughters and careers in golf. And they can compete: the Metropolitan section is reputed to have the best players of all the PGA of America sections.
Caron went to Benton Harbor, Michigan, for the Senior PGA Championship, competed all week and tied for fourth place. That was the beginning of one of those little surprises in life.
“If you lined up 100 golfers to tell me which one would finish in the top 36 of the PGA Tour Champions, it wouldn't be one of the 100,” said his old friend Brett Quigley. “Not because I'm not good enough, I just wasn't on their radar. He has been in Mill River for 10 years. He and Liz are doing a phenomenal job. They love life there.
“Jason has always been a great player,” Quigley said. “It just shows you the fine line between making it and not making it.”
Doing so wasn't even on Caron's mind until Benton Harbor. Two weeks later, he found out he was the seventh alternate for a PGA Tour Champions event. Caron was about to tee off at the Lengthy Island Open when a friend told him he had a good chance of getting in. He flew to Wisconsin, took last place and tied for 31st.
He was fourth alternate for the Rogers Charity Traditional in Canada, coming in and tying for third place. Jim Furyk was impressed enough to give him an exemption to his Champions event in Jacksonville, Florida, and Caron tied for fourth place. And so it was.
He only played nine of the 27 tournaments (winning $616,243) and still made it to the season finals, where he will play with Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington and Vijay Singh.
“Finishing in the top 36 on the Champions Tour is no small feat,” Quigley said. “Doing it in a limited number of events is no small feat. And what to do while you work as a club professional? The chances of that ever happening have to be very small. “It's so impressive.”
And yes, he is still a club professional. That's still his dream job. This has been pure fantasy.
Caron said Quigley gave him a concept of what the calendar would look like in 2025 and that he can already see the possibilities. Opening day for Mill River Membership, coming out of the cold of New York, is usually the first week of May. There should be about six tournaments he could play in, and that's before some of the majors he's in now.
There has been strong support from the club. He played when he could and wasn't necessary at Mill River.
“They've been good about letting me do that,” Caron said. “And I have received many messages from members about my results. I think they like it. “It’s good for me, my family and the Mill River family.”
It has been nothing less than a joy ride for a club professional who thought he had left the tour for good 15 years ago and really wasn't interested in finding it again.
Maybe it's different with a free pass – “I already have a great life at home,” he said – and Caron can't help but wonder if playing for the pure love of the game rather than a job is making a world of difference.
He had no idea where it would take him, only that it would no longer pursue him like it did before.
“I don't see myself being out of work in Mill River,” he said. “We have two small children. “I don’t want to be running around chasing a white golf ball when I could be watching my daughters grow up.”
The best of both worlds just got even better.
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