The line between surreal and real fades by the day for Caine Fitzgerald.
The longtime assistant course professional at Aurora’s Murphy Creek Golf Course returned from the 46th PGA Professional National Championship in a virtual daze, thinking about how he could have played better at the Sunriver Resort in Oregon.
But finally, the happy realization that he’d achieved a major dream — qualifying for his first PGA tour event — took hold. And the 39-year-old Iowa native didn’t just make any tour event, but one of the four major tournaments: the 94th PGA Championship Aug. 5-11 at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y.
“When I came back, I was just thinking about the golf that I played and getting hung up on things I should have done,” Fitzgerald recalled. “I wasn’t really thinking about the PGA, but coming back to work and seeing how excited everybody was made it a little bit more real.”
Fitzgerald received a heartwarming welcome upon his return from the June 23-26 tournament in Oregon that featured 312 course professionals from across the country.
His wife, Joy, 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter greeted him at the airport with a large, hand-made sign.
At Murphy Creek — where he’s worked since August 2001 after moving to Colorado from Cedar Rapids — Fitzgerald saw congratulatory posters on the doors of the pro shop and a bouquet of balloons from head professional Leslie Core-Drevecky.
Then it became time to take care of the logistics of making his dream happen. Renting a house for the week, making travel arrangements for himself, his brother-in-law Michael Moore — who will caddy for him — and his wife, setting up practice rounds, including one he hopes to have with PGA star Zach Johnson, who also hails from Cedar Rapids. He also started to study the course.
“There are so many little things, but it’s really making it sink in,” Fitzgerald said. “This is going to be a tour event. I’m not just being around my buddies at a section event or guys I know at the Colorado Open. I’m going to be playing with superstars, basically.”
Fitzgerald had come close to qualifying for a tour event while he still lived in Iowa, but always seemed to fall short, including a year where he lost out in a six-man playoff for a berth in the John Deere Classic.
He’d played in the PGA Professional Tournament five previous times, where PGA Championship berths go to the top 20 finishers, but hadn’t even been able to make the cut in any of those trips.
Each failure took a toll on Fitzgerald’s confidence mentally and physically, but he was back at it again this year with Moore again on his bag and in his ear.
The first three rounds went brilliantly, as he shot 71, 68 and 75 and didn’t record a single double bogey in his first 54 holes.
“Honestly, it seemed like all week when Caine got in a tough spot — and there weren’t very many — he made a good decision to save par or just made a shot,” said Moore, who caddied for Fitzgerald for the fifth time in his six PGA Professional tournaments.
Fitzgerald cleared the major hurdle of making the cut, then sailed along in the final round despite some spotty weather conditions. Moore wasn’t worried, as he’s nicknamed Fitzgerald “Seabiscuit” — because “he’s a tough mudder” — until he approached Hole No. 17 after a birdie on 16.
Then, disaster struck with the score he chased still uncertain. A fanned tee shot, followed by a poorly executed chip and a three-putt left him with his first double bogey — 71 holes into the tournament — plus a feeling of dread.
Fitzgerald thought of his wife watching on television back home and knew her heart would sink as another opportunity appeared to be slipping away from him.
“It was awful,” he recalled painfully. “On that green, I was just mad and sick to my stomach. I knew my wife was watching with the kids and how she would feel. It was quite the range of emotions.
“You’re not supposed to think about things other than golf, but I made that double, all those things came up.”
On the way to the final tee, Moore encouraged his brother-in-law. The two revisited the strategy they’d talked about all week: slow down and don’t rush even a single shot.
Fitzgerald stepped up to the tee, hit a great drive and two more shots to wrap up his round with a birdie.
“Instead of being conservative, he harnessed his anger, let one go and put it in a perfect position,” Moore said.
The birdie felt like a punctuation mark, but Fitzgerald didn’t know if it was a cause for celebration. Nobody knew exactly what the magic score would be.
Moore casually chatted with an official outside the scoring tent, chewing on the numbers as Fitzgerald turned in his scorecard. Both arrived at the same happy conclusion: He was in.
“Once he came out of the tent, I knew we were in,” Moore said. “It was pretty surreal.”
It became even more unbelievable when they found out that the birdie on No. 18 had just kept him out of a playoff that would end with an incredible 100-foot shot that left three players heartbroken.
Fitzgerald’s resiliency had saved him.
Now, he’ll finally get to play in the big time and see how he stacks up against players like Johnson, who went to a different high school in Cedar Rapids.
With a rigorous work schedule at Murphy Creek, practice time is scarce for Fitzgerald, but he’s confident his game will be ready to go by Aug. 5.
“Do I expect to win the PGA Championship? Of course not, but to set my goal of making the cut is realistic I think,” he said.
Reach Sports Editor Courtney Oakes at sports@aurorasentinel.com or 303-750-7555
