How mini-tour pro Kamaiu Johnson went from swinging a stick to teeing it up on the PGA Tour

When Kamaiu Johnson tested positive for Covid-19 just days before he was supposed to make his PGA Tour debut at the Farmers Insurance Open, it was a devastating blow for the 27-year-old. Playing on Tour was a lifelong dream of his. But the dream had to wait.

“A tragedy for me,” Johnson said.

Luckily, it didn’t take long for the next opportunity to come calling. Days later, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am offered him a spot in the field on a sponsor’s exemption. As Johnson puts it, “God had bigger plans for me.”

Now fully recovered from his bout with Covid, Johnson has arrived on the Monterey Peninsula ready to take a step a lifetime in the making. Sharing the range with Tour-caliber players has been a thrill, and now that he’s had a taste, his motivation to stick around is even greater.

“I don’t want to go back to the mini tours,” Johnson said. “This is where I want to be. So it’s a big point that I take advantage of these opportunities that I’m getting.”

The opportunities haven’t been easy to come by. When Johnson was a kid, he dropped out of school in the eighth grade, just as his grandmother moved to an apartment situated on a Hilaman Golf Course in Tallahassee, Fla. Johnson remembers going outside and swinging a stick as a makeshift golf club.

One day, Jan Auger, the course GM, approached him with a 9-iron and a bucket of balls. She told him he could play as much as he wanted for $1 a day.

“Golf saved my life,” Johnson said. “From outside my apartment swinging a stick, to playing on the PGA Tour. It means a lot.”

Johnson went on to qualify for the Florida Open by the time he was 18. From there, it was onto the mini tours, where he’s won a dozen times. The biggest win came at the Advocates Pro Golf Association Tour Championship. It earned him a spot at Torrey Pines, where the dream was deferred a little longer.

In addition to the sponsor’s invites in California, Johnson has also been invited to play at the Honda Classic and on the Korn Ferry Tour at the Emerald Coast Classic. But before he jets off to Florida, Johnson is enjoying taking the biggest step of his career.

“This is it right here,” Johnson said. “This is all I ever dreamed about.”

You can follow his opening round here.