Rob Labritz perseveres from PGA club pro to PGA TOUR Champions member

Rob Labritz might be a PGA club professional, but he never has strayed from being a competitive golfer.

The director of golf at the Gary Player-designed GlenArbor Golf Club in Bedford Hills, New York, he also has played in whatever nearby events were available. He prepped for PGA TOUR Champions Q-School in early December by winning the Massachusetts Open, Rhode Island Open, Met Professional Championship and Westchester Open, which just happened to be at GlenArbor.

Labritz is not a guy who lacks for confidence in his game. So the fact he closed Q-school with a 7-under 64 in the final round to finish three strokes ahead of the field about six months after turning 50 shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

Only, it did. Because as Bernhard Langer will tell anyone who will listen, the hardest tour in golf to get on and stay on is PGA TOUR Champions. Only 78 players are permitted in most events, and 36 of those spots are reserved for the top 36 on the previous year’s money list. Most of the other spots go to past champions based on a handful of factors, chief among them a player’s standing on the PGA TOUR’s all-time money list.

Only five players are awarded full status via Q-school. What they do with it from there is up to them.

Because GlenArbor is a world-class course that has hosted a slew of various professional events in his years as its director of golf, Labritz has come to be friendly with several prominent pros. He said Gary Player was one of the first to call and congratulate him on being the medalist at Q school, as did Tom Watson.

Labritz said longtime friend Jerry Kelly has been coaching him up on what to expect as he transitions to a full-time member of PGA TOUR Champions.

“This is just the coolest thing,” said Labritz, whose emotional call to his wife after securing his status went viral on social media. “And for guys like Gary Player and Tom Watson to reach out … I’m living a dream.

“Jerry Kelly and I have been friends for a long time, and he has helped me with what to know and where to stay and how to navigate which is … it’s tricky.”

Labritz has three children: a 19-year-old son at LSU (look for David Toms to introduce himself), a daughter who’s 8, and an 11-month old baby girl he called a “quarantine pregnancy.” So when he’s not busy at GlenArbor, he’s busy at home. Some PGA TOUR Champions winnings would go a long way toward feeding that extra mouth at home.

Labritz said he has been preparing to make a run at the Champions Tour for a long time. He was the medalist at the Canadian Tour school in 2004 and played well in two years on the Canadian Tour, but after a divorce he decided he wanted to be around for his son and took the job at GlenArbor.

“I got offered this great job at this beautiful place and that was that,” Labritz said. “But the desire to compete never left. I’ve always competed in the Met section, always tried to win every event I played in. I just had limited time to practice as an instructor and a director of golf.

“But now I’ll have more time to put into my game. It will be interesting to see where I can take it.”

He plans to play out of GlenArbor, returning when the PGA TOUR Champions schedule allows to continue his duties at the club.

“I have the greatest team on the planet,” Labritz said about the GlenArbor staff. “They’re used to me competing as often as I can, though this will be a lot different.”

So what does Labritz say he has in the way of expectations?

“I’m gonna go out there and win. I wanna win senior majors,” Labritz said. “I want to finish in the top 36 and I want to win. In my belly, my heart on my sleeve … I’m not a cocky person by any means, but I believe in my ability and what I’ve seen in preparing for this.

“And I’m going to have a great time doing it. It’s not gonna be put your head down and not talk to anybody. I want to get to know some guys and have a good time. We’re 50 and we play golf for a living. How cool is that? That’s the difference I’ve seen in qualifiers. You don’t hear guys swearing or throwing clubs. Guys are just really nice.”

Labritz says his game is built around being a very good ball-striker who likes to “work the ball a lot.” He said the great majority of his practice time in preparation for PGA TOUR Champions will be on his short game.

“I’m a pretty consistent player, have been throughout my career at the section level,” Labritz said. “I’m still relatively long, good around the greens, and I’m a good putter. I give myself 40 seconds to hit every shot and enjoy the heck out of just being able to play golf.”