Jeff Sluman - Part 2 (College and Early Tour Life)

Outro Music 0:10

It went straight down the middle. Then it started to do that.

Bruce Devlin 0:15

So uh first college experience was at uh Tennessee Tech, correct?

Jeff Sluman 0:22

No, I was uh not recruited at all. Um and I went to Monroe Community College in Rochester.

Bruce Devlin 0:31

Okay.

Jeff Sluman 0:31

And then um this was kind of funny. My you know, I'm 17 and uh you know going back to the 13 years old and even starting when I was 10, um I might as well it's not anything to hide or anything, but I was pretty sick as a as a kid. Um and so you know, I had my brothers in that there, and uh sick in the fact I had a kidney disease, and I was on prednisone for six years, a lot of it.

Bruce Devlin 1:10

So stopped stopped my growth.

Jeff Sluman 1:14

I looked like my I had a face out to here, and I remember when I won the this the sub junior district, then the paper ran an article, and I was 13 at the time, golf's mighty might, four foot six, a hundred and eighty-five pounds. That's how fat I looked. Whoa, and I was actually 85 pounds, so you know, it was uh from that aspect, it wasn't a great childhood, but you know, so then all that went on and on, and it stopped my growth, and you know, I mean school wasn't fun, and I had a great group of a couple of dear friends that are still dear friends of this day. And when I uh went back after being bedridden for a year, my classmates didn't even know who I was. I mean, I changed my look so dramatically and then finally got off of this stuff uh when I was 16 and took other stuff to try and get my body to grow, at least to where I'm at now at about five, six and a half. Um, and that happened all over the summer. I came back and they didn't know who I was again. So I mean it was a weird kind of way to grow up, right? So now um I have a good, you know, I guess a good summer, but I was I I remember that conversation with my father, done with high school, and he said, What are you gonna do? I said, Well, you know, uh it's been kind of rough, you know, this this whole thing. And I'm here I'm 17 telling my father it's kind of rough and he's making shift work. Um I said, you know, I'm thinking of I'm thinking of taking like a year or year off and kind of decide what I want to do. He said, That's great. Where are you gonna live?

Mike Gonzalez 3:06

I said, I love I love that.

Jeff Sluman 3:08

I said, Well, what do you what are you talking about? He said, Well, you gotta go get a job. You know, you're gonna have to find a place to live, an apartment, you're gonna have to buy a car, you're gonna I said so. We walk I walked away and I told him the next day, I'm going to college. Quick change. So yeah, I went, I drive, I drove to Monroe Community College, which is about a 20-minute drive, and uh signed off for a fall, fall semester, and that's really where it kind of started, actually, because we we had a good base of uh kids like me from Rochester that uh played a lot of golf, and we had a really a heck of a team. We went to the NC double NC Ju junior junior club, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 4:01

JUCO stuff, yeah.

Jeff Sluman 4:02

Junior JUCO, yeah. National championships, and somehow I finished second team All-American. So that got me one scholarship offer to Tennessee Tech. So that's where the Tennessee Tech came in. So I w I went down there, and you talk about your eyes bulging out of your forehead. Oh my goodness.

Mike Gonzalez 4:25

It was quite a uh little culture shock from a kid from New York, huh? Oh yeah.

Jeff Sluman 4:30

Oh yeah. Quite a difference. Um and you know, it you you grow up. You grow up in a hurry when you're uh first time really on the not on the road, but kind of living and and all that. We lived in the back of a pro shop. And I'm not kidding, I'm not embellishing it all, I'm not wanting to do that. In the back of a pro shop with a loaded shotgun, in case anybody tried to break in. No, no doors, no windows. I mean, if something happened and went on fire, I mean we were we couldn't get out. I didn't think of that. Um three of us just on a cot and 15-minute drive to the campus. And all I did was go to school, come back, and play and practice. And that really honestly, it was good for me, but it on the other hand, it was uh it was a challenge for sure, especially especially when the pipes froze in the winter and we had running water. So you can I'm only I'm never gonna go too much further than that. You can only imagine what it was like they had no running water and it was freezing cold.

Mike Gonzalez 5:47

The other thing that was going on back then, and I don't know if it impacted you at this school, but Title IX was just kicking in.

Jeff Sluman 5:54

Well, that was my first year, and interestingly enough, they canceled the golf program because of that. So I I left, uh, came back to M Monroe Community College and got my two-year degree because it was going to transfer better. Uh and I walked on to Florida State. Uh, I had a friend there that uh was a freshman at the time. He was from my club and he was on the golf team. He had won the state junior, and they gave him a little bit of help to go down there. Had he gone to South Florida or University of Florida, that's where I would have gone. But he went to Florida State and I had met the coach. You know, it's it's interesting how this all works out because the NCAA championship the year before was up at Colgate, which is an hour's drive from Rochester. And Dave Buff, the friend of mine, he was committed to FSU, and I went and met the coach, and the coach said, anything I can do for you, Coach Veller, he said, just let me know. So it was January 1 and one suitcase, golf bag, and I flew down there. I had maybe it wasn't January 1, January 3 or 4, but literally flew down. I wasn't in the school, admitted yet. I had no place to stay, I had no automobile, nothing. I always kind of figured I could figure things out, you know, quickly. Yeah, and I went in there and surprised him and said, Hey coach, here I am. And he got me in school. Classes had started that day, got me in school, and I found a uh place to to stay off campus on a or campus housing. Yeah, and that's how that started. I had to sit out a year though, because I was a transfer at the time. Ah, okay.

Mike Gonzalez 7:58

So it worked out good.

Jeff Sluman 7:59

I practiced for a year.

Mike Gonzalez 8:01

Who'd y'all play with down there? Who was all on the team back in that day?

Jeff Sluman 8:05

Oh, you know, uh Kenny Knox had just left, and he was the best player they'd had at that point. Uh nobody really that made the tour. Um after I left, Azinger came in, and then Nolan Hankey, and then John to uh Jonathan Blix and all those guys, and we got a great coach there now that he's producing great kids, yeah, demanding they get educated, but they're also great players. So we're very happy with Coach Jones and what he's done. But at the time, uh nobody that uh the golf people would know as far as making it on the PJ tour. But uh, you know, it was it was fun, uh it was a good atmosphere, a lot of competition, and you know, your game again, all of a sudden, this is the first time in my life really I've been able to play year-round. Your game just elevates. And I always thought that that was pretty uh pretty important that I wasn't burned out. A lot of the Florida kids came there and they were burnt out. They've been playing golf or had the opportunity to play golf every day of their life. And I really only played three or four months at a time. Tennessee tech was a little different. We probably played, you know eight, nine months. You know, it was kind of got a little junky there in the hills, uh, a little coal. But now all of a sudden I'm seeing this dramatic improvement in my game, the ability to practice. Um, it was it was really good stuff for me.

Mike Gonzalez 9:50

So when when when did the thought sort of enter your mind, uh, hey, maybe I want to do this for a living?

Jeff Sluman 9:56

Well, it was always there. I just knew I wasn't I I shouldn't say I I always knew I didn't think it was possible for that to happen. Um especially, you know, I'm a kid from Greece, New York, for gosh sakes. Uh nobody nobody plays the PGA tour from Greece, New York. I mean, it's just it's unheard of. And you know, I frankly I didn't have any resume that would say, Yeah, you're you're a you're gonna make it, kid. No, no, no chance. So um eventually after sitting out a year, and then I my junior year I played really well and for the most part played number one on the team. Grant Turner was another wonderful player from England, good friend, and Stephen Kepler, another English kid, came over. Um, so we had a really nice team. And uh then my senior year I I catch Mono, and I'm down and out and playing bad and tired, and uh, you know, I didn't really make the team until late in my senior year. So I guess that begs the question, Michael, if I'm thinking of playing professional golf and I can't make my college team my senior year, what am I thinking about, right? Well, I mean, you gotta be realistic. Yeah, sure. But I think a lot of it had to do with, you know, kind of being ill. And uh, you know, it's just uh, but I worked my way through it, and the whole turning point was qualifying for the U.S. Open in 1980 as an amateur. So I I got through the Jacksonville uh local, and then I went to where the tour guys are in Atlanta. Never seen Atlanta Country Club. It's 90 degrees. Uh playing 36 holes, I'm carrying my own bag, never seen the golf course, no yardage book, and I make it easy. 41 spots, 164 players, one for four. You know, and it was just funny how your mind works, Bruce. You know, I said, Oh god, I can't get one and four. What am I, you know, what am I, some sort of hacker? But you're playing against 92 players from the Atlanta classics, right? You know? Yeah. But I was just, your mind is it can be very good and it can be very bad in golf.

Mike Gonzalez 12:24

Yeah. So off you go to Baltasroll.

Jeff Sluman 12:28

Off I go to Baltasar, and you know, this is kind of honestly kind of out of way out of the blue. And I'm hitting balls on the range, and here comes Jack Nicholas, here comes Sevy, here comes Tom Weiskoff, there's Trevino, there's Tom Watson. And I'm not saying I was in their caliber, but I'm looking at other guys. And Wayne Levy took me under his wing. He was from Herkimer, New York. Played a couple practice rounds with him and Keith Fergus and uh Phil Hancock. And I kind of got done with all of it and played well. I missed the cut really virtually because of inexperience. And I said, I can I can play with these guys. I mean, I can I had a great knack for putting the golf ball into the center of the club. The rest of the stuff I thought I could learn. I just needed a little time because I didn't have any experience, really. And uh, so that was the reason I turned pro.

Mike Gonzalez 13:32

Simple as that. Just like 1967 at Baldus Rolljack, Nicholas won that one. You you were probably there that year too, weren't you, Bruce? I was there for sure.

Bruce Devlin 13:42

I don't think I played very well, though. If my memory serves me well.

Jeff Sluman 13:52

Well, we can't play well in all of them, but uh, you know, the USGA, I always liked their setup. I thought it was usually uh very fair but very difficult. Very difficult. And they did separate, yeah, they they separated the players uh as much mentally as anything else. If you come into a locker room, Michael, and I think Bruce will agree with me, and you hear 20, 30, 50 percent of the guys complaining of that, yeah, all you gotta do is beat the other 50. Right, correct. Because they're waiting for something bad to happen or a bad break, and uh, what the heck am I doing here?

Mike Gonzalez 14:33

You know, I miss the county.

Jeff Sluman 14:35

I always liked those kinds, I liked it like that.

Mike Gonzalez 14:38

Yeah, yeah, that that's that's that's come up a lot as we've talked to the uh the guys and the and the women, uh Jeff, in terms of mindset that you you can identify in the locker room the guys you already have beat because they've beaten themselves.

Jeff Sluman 14:50

Yeah. If you're a grinder and you say, you know what, I'm never gonna give up. Uh look how many. As great as Tiger was, that might be his one his most redeeming uh golf trade is this guy never gives up. No, he grinds every shot, and he I know he's won tournaments with his C game just because he ground it out and then found something. And it it it was it's so good just to to have that mentality, but not everybody's got it, right?

Mike Gonzalez 15:26

Yeah, yeah. You know where it came up a lot uh is as we talked about Augusta National, you know, going to the first major of every year. You'd be surprising how many of our major winning and World Golf Hall of Fame guests came into Augusta, Georgia with a bad attitude.

Jeff Sluman 15:46

Man, this is what you've worked your whole life for to get to this position. Yeah, yeah, to play the Masters, you know. Craig Harman, you know, his father, Claude, won the Masters in 47, 48, something like that. Um, you know, Craig, I had turned pro and I'd gotten on tour. And he said, come on, you know, you can you can come to the Masters, you know. We always all the Hartmans would go there. And I said, I'm not going until I can drive down Magnolia Lane, since I've earned that right. And I never thought I'd be able to drive down Magnolia Lane, and 17 times I was able to drive down there, earn my right. So that was pretty nice. But you're excited. You know, I want most of the time after you've played at a bunch of events, you don't want to get there on Monday. You you barely want to get there Tuesday and play a practice round and the pro am on Wednesday. Man, I want I got to Augusta Sunday night so I could be there in the morning and register and just just take it all in. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 16:49

Yeah. So let's let's go back to 1980. Uh yeah. You've been able to play in the US Open and uh and so that now that decision is uh is in front of you. Do I do I try this professionally? Who was all involved in that and how easy was that to make that decision?

Jeff Sluman 17:05

Well, it was easy because I I didn't know what else I could do.

Mike Gonzalez 17:09

No plan B?

Jeff Sluman 17:10

Yeah, nope, no really plan B. Um, you know, I'm I'm sure I would have found something, obviously. Um but once that once I realized I could do it, um it really catapulted me to, you know, taking this a little more. I'm I'm not saying more serious. I mean I I I really started like this is what I gotta do. This is this is gonna be my hopefully my livelihood, my life, um, you know, and just kind of doubled the effort, I guess you could say. And I had a really nice summer as far as playing, played well, won some tournaments, and you know, I announced I was turning pro, and you know, frankly, and I don't blame them. I would not I'm not gonna name any individuals because I don't know, but essentially the the golfing public in Rochester I know kind of laughed when I said I'm gonna turn pro. You know, what's he? How's he gonna do this? You know, there's no chance, you know. I mean, everybody wants to turn pro. Everybody that was closing in on 50, well, I'm just gonna join the champions tour. You know, I mean, everybody has this, I mean, I don't know how many times Bruce has heard that oh the club champ here, he's gonna join the champions tour in two years. I'm like, oh, oh, really? Okay, good luck with that.

Mike Gonzalez 18:37

Good luck.

Jeff Sluman 18:38

Yeah, you know, I mean, it's it's a tough league. I mean, it's just really difficult. So um I did it and and never really looked back.

Mike Gonzalez 18:50

Well, let's talk uh about the career of Jeff Slumman. Get him out on tour. He turned pro as we talked about in 1980. We're 22 years old. Uh, as Bruce said at the top, 18 professional wins, including six wins on the PG Tour and six wins on the Tour Champions uh uh league, as you will. Uh it is a tough league, isn't it? Guys thought they they could still play.

Jeff Sluman 19:15

Yeah, it's uh you know it it's interesting. We have that's this saying that on on the tour, I I shot 79 today, and 90% of the guys don't care, and the other 10% wish you shot 80.

unknown 19:30

Yeah.

Jeff Sluman 19:30

I mean, that's just the way it is. It's the way it is. I mean, I'm trying to take I'm trying to beat Bruce and take money out of his pocket and put it in mine.

Bruce Devlin 19:39

Correct.

Jeff Sluman 19:40

Now, you you get you get around that mentally by saying I'm I'm really playing the golf course. Um if we played match play like basically tennis does every week, there wouldn't be the friendships out there that that are are had. I mean it just wouldn't. You're right. It would be it would be a little ugly. And guys wouldn't get along and wouldn't hang together. Um but we've mentally always said I'm playing the golf course. And I think that's a the biggest difference in in golf to almost any other sport.

Mike Gonzalez 20:17

Yeah, yeah. Well, Jeff had one major the 1988 PGA championship, which we'll talk about uh because uh while it took you a while to win, and and by the way, you alluded to this earlier about the kids coming out today, how much different they are, you know, ready to win. I think back to that infamous interview that uh that Curtis Strange had with young Tiger Woods at the GMO at his first tournament. And we talked to Curtis about this, and and and uh it got a lot of play because it was like the 25th anniversary of this interview or 20th or whatever. But you know, he basically uh was telling Tiger, man, you you think you're gonna win every week, but it's tough out here, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 20:59

Yeah, he said something and the curves. Well, wait till he comes out here and sees a you know, okay. Well, he came out, he saw, he conquered.

Mike Gonzalez 21:08

Yeah, as I tell my friends, he didn't realize he was talking to Tiger F and Woods, you know, because anybody else, and it would have been, you know, yeah, we okay. But but it's changed, hasn't it, Jeff? It took a while to win. It took a lot of guys uh some time, a lot of guys to to understand how to win. Uh today the kids, it's it's a different deal, isn't it?

Jeff Sluman 21:30

Yeah, they're just so ready. Uh I alluded earlier in the interview that um you know I played one or two maybe national events, a couple of state events, mostly local stuff. Um I see the AJGA and what they do, and um you know, I I think the kids now are able to take money, and even some kids have NIL stuff going on, and and but they're playing a full schedule against. Not only national, probably international, is I mean, the they're finding out early on who do I got to beat now so that when we all get on tour, I know I can beat them then. You know, I mean it's that way. And uh they're crossing paths all the time, and I think they they get they get really sharp very quickly now.

Mike Gonzalez 22:23

Yeah, well, as we talk about turning pro 1980, first win is a major 88. We're gonna come to that, but Bruce always likes to ask Yeah, what happened between turning pro and winning?

Bruce Devlin 22:36

Life, right?

Jeff Sluman 22:39

Yeah, life happens, and I had I had six tour schools I went through. I was not any immediate success. I I missed the tour school by just a few shots, and this is actually pretty lucky. Um, I went to the fall school and they only took 25 players at the time at Disney World, and I was right in there, and I I finished 29th, I believe. Probably the best break of my life, because I would not have been ready back then in the fall of 80 to come out and try and four-spot, or not four-spot, but try and Monday qualify for the tour. Just wouldn't have been ready. It might have it might have ruined my confidence so much that but you know I was close. So again, I'm seeing all this progress. And then uh went and played the mini tours, JC Goosey in in uh Orlando, and that was tough. You you put up the money, essentially, Goosey was taking 30%, he's paying out 70, 168 players, 50 guys get paid. I mean, it's cutthroat. You better you better learn how to play, and you better learn how to play from the opening t-shot because it's 36 holes. And then what are you gonna do the next five days to the next tournament? I mean, it your time management better be good. You better be mature, you better, you know, practice and find a place to play, which was really difficult at the time. So did that, and then I went over on the Asian tour in uh '82 and played over there for ten straight weeks. That was an eye-opener. Oh man. You know, one suitcase, 10 weeks on the road. But you grow up in a hurry and you you find out. The thing that the Asian tour did for me was I found out I loved this game. Give me more of this. Give me a every week, different country, getting on planes. I loved it. So, you know, I was one of the four or five guys, they start with 50 Americans, the four or five guys that stayed for the 10 straight weeks. Everybody would get tired or homesick or whatever, miss cuts, and they'd go home. Not me, man. I was if it was 20 weeks, I'd I'd have been there for 20.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

Were there were there any really low points in that stretch from 80 to 88?

Jeff Sluman 25:09

Oh, a lot of low points. Uh I had a bad elbow. I I popped an ulnar nerve out on my right elbow. That was painful. That was a couple of months off. And, you know, I had to let it heal. Um, you know, we you keep getting dirt kicked in your face. You don't make the tour school first time, second time, third time. Now you're like, what am I doing? Right? But I was winning some mini-tour events at the time and playing well on Asia. And then I get my card in the fall of 1982, and 1983 is going to be the first year of the all-exempt tour on PGA. Um, and just like everything, uh the tour does the very best you can, but this was a new format. And I was the last guy to get my card at uh in Jacksonville. So I was the 50th guy. And at the time there was no reshuffle opportunities and and all that. Um so I only played, I think my third or fourth tournament was at the end of May at that time. So I'm so far behind the eight ball, getting no experience and and nowhere else to play, I lose my card. So now you're, oh my goodness, I I climbed the ladder, Bruce. I got all the way to the tour, and now I don't have any place to play. Yeah. Because of my where I was on the you know, yeah, order of uh the the list, the priority list. So then I missed my card again. I'm like, oh my god, what am I doing? So back to Asia in '84. And I said to myself, this is it. If I don't get this thing done uh in the fall of 84, uh I gotta find a job. This is nuts. So I went to Europe and finished second in the tour school there, flew back over. Robert Wren was number one. We flew back over and went to uh Palm Springs. We had our final school there, and I got through relatively speaking pretty easily. Uh better spot, uh played more, and off and away I went. Um, won the Tallahassee open in 85, and now all of a sudden, you know, very fortunate, the world's my oyster, and I kind of figured it out. I figured it out for me, what I had to do. And I I can't pinpoint it. I don't know if Bruce, you could pinpoint when it clicked, what what you did maybe differently than other players. Um but you know, I had my nephews ask me, they've uh played professionally, and unfortunately neither of them got to the tour, they both got to PGA Latino America and Corn Ferry and that. But one guy, my one nephew, he said, What's the secret? I said, Well, I don't know what the secret is, but I just figured out how to play. And I said, I can't help you out. I mean, I wish I wish there was something. If if I could, I'd I could sell it for millions of dollars. But I think everybody's got a little, there's a little tweak in there. You gotta figure out what works for you and what doesn't. And and um like I said, I I figured it out and it's been uh it's been pretty good.

Mike Gonzalez 28:44

Thank you for listening to another episode of For the Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Outro Music 29:08

It went smack down a fair way. As long as you're still in the stage, okay. It went straight down the middle.