Jackson Suber stays in four hotel rooms, earns career-best finish

Sometimes location and comfort will have a hearty impact on the success of a touring professional golfer. Sleeping in one’s own bed can do wonders after a long season of travel, and there’s nothing like home cooking. Golfers and non-golfers alike can appreciate that.

But sometimes that whole idea gets thrown out the window, and it’s just time to get the work done – no matter the scenario that unfolds.

Jackson Suber’s week at the Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS was a perfect case-in-point, as he – after a huge storm blew through Thursday – had to stay in four separate hotel rooms during tournament week.

He also finished second, his highest such result on the Korn Ferry Tour.

“A lot of big hotels had power but there was a strip of three hotels where the power lines fell on them. After my round Thursday I had to hop over some dead power lines to get my clothes out, had to book separate rooms, and stayed with a friend in his room on the last night,” Suber said with a laugh. “It was a weird week.”

Weird, perhaps, but also very fruitful.

Suber, who is in his first full year as a professional, is now on the cusp of earning a PGA TOUR card for the first time. He sits 22nd on the season-long Korn Ferry Tour Points List as The Ascendant presented by Blue gets underway. Things keep happening fast for Suber, as they have done for his entire golfing life.

The 23-year-old from Tampa, Florida grew up playing baseball until fifth grade and basketball until seventh grade, but quickly pivoted to focus full-time on golf after that. He always wanted to play in the SEC and although he wasn’t highly recruited, he ended up heading to the University of Mississippi on a golf scholarship after a visit hit all the right notes. He loved the coach, and everything about it “was awesome,” he said – the facility, the town, the teammates, and everything “worked out just as good as it could have.”

Suber played on PGA TOUR Canada last season, making six of eight cuts. He said the biggest thing he learned in his first half-year as a pro was how to practice and what the keys would be for conserving energy moving forward.

“If you play 18 holes every day and you’re having fun with your friends, you’re going to be worn out,” Suber said. “I was just being diligent with my work, and it’s come into this year, too.

“I’m sticking with what I’ve got. I’ve always been really simple. I’m just trying to be more consistent and keep believing in that.”

Suber began this season on the Korn Ferry Tour with just conditional status but made his first five cuts in 2023 to bolster his position on the Priority Ranking and essentially secure a schedule for the balance of the season. He backed up a tie for 15th at the Astara Chile Classic with a tie for 10th at the Veritex Bank Championship and was off to the races after that.

“To have a schedule to play and not to show up at Monday qualifiers every week was just a blessing,” he said.

“And now there’s a chance to earn a TOUR card. Golf comes at you quick, and you can be at a low point and get to a high point really quickly, or (you can) be at a high point and go to a low point really quickly as well.”

Suber admitted he tried not to set too many big-picture goals at the beginning of the year. Obviously, for many, a season on the Korn Ferry Tour means trying to work towards a PGA TOUR card and finishing in the top 30 on the Points List. Suber said he was, given his status to start 2023, just eager to try to play good golf and see where that put him week after week.

“If I did the right thing over time, then I have a really good chance to get to the PGA TOUR and contend out there,” Suber said. “At one point I was just trying to play in every Korn Ferry (Tour) event, and next thing you know you have a chance to finish high on the Points List.

“Just trying to do the best I can every week and see what opportunities come my way.”

Suber has accepted a very Ferris Bueller kind of outlook on his time as a pro golfer – life does indeed move pretty fast. But whether it’s hotel changes or hot streaks on the course, he’s taking things in stride with a hopeful next step of the PGA TOUR.

“You’re hoping to get a college scholarship when you’re in seventh grade,” Suber said, “and the next thing you know, you’ve got a chance to get a PGA TOUR card.”