Reavie's win not a fluke but part of a growing trend

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Jul. 28, 2008
By John Maginnes, PGATOUR.COM Contributor

I wanted to give Michelle Wie a hard time for not knowing Jay Williamson.

He said he didn't think she belonged in the field at the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open this week. When asked about it, Michelle said she didn't read things like that, and she didn't know who Jay Williamson was anyway.

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Say cheese: Chez Reavie was grinning like a Cheshire Cat at the trophy presentation on Sunday.

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So I was going to pile on because it seemed like an easy topic to tackle, and I have been on vacation for two weeks. I wanted to ease back in to this. Then Chez Reavie did the unthinkable and added his name to the impressive list of winners at the RBC Canadian Open. I bet Michelle doesn't know who Chez is either.

She doesn't know because none of us knew until a year ago, and, even then, we weren't all that sure. Reavie won on the Nationwide Tour last year and earned his PGA TOUR card by finishing 18th on the year-end money list. If you missed all the coverage this weekend and still aren't completely sure who Chez is, let's start where I had to start when he popped up on the leaderboard in his first start on TOUR back in January. Chez is pronounced like its spelled. It is his middle name and is short for Chesney -- like the last name of the country music legend. He is not from the Bordeaux region of France, though. He is from Wichita, Kansas, so his name rhymes with the small candies that come out of the mouths of those plastic Pez dispensers.

If he was French, it would be pronounced Shay Revay and he would probably talk with an accent. Either way, his life changed dramatically this weekend, and the best part about it was that after the tournament he looked like a 7-year-old on Christmas morning. In a day where money is simply a byproduct of success on the PGA TOUR, Chez, to put it simply, got rich on Sunday. When he won on the Nationwide Tour last year, he made $85,000 for the effort.

In this -- his rookie season on TOUR -- he was having some success and had made a check for nearly $200,000 earlier this year, but that pales in comparison to the $900,000 payday for winning the national Open of Canada. When asked to comment on the windfall, all Chez could say, with a million-dollar smile, was: "unbelievable." What he may not know is that the good people at Gaylord Sports have been up all night trying to turn that large chunk into a whole lot more. With youth and a very marketable personality on his side, it might not be that tough a job.

Of course the victory does a lot of other things for Chez -- including earning him a spot in this week's World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational where there is no cut and an opportunity to win on one of the largest stages left on TOUR this year. But that might be asking a little much from this unassuming kid. Major life changes sometimes take time to soak in, and he has certainly earned the right to adjust -- but you never know.

Every year, one or two of the young guys captures the spotlight by doing something completely unexpected. This year has been extra special in terms of the development and success of the young guns on the PGA TOUR. With his two wins on two of the best golf courses on TOUR, Anthony Kim is a likely Ryder Cupper and carrying the torch for the young challengers who are emerging as potential foils for that guy who is unable to defend this week.

But Chez Reavie, Andres Romero and all the other young players have shown that they not only can compete on the PGA TOUR but they can win. If there is one huge generational difference today than previous decades, it is the fact that these kids can win against impressive competition. The learning curve has been flattened by ultra-talented post-Tiger players who saw what he did and are trying to emulate him. As tall an order as that might seem to be, 18 majors seemed completely out of reach just a few years ago.

If this week, you were introduced to Chez Reavie and were thinking about writing it off as a fluke, don't. I can tell you that it wasn't even close to a fluke; it was part of a growing trend. If you are looking for a fluke this weekend, there is one possibility. Michelle Wie and Jay Williamson could be paired together on Saturday. But not even the casinos in Reno are willing to put odds on that.