Former Korn Ferry Tour player Jaxon Brigman passes away at 50
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UNITED STATES - APRIL 29: Jaxon Brigman competes in the second round of the BMW Charity Pro-Am at The Cliffs. Friday April 29, 2005 (Photo by Chris Condon/PGA)
Former Korn Ferry Tour player Jaxon Brigman – who infamously lost his best chance at a PGA TOUR career by signing an incorrect scorecard – has passed away at age 50.
Brigman was an amateur standout who won three Texas individual state championships in high school and was a member of Oklahoma State’s 1991 NCAA Championship team. He won the prestigious Sunnehanna Amateur in 1993, the same year he was an All-American.
Brigman made 167 starts on the Korn Ferry Tour, including eight top-10s, but he was best known for a counting error that cost him a TOUR card in 1999.
Closing with a 5-under 65 in the six-round Q-School, Brigman had done enough to earn a card for the 2000 season despite missing an 8-foot birdie attempt at his final hole. He felt the miss might prove costly and, in the anxiety of the aftermath, he signed his card without thoroughly checking.
“I went into the scoring tent and I was so excited I was actually shaking,” Brigman told Golf Channel a decade later. “I was wound up, nervous even. I was having trouble focusing on my card. Jay Hobby (another KFT player who had kept his card) had circled all my birdies. … I counted the circles and signed my card.”
But while Hobby had circled the birdies Brigman made on the round, one of those circles contained a 4 instead of a 3. Brigman had to keep the higher score he had signed for. His 65 turned into a 66 and he missed his TOUR card by a single shot.
“It looked like I was going to make it and I was the happiest man alive. … You can’t imagine the feeling when I found out,” he told reporters at the time.
To illustrate the potential change in fortunes – included in players just one shot ahead of Brigman was future PLAYERS Championship winners Craig Perks and K.J. Choi.
Brigman was unable to find another path to a TOUR card, although he did make seven starts. A tie for 10th at the 2005 AT&T Bryon Nelson in his home state was his best finish before he turned his attentions to coaching and becoming an equipment representative. He also finished T11 in the 2001 Valero Texas Open.
Brigman passed away unexpectedly on August 14 and is survived by his daughter Malyn (15). He lost a second daughter, Tatum, in a car accident in 2012 when she was just 3 years old.