PGA TOUR
ADAM SCHUPAK
aschupak@golfweek.com
Piller lives the dream in Tour debut
San Antonio
To the struggling college
golfers who can’t make their
team, give it time.
To anyone practicing a
monotonous drill over and
over to eliminate a swing
fault, don’t stop.
And to the aspiring
professional golfers out there
who think that if they sign
up for Q-School, they can
make it too, dream big.
To all of you, meet
Martin Piller, 23, a freckle-faced kid who looks like he
just began shaving. To
think that a year ago,
during his senior season at
GE TT Y IMAGES/PHIL WALTER
Texas A&M, he couldn’t
crack the starting five. For
three years, he pounded an impact bag, swinging with his
left hand only to eliminate a slight chicken-wing swing. He
checked the box for professional at the Texas State Open in
July because he owed his father $2,000. When he won the
$25,000 first-prize money, he paid off his debt and
suddenly could afford PGA Tour Qualifying School. Piller
became one of two players who made it from prequalifier to
the final stage and earned Nationwide Tour status.
This past week, he made his PGA Tour debut and
finished tied for 40th at the Valero Texas Open. Piller is at
a loss for words to explain his meteoric rise from college
underachiever to overnight success.
“It doesn’t make sense,” he said.
Piller planned to skip the Nationwide Tour’s BMW
Charity Pro-Am so he could be a groomsman at the
wedding of Trey Todd, his college teammate. But fate
intervened. Tony Piazzi, CEO and president of Golf San
Antonio, assigned an intern to research top Texans not in
the field. The record of Piller, a Duncanville native, stood
out. In his rookie year, Piller has finished second in the
New Zealand Open, one of three top- 10 finishes, and ranks
No. 7 on the Nationwide money list.
Piazzi called Sara Ivey, thinking she was his manager, to
offer Piller a sponsor’s exemption. Ivey, who goes by her
maiden name, is Piller’s mom and happened to be in
Chicago’s Field Museum trying to find cell service among
the dinosaurs. Piazzi asked her if she was Piller’s manager.
“Yes,” she answered. “Since birth.”
She’s the type of “manager” who redeems her Hilton
points to stretch her son’s money, gives him the keys to her
car and raises $50,000 so he doesn’t have to launch his
career on a credit card.
Golfweek May 23, 2009 www.golfweek.com
..
“Go live your dream,” she
told him.
And then one day, without
even writing a letter asking
for a sponsor’s invite, Piller’s
enjoying the largest galleries
he’s ever played in front of,
doffing his cap to “Piller’s
Posse” and carrying a
Sharpie in his back left
pocket to sign autographs
like a veteran. But he’s
also marveling at his
choice of range balls,
the free ice cream and the
air-conditioned caddie tent.
“My caddie and I wept
when we saw it,” Piller said.
“The buffet is beautiful.”
Martin Piller He told anyone who would
listen that his goal was to
meet CBS Sports commentator Jim Nantz. Piller played a
practice round with Chad Campbell and ate with Lee
Janzen. He asked both to take a picture with him but didn’t
ask for advice. Pros always tell him to make birdies. Piller
once asked Champions Tour member Mike McCullough
what the most important stat is.
“Money list,” McCullough deadpanned.
Piller’s wide-eyed and awestruck about the
accoutrements of Tour life and the people who play it,
but the game itself is just that – a game. Would he be
nervous? He shrugged his shoulders. His expression,
if any, didn’t match the occasion.
“It’s like (the movie) ‘Hoosiers,’ you know, when they get
to the state championship and go inside the gym and coach
hollers, ‘Strap put Ollie on your shoulders’ and he takes a
tape measure and the basket is the same height as their
hoop back in Hickory,” Piller explained. “Well, the hole is
the same size. I know they’re going to cut holes tomorrow
and I’m going to have an opportunity to make putts.”
In the second round, he faced a 6-foot putt to make the
cut. His mom pulled her visor down, too nervous to watch,
peeking with one eye. He gave it a savage stare and
pumped his fist when he made it, like so many putts late at
night at Thorntree CC with mom telling him it was time to
go. Piller showed he has what it takes and backed it up
with a 6-under-par 64 on Saturday.
When you’re young, your opponent is the future. Piller
returns to golf’s proving ground knowing what’s out there if
he improves his game.
But before his carriage turned back into a pumpkin,
there was one last invitation: a trip to the 18th tower to
meet Nantz. It was that type of week. ❍
