A story of fraternity. A love story. A sad story. A story of overcoming. A family story. A story that softens the hardest hearts. Golf offers stories, pieces of life, that go beyond the clubs and the ball. Tom Whitney has one to tell and his words have touched us all, the tribute in memory of Bob, his older brother who committed suicide four years ago after dealing with depression.
He will always be in his memory and on the field. Tom, a veteran player at 34, makes his debut this season on the PGA Tour after earning his rights last season on the Korn Ferry Tour. He will fulfill his dream and Bob’s, with whom he played tennis and golf from childhood until they opted for the latter. The younger of the brothers uses as a mark on the greens the badge of Bob’s United States Air Force, mentor, rival, and friend.
“A long nine-year journey to get here,” Tom emphasized when he got the PGA Tour card last October and evoked the figure of his brother. The two made their first steps together as kids in South Lake Tahoe (California), both excelled in high school in La Quinta (where, wonderfully coincidentally, the younger one makes his debut this week on the American Circuit) and, first Bob and then Tom, both embarked on the Air Force, the elder as an Intelligence officer and later the younger as a nuclear missile operator, receiving orders directly from the United States Strategic Command, which in turn carried out the decisions made in the White House.
But Tom wanted to be a professional golfer and Bob knew it was the right decision. He left his military activity on May 1, 2014, and then this tough journey through the desert began until he has managed to crown his dream, his dreams. He alternated tournaments on the Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA Tour Latin America until he achieved a powerful status in the second division of the PGA. In the 2021 Korn Ferry final, he missed a one-meter putt to move up to the elite, but, far from being daunted, he said: “It’s a great learning opportunity to move forward, learn to block doubts and fear when there’s pressure. I’m grateful for these moments,” he wrote on Instagram.
In 2023 he stayed among the top 30 of the circuit from the second tournament and finally sang bingo with the promotion to the PGA Tour. “I try to live with the joy with which he lived,” says Tom about his brother. “Just laugh and smile always,” he concludes while boasting of the swing that Bob displayed, “fluid and beautiful, with a perfect rhythm,” recalls the younger one, who always pays tribute to his relative with that identification plate that this week will surely be shown by the cameras at the American Express.
