Golf.com http://golf.com/tag/john-peterson/ Your life, well played. en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://golf.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cropped-favicon-512x512-1.png?width=50&height=50&fit=bounds john peterson Archives - Golf http://golf.com/tag/john-peterson/ 32 32 https://www.golf.com/?p=14486168 Thu, 25 Apr 2019 17:39:49 +0000 <![CDATA[How the 2019 Masters inspired retired pro John Peterson to return to pro golf (again)]]> John Peterson is returning to pro golf, again, the former NCAA champion announced on Wednesday on Matt Moscona's ESPN 1045 show.

The post How the 2019 Masters inspired retired pro John Peterson to return to pro golf (again) appeared first on Golf.

]]> https://golf.com/news/2019-masters-inspired-retired-pro-john-peterson-return-pro-golf/ John Peterson is returning to pro golf, again, the former NCAA champion announced on Wednesday on Matt Moscona's ESPN 1045 show.

The post How the 2019 Masters inspired retired pro John Peterson to return to pro golf (again) appeared first on Golf.

]]> John Peterson is returning to pro golf, again, the former NCAA champion announced on Wednesday on Matt Moscona's ESPN 1045 show.

The post How the 2019 Masters inspired retired pro John Peterson to return to pro golf (again) appeared first on Golf.

]]>

John Peterson is returning to pro golf. Again.

The former NCAA champion announced on Wednesday on Matt Moscona’s ESPN 1045 show that he’s returning to the game he retired from just seven months ago.

“I have deleted all social media in last week or so, because of what might come of it,” Peterson said, “but I am returning to professional golf.”

And as odd as it sounds, Patrick Cantlay might be part of the reason Peterson is coming back.

“Sometimes you just got to take a step back to realize what you had,” said Peterson, now 30, who worked in real estate after retiring last year. “I was in an office for seven months, dark-to-dark basically. It was fine when I started. Paying the bills and everything was fine. But then the Masters came along and I’m watching this kid Patrick Cantlay, who in 2011 finished second to me in the National Championship when he was at UCLA, and he finished 9th in the Masters, and I beat him, and I beat him a lot. And I’m just like, man, that could be me. And then Tiger wins, and his story was just too inspiring honestly. I quit my job seriously the next day after the Masters.”

Augusta National gate
Tournaments
Nearly missing an Augusta National tee time is every bit as torturous as you’d expect it to be

Peterson’s will he/won’t he retirement chatter played out all through 2018. He said during the beginning of the year he would retire if he failed to keep his Tour card on his major medical extension, and he came up just short in his last start at The Greenbrier. Most assumed retirement started then, but less than two weeks later to got a spot into the Barbasol Championship as an alternate, where he tied for 21st. He eventually got to the Web.com Tour Finals but missed the cut at the season-ending Web.com Tour Championship.

“It’s been a hell of a ride!!” he tweeted afterward, on Sept. 21, 2018. “Got a ton of people to thank. Too many to list. I will always cherish my time competing on the @PGATOUR. I can also say I birdied my first hole as a pro and now my last. Thanks for the memories!”

Peterson, who had two top 10s in 93 PGA Tour starts and earned $2,199,159 in his Tour career, had long aired his disinterest in pro golf’s grueling schedule.

“I like it a lot out here,” Peterson said at the Wells Fargo last year. “You know, I just kind of want to be a dad and like be around my kid and my family more often, even though, yeah, they’re here this week, but they can’t come every week. Thirty-five weeks on the road a year or so? It’s just not for me.”

John Peterson is returning to pro golf after a retirement that lasted less than one year.
John Peterson is returning to pro golf after a retirement that lasted less than one year.
USA Today

But Peterson’s return isn’t without a twist. It was just a month into his retirement last fall when he stoked the social media fire by tweeting at pro Chesson Hadley, who took to Twitter to say he hadn’t seen his family in three weeks and was pleading with United Airlines after a frustrating and lengthy travel day.

“Hey man, the money ain’t always worth it,” Peterson responded. “I saw my family today, and yesterday, and the day before that, and that, and that, and that, and that. #fam”

Hadley and fellow pro Kelly Kraft weren’t thrilled by Peterson’s reply.

On Wednesday, Peterson told ESPN 1045 that his son is now 18 months old and his newborn daughter is two weeks old.

“I spent two and a half, three years of my PGA Tour career not really giving it everything I had,” Peterson said. “With life and babies and everything that came with that, I wasn’t able to really concentrate 100 percent on golf, and now that we are done with our second kid, if I’m gonna do it, now is the time. So I made the decision about a week ago with my wife to quit my job and get back to pro golf full time. So it’s gonna be a long road back, but I’m ready for it and know I’m good enough to compete at the highest level.”

Peterson’s route back will start with Monday qualifiers. Earlier this week he just missed qualifying for a Web.com event.

“I’m taking a big risk,” Peterson said. “I don’t really have any place to play right now 100 percent, so I got to qualify and stuff. But I will get back, I know I will.”

You can listen to a portion of Peterson’s interview on ESPN 1045 below.

The post How the 2019 Masters inspired retired pro John Peterson to return to pro golf (again) appeared first on Golf.

]]> https://www.golf.com/?p=14172083 Fri, 26 Oct 2018 19:55:12 +0000 <![CDATA[Pro roasts retired Tour player John Peterson: ‘Don't knock us for living our dream’]]> Outspoken retired Tour pro John Peterson's Tuesday Twitter missive miffed at least one of his former colleagues, Kelly Kraft.

The post Pro roasts retired Tour player John Peterson: ‘Don’t knock us for living our dream’ appeared first on Golf.

]]> https://golf.com/news/kelly-kraft-roasts-retired-john-peterson/ Outspoken retired Tour pro John Peterson's Tuesday Twitter missive miffed at least one of his former colleagues, Kelly Kraft.

The post Pro roasts retired Tour player John Peterson: ‘Don’t knock us for living our dream’ appeared first on Golf.

]]> Outspoken retired Tour pro John Peterson's Tuesday Twitter missive miffed at least one of his former colleagues, Kelly Kraft.

The post Pro roasts retired Tour player John Peterson: ‘Don’t knock us for living our dream’ appeared first on Golf.

]]>

John Peterson’s on-again, off-again 2018 retirement tour captured the attention of many hardcore golf fans. But the outspoken former Tour player’s Tuesday Twitter missive miffed at least one of his former colleagues, Kelly Kraft. “Don’t knock us for living our dream,” Kraft wrote, later adding that he thought Peterson was “out of bounds.” The comment clearly struck a nerve. Where’d it come from?

The retiree

John Peterson’s retirement tour began in early 2018, when he needed a series of high finishes to help retain his card. He made it clear from the start: retirement or not, everything was good by him. “I just don’t enjoy the travel out here very much,” Peterson said in May. “I just like being at home and I like being around my family and friends more than I like chasing it around here.”

He stayed consistent on that message, at least in interviews. Whether he retained his PGA Tour card for the next season or not didn’t really matter to him, he insisted — until that card loss became a reality. At the Greenbrier, Peterson rallied with a Sunday 66 to finish in an eight-way tie for 13th.

“I thought that I’d done it, no problem, even gave a fist pump,” Peterson told Golf Channel. “And then they get into the tent and said, ‘It’s going to be close.’ They told me what I really needed. It just sucked.” As it turned out, a six-way tie for 13th would have given him conditional status for 2019, but the eight-way tie knocked him out. Brutal.

But that wasn’t the end of it. There was a last-second call to the Barbasol Championship just a week later, where he finished T21. That led him to the Web.com Tour Finals, where he missed three of four cuts. That has led to a more convincing long-term retirement. Which led us to Tuesday.

The current player

Chesson Hadley is cognizant of the challenges of life on Tour. The North Carolina resident had a long way to travel to get back from the CJ Cup in South Korea, and Seoul to Raleigh is not a direct flight. On his way back, he lobbed a plea in the direction of United. “Would love to see the kids in the morning,” he wrote.

It wasn’t to be. Hadley updated his status later on to show just how long he’d been traveling — already more than 24 hours. “I am handling it okay, but I’m gonna need to get on a therapist’s couch to yell and scream for a little when I get home,” he wrote.

The jab

John Peterson saw what was happening and must have recognized some of his own internal struggle in the back-and-forth. He chimed in on Twitter.John Peterson

Hadley referenced him to the T2 he had posted in Malaysia two weeks prior, a finish that earned him more than $500k. “I would agree for my last event. T73 wasn’t worth this. But the one before that was,” Hadley wrote.

The objection

Kelly Kraft didn’t take as kindly to Peterson’s contribution, snapping back with message telling the former pro to step off.

“Don’t knock us on the PGA Tour for living our dream of playing golf at the highest level,” Kraft wrote. “Especially when you know damn well you would be too if you didn’t lose your status.” This, too, had deeper roots. Suffice it to say Kraft has been a bit of a skeptic for the duration of Peterson’s retirement. He repeatedly gave Peterson a hard time for his musings on a post-Tour lifestyle.

First there was a jab about Peterson’s early retirement.

Then there was a critique of Peterson’s mindset.

When Peterson mentioned getting his amateur status back, Kraft was ready for that, too.

All that added up to what appeared to be the last straw when Kraft felt slighted by Peterson’s commentary on Hadley’s feed. Still, if you believe Kraft’s followup, there are no hard feelings. The two are longtime friends; we’re inclined to take Kraft at his word.

The resolution

In the aftermath of the exchange, one thing visibly changed: John Peterson changed his Twitter settings to match his new preferred lifestyle: he set his account to “private.”

John Peterson
John Peterson has made his Twitter account private.

John Peterson’s on-again, off-again 2018 retirement tour captured the attention of many hardcore golf fans. But the outspoken former Tour player’s Tuesday Twitter missive miffed at least one of his former colleagues, Kelly Kraft. “Don’t knock us for living our dream,” Kraft wrote, later adding that he thought Peterson was “out of bounds.” The comment clearly struck a nerve. Where’d it come from?

The retiree

John Peterson’s retirement tour began in early 2018, when he needed a series of high finishes to help retain his card. He made it clear from the start: retirement or not, everything was good by him. “I just don’t enjoy the travel out here very much,” Peterson said in May. “I just like being at home and I like being around my family and friends more than I like chasing it around here.”

He stayed consistent on that message, at least in interviews. Whether he retained his PGA Tour card for the next season or not didn’t really matter to him, he insisted — until that card loss became a reality. At the Greenbrier, Peterson rallied with a Sunday 66 to finish in an eight-way tie for 13th.

“I thought that I’d done it, no problem, even gave a fist pump,” Peterson told Golf Channel. “And then they get into the tent and said, ‘It’s going to be close.’ They told me what I really needed. It just sucked.” As it turned out, a six-way tie for 13th would have given him conditional status for 2019, but the eight-way tie knocked him out. Brutal.

But that wasn’t the end of it. There was a last-second call to the Barbasol Championship just a week later, where he finished T21. That led him to the Web.com Tour Finals, where he missed three of four cuts. That has led to a more convincing long-term retirement. Which led us to Tuesday.

The current player

Chesson Hadley is cognizant of the challenges of life on Tour. The North Carolina resident had a long way to travel to get back from the CJ Cup in South Korea, and Seoul to Raleigh is not a direct flight. On his way back, he lobbed a plea in the direction of United. “Would love to see the kids in the morning,” he wrote.

It wasn’t to be. Hadley updated his status later on to show just how long he’d been traveling — already more than 24 hours. “I am handling it okay, but I’m gonna need to get on a therapist’s couch to yell and scream for a little when I get home,” he wrote.

The jab

John Peterson saw what was happening and must have recognized some of his own internal struggle in the back-and-forth. He chimed in on Twitter.John Peterson

Hadley referenced him to the T2 he had posted in Malaysia two weeks prior, a finish that earned him more than $500k. “I would agree for my last event. T73 wasn’t worth this. But the one before that was,” Hadley wrote.

The objection

Kelly Kraft didn’t take as kindly to Peterson’s contribution, snapping back with message telling the former pro to step off.

“Don’t knock us on the PGA Tour for living our dream of playing golf at the highest level,” Kraft wrote. “Especially when you know damn well you would be too if you didn’t lose your status.” This, too, had deeper roots. Suffice it to say Kraft has been a bit of a skeptic for the duration of Peterson’s retirement. He repeatedly gave Peterson a hard time for his musings on a post-Tour lifestyle.

First there was a jab about Peterson’s early retirement.

Then there was a critique of Peterson’s mindset.

When Peterson mentioned getting his amateur status back, Kraft was ready for that, too.

All that added up to what appeared to be the last straw when Kraft felt slighted by Peterson’s commentary on Hadley’s feed. Still, if you believe Kraft’s followup, there are no hard feelings. The two are longtime friends; we’re inclined to take Kraft at his word.

The resolution

In the aftermath of the exchange, one thing visibly changed: John Peterson changed his Twitter settings to match his new preferred lifestyle: he set his account to “private.”

John Peterson
John Peterson has made his Twitter account private.

The post Pro roasts retired Tour player John Peterson: ‘Don’t knock us for living our dream’ appeared first on Golf.

]]> https://www.golf.com/?p=14116876 Fri, 24 Aug 2018 18:38:22 +0000 <![CDATA[WATCH: John Peterson, fighting for Tour card, snaps putter over knee]]> Peterson made it perfectly clear how frustrated he was with his putting during the first round of the Web.com Tour Finals.

The post WATCH: John Peterson, fighting for Tour card, snaps putter over knee appeared first on Golf.

]]> https://golf.com/news/john-peterson-snaps-putter-knee/ Peterson made it perfectly clear how frustrated he was with his putting during the first round of the Web.com Tour Finals.

The post WATCH: John Peterson, fighting for Tour card, snaps putter over knee appeared first on Golf.

]]> Peterson made it perfectly clear how frustrated he was with his putting during the first round of the Web.com Tour Finals.

The post WATCH: John Peterson, fighting for Tour card, snaps putter over knee appeared first on Golf.

]]>

No matter where his long-term focus lies, John Peterson showed that he is still susceptible to golf’s day-to-day frustrations when he snapped his putter over his knee on the 15th hole on Thursday. Peterson has been in and out of headlines all year as he teeters on the edge of PGA Tour status and has made his intentions clear: if he loses his status, he will retire at age 29.

“Don’t care either way bud. I hate the tour life. Not how it looks from the outside,” he wrote to one fan on Twitter earlier in the season. 

John Peterson put together a terrific round on Sunday, but it wasn't quite enough.
You may also like ‘The system is brutal’: John Peterson comes up agonizingly short of earning conditional status, will likely retire

Peterson is playing the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship this week, the first of four Web.com Finals events. Twenty-five pros will earn their cards at the conclusion of the four events. “Gonna give this pro golf tour deal one last push,” Peterson wrote in the leadup to the event. He teed on on No. 10 on Thursday, and it didn’t take long for to betray him. According to his scorecard, Peterson three-putted 11 and 13 and missed a par putt at 14. He missed two putts at No. 15, too, before holing his third effort from five feet.

Peterson plucked his ball from the hole and slowly stalked towards his bag before deciding to take action: he took his putter to the front of his knee, just above the shin, and snapped it in two. “Most crisp break of all time,” Peterson tweeted later.

With 12 holes remaining, Peterson turned to his wedge and found greater success. He made two-putt pars on 16, 17 and 18 using the belly of the wedge. “Should’ve seen how nice I rolled it after that with the 52 degree,” Peterson tweeted. He finished his round very respectably, notching three one-putts and not a single two-putt with the wedge. He finished with a first-round four-over 75.

The post WATCH: John Peterson, fighting for Tour card, snaps putter over knee appeared first on Golf.

]]> https://www.golf.com/?p=14068516 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 20:58:21 +0000 <![CDATA['The system is brutal': John Peterson comes up agonizingly short of earning conditional status, will likely retire]]> "It's been a fun ride @PGATOUR," John Peterson tweeted after failing to earn PGA Tour status. "The system is brutal, and aggravating."

The post ‘The system is brutal’: John Peterson comes up agonizingly short of earning conditional status, will likely retire appeared first on Golf.

]]> https://golf.com/news/john-peterson/ "It's been a fun ride @PGATOUR," John Peterson tweeted after failing to earn PGA Tour status. "The system is brutal, and aggravating."

The post ‘The system is brutal’: John Peterson comes up agonizingly short of earning conditional status, will likely retire appeared first on Golf.

]]> "It's been a fun ride @PGATOUR," John Peterson tweeted after failing to earn PGA Tour status. "The system is brutal, and aggravating."

The post ‘The system is brutal’: John Peterson comes up agonizingly short of earning conditional status, will likely retire appeared first on Golf.

]]>

It appears that John Peterson, who said he was either going to earn enough points for PGA Tour conditional status or retire, has come up just short of the former.

This week’s A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier was the 29-year-old’s final start under a medical extension, meaning it was also his final chance at conditional status.

Peterson, the 2011 NCAA champion, closed with a four-under 66 on Sunday and, based on his tweet afterward, knew he was close to earning the FedEx Cup points needed to obtain his goal.

He ended up T13 — his best finish since he was T12 at the 2017 Waste Management Phoenix Open — but his next tweet, however, said it wasn’t enough. He needed 55.33 FedEx Cup points to gain conditional status, but instead earned 54.75, just 0.58 points short.

“It’s been a fun ride @PGATOUR,” Peterson’s tweet began. “The system is brutal, and aggravating,” he wrote in an attached note. “Maybe there is an error in there…”

Peterson earned $518,496 in his Web.com Tour career and $2.168 million in 91 PGA Tour starts. He battled injuries recently and made 26 starts the last three years after making 25 in each of 2014 and 2015. His best finish was a T4 at the 2012 U.S. Open.

He’s said several times he’s content with ending his career if he doesn’t get conditional status, and based on how his tweet read on Sunday, he seems ready to hang it up.

“I just don’t enjoy the travel out here very much; I don’t like it at all, honestly,” he told Golf Channel earlier this season. Peterson and his wife had their first child, a boy, in October. “… Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate it out here. They treat you great every week. You have nothing to worry about. I like it a lot out here. I just kind of want to be a dad and like be around my kid and my family more often.”

Peterson, however, can always change his mind and battle his way back onto the PGA Tour through Web.com Tour Finals in the fall if he has enough FedEx Cup points to enter the qualifying. Nos. 126-200 on the FedEx Cup points list at the end of the season get a spot in the field with the goal to earn one of the 25 PGA Tour cards available. Peterson is currently 184th in those standings.

The post ‘The system is brutal’: John Peterson comes up agonizingly short of earning conditional status, will likely retire appeared first on Golf.

]]> https://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/2018/05/04/its-just-not-for-me-why-the-first-round-leader-at-quail-hollow-could-retire-after-this-season/ Fri, 04 May 2018 09:43:00 +0000 <![CDATA['It's just not for me': Why the first-round leader at Quail Hollow could retire after this season]]> Peterson was once a can't-miss star, but injuries derailed his career. The unlikely Round 1 leader says he may soon retire to spend time with his family.

The post ‘It’s just not for me’: Why the first-round leader at Quail Hollow could retire after this season appeared first on Golf.

]]> https://golf.com/news/tournaments/its-just-not-for-me-why-the-first-round-leader-at-quail-hollow-could-retire-after-this-season/ Peterson was once a can't-miss star, but injuries derailed his career. The unlikely Round 1 leader says he may soon retire to spend time with his family.

The post ‘It’s just not for me’: Why the first-round leader at Quail Hollow could retire after this season appeared first on Golf.

]]> Peterson was once a can't-miss star, but injuries derailed his career. The unlikely Round 1 leader says he may soon retire to spend time with his family.

The post ‘It’s just not for me’: Why the first-round leader at Quail Hollow could retire after this season appeared first on Golf.

]]>

John Peterson is an unlikely leader after Round 1 at the Wells Fargo Championship. And you might want to take note of his name on a leaderboard — it’s possible that he’ll soon move on to life after golf.

Peterson shot a six-under 65 Thursday, fueled by back-to-back eagles on the par-5 7th and par-4 8th, but despite the hot start, he revealed to Golf Channel that he’s considering retirement if he’s unable to maintain his Tour card through his medical exemption. The 29-year-old is a new father, and completely content to hang it up and spend more time with his growing family.

“I just don’t enjoy the travel out here very much,” he told Golf Channel. “I don’t like it at all, honestly. … Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate it out here. They treat you great every week. You have nothing to worry about. I like it a lot out here. I just kind of want to be a dad and like be around my kid and my family more often, even though, yeah, they’re here this week, but they can’t come every week. Thirty-five weeks on the road a year or so? It’s just not for me. …

“They want to see more of me around Fort Worth, I want to see more of them. It’s a great life out here. It’s a great life out here, if you like the lifestyle.”

Peterson has struggled with hand injury and he’ll need 237 FedEx points or $318,096 in his next three events, including Quail Hollow, to keep his card. He’s a former All-American at LSU and won the NCAA individual championship in 2011, but things haven’t clicked at the pro level. He’s never won a Tour event, and his best finish at a major is a T4 at the 2012 U.S. Open.

But through 18 holes at Quail Hollow he’s ahead of some of the biggest names in the sport: Woods, McIlroy, Mickelson. He’ll give it his best shot this week and let the chips fall.

The post ‘It’s just not for me’: Why the first-round leader at Quail Hollow could retire after this season appeared first on Golf.

]]> https://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/2018/05/04/john-peterson-surges-into-wells-fargo-lead/ Thu, 03 May 2018 20:38:00 +0000 <![CDATA[John Peterson surges into Wells Fargo lead]]> Round of even par seemed well in the mix after round one, but then John Peterson came to life with a pair of late eagles and a round of 65.

The post John Peterson surges into Wells Fargo lead appeared first on Golf.

]]> https://golf.com/news/tournaments/john-peterson-surges-into-wells-fargo-lead/ Round of even par seemed well in the mix after round one, but then John Peterson came to life with a pair of late eagles and a round of 65.

The post John Peterson surges into Wells Fargo lead appeared first on Golf.

]]> Round of even par seemed well in the mix after round one, but then John Peterson came to life with a pair of late eagles and a round of 65.

The post John Peterson surges into Wells Fargo lead appeared first on Golf.

]]>

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Tiger Woods figured his even-par 71 in his return to Quail Hollow would keep him and everyone else fairly close to the lead at the Wells Fargo Championship.

That was before John Peterson came to life late Thursday afternoon. Peterson holed a bunker shot for eagle, holed a wedge from the fairway for eagle on the next hole, and wound up with a 65.

Peterson had a two-shot lead over five players, from Quail Hollow member Johnson Wagner to PGA Tour rookie Keith Mitchell.

Two-time winner Rory McIlroy was in the group at 68.

Woods was six shots behind after a day in which he struggled to get his speed right on the greens.

The post John Peterson surges into Wells Fargo lead appeared first on Golf.

]]>