Wes Graham, a decade after dominance, is an “occasional golfer”

April 13--Wes Graham used to beat guys like Patrick Reed and Rickie Fowler. In fact, 10 to 12 years ago, Graham beat just about everyone in his age group.

Last week, Reed and Fowler went to the 72nd hole to determine the Masters Tournament.

Last week, Wes Graham was selling insurance.

And very much OK with it.

"I feel like I'm in a really good place with my life," says Graham, who does admit that certain things crossed his mind as he watched Fowler, Reed and other former cohorts perform at the game's highest level.

"Yes, it got to the point where I thought, many times, 'Yeah, I used to beat those guys. And now I'm sitting on the couch watching it.' But I think I've gotten over that part. Especially now, I can take a step back from that and know that golf isn't my life anymore.

"It's something I like to do occasionally."

Going national

Longtime Spruce Creek High golf coach Mark Grose is a meticulous keeper of stats. Deep inside a binder, he still has the practice scores -- yes, practice scores -- from his team's 2007 fall season.

Creek's boys team played 21 nine-hole practices at three Port Orange courses -- Cypress Head (par-36), Spruce Creek (par-36) and Crane Lakes (par-33).

"All under-par rounds are in red," Grose said after producing the page with that fall's practice scores. Graham's row of scores shows 19 red results, just two in black, and those two were actually even-par scores. The rest of the team had a combined five under-par nines.

"When I got Wesley, he was a freshman," Grose says. "I'll never forget, I think it was a regional tournament at Timacuan in Lake Mary. Wesley played the front nine and shot 30. One of the other coaches said, '30-what?' I said, 30! He could play and he knew what he was doing. He was solid all over, had the total package."

New Smyrna Beach's Kevin Aylwin, who would become an All-American at North Florida, was a year ahead of Graham in high school and played with him a lot throughout the school year and summer tournaments.

"We'd practice together a lot. When we were practicing, I could beat him occasionally," Aylwin says. "In the tournaments, I would never beat him. Ever. It was like he had a switch, and when he flipped it for the tournament, he'd win, and nobody else could even compete with him. It was unbelievable."

In Graham's senior season at Creek, his nine-hole tournament average was 34.5. His 18-hole average, in nine rounds, was 68.5, and he finished runner-up in the state tournament. A few months later, he beat a field of professionals in New Smyrna Beach to win the Florida Tour's Indian River Open.

But it was Graham's summertime dominance, particularly in Florida State Golf Association events, that started gaining him national attention. In 2005 at age 15, he defended his FSGA state championship (13-15 age division), winning by nine shots with rounds of 70-65-65, 10 under par.

The next summer, Graham says, is when he truly realized he might be a special golfer. He qualified for one of the U.S. Golf Association's major national tournaments -- the U.S. Junior Amateur, held that year in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

In two days of stroke-play qualifying, he tied for fifth in the field of 156, and advanced to the 64-player match-play competition, along with future PGA Tour regulars such as Fowler, Danny Lee, Harris English, Bud Cauley, Wesley Bryan and Morgan Hoffman.

After two wins, he beat future college teammate Drew Kittleson in the Round of 16 before losing to future PGA Tour golfer Kevin Tway in the quarterfinals.

"I'd only been playing in Florida before that tournament," Graham says. "I didn't know the significance of a United States Junior Amateur tournament. It's a big deal, but I never really understood how big a deal it was."

The marketing folks at Titleist were aware, however. The golf-equipment manufacturer has a history of scouting future professional talent and making clients of them.

"The people from Titleist came to me, and we ended up going to their facility in Carlsbad," Graham says. "I got fitted for clubs. It was a unique experience. You go out there with a random set of golf clubs, and now you're flying back home with a brand new, state-of-the-art, custom-fit clubs for you. That's when I realized how good I was. We started traveling the country and I became more well-known outside the state of Florida."

The next year in Missouri, Graham was one of the last four players standing at the U.S. Junior before losing in the semifinal to eventual champ Cory Whitsett. Later that year, he completed his high school career as a four-time area Golfer of the Year, the No. 1-ranked junior golfer in America, and the top recruiting target of every major college program.

Goodbye, confidence

Graham chose Florida State, where he was part of a 2008 freshman class with future U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka, and a teammate of future PGA Tour winner Daniel Berger. In the press release announcing the signing, FSU coach Trey Jones did nothing to lower expectations.

"Wesley is without question the toughest competitor I have had the privilege of recruiting. He has exceptional clubhead speed and is one of the few young players that can control his ball flight in all four directions at will. You add up these traits and it is not hard to see why he is currently the top rated golfer in the country."

Nearly five years later, Graham completed his four years at FSU and these were Jones' words:

"If you ask Wesley, he'd say that it has been a disappointing career at Florida State. I would argue with him because he's graduated on time ... and he's played his best golf his senior year. I'm really proud of Wesley from where he was as a person and a golfer when he came, to where he is as a person and a golfer right now. We are really proud of Wes."

He'd had, by all accounts, a decent college career at a big-time NCAA program. His scoring averages, by season, were 77-73-74-72. Top-15 finishes in tournaments became his new high-water mark, however. Sometimes, when there's a noticeable drop-off in production, a golfer can pinpoint its exact beginning.

For Graham, it was before his freshman season, in an intrasquad qualifier to earn a roster spot for the season-opening tournament. Graham recalls shooting "a ridiculous number," losing every golf ball in his bag and leaving the course in tears.

"It was strange," he says. "I don't know what it was. I lost my swing, and I think my confidence went quickly after that. When you're on the tee box and you're afraid to hit a golf shot, that's never a good sign. First time it ever happened to me."

In golf's chicken-or-egg situation, it can be hard to tell if a swing flaw precipitated a lack of confidence, or a lack of confidence led to swing changes and a cycle of struggle.

"I don't really know," Graham says. "I wish I would've known. I've wondered that for about 10 years now. When I was 15, 16, 17 years old, I was really, really, really good. I've never played that well since."

'I was over it'

There were periods of quality that raised the hopes and confidence, and his overall college experience didn't change his mind about a future in competitive golf.

After graduating from FSU with a degree in sociology, he went to the Carolinas for a series of summertime tournaments on the minor-league Hooters Tour. His first two weeks, he lost in a playoff and then won.

"I played really well my first year out of college, but then I don't know what happened," he says. "I had some strange spurts, but nothing was as consistent as it used to be."

Graham tried the late-fall PGA Tour qualifier, a three-stage affair, but never advanced. Along the way, he developed a cyst on the ring finger of his right hand that was eventually surgically removed. He had to change his grip. His game didn't return, but the cyst did, and in late 2014, after failing to advance through the first stage of Tour qualifying, he slammed the trunk one last time as a fledgling pro golfer.

"It was a constant struggle," he says. "I didn't play well. I was still battling the finger, having to wear a foam pad on it. I was over it."

He and wife Shanae, whom he met at FSU, were newly married and freshly settled in Clearwater.

"That's all I'd ever really done -- golf -- and worked for my whole life," he says. "To be completely done with it, it was interesting, for sure. I thought about it a little bit. Tired of the grind. Tired of not playing well. The worst thing ever is to travel for three weeks, spend a bunch of money, and not play well. That's the worst thing."

There was no Plan B, says Graham, who started sending out resumes after packing away the clubs. He ended up selling insurance for Banker's Life in the Tampa area.

"It was kind of random," he says. "We had some family friends in the insurance business, and I knew they did well, so I went through the state licensing and worked my way up."

Last year, he left Banker's Life to become director of sales for an insurance start-up called Ensurem, which is trying to form a niche, Graham says, as "the first direct-to-consumer" policy supplier. "Pretty nifty," he says of the business model.

It's a Monday-through-Friday job, in a third-floor office on Roosevelt Boulevard in Clearwater, near the St. Pete-Clearwater airport. And in true businessman fashion, he's become a weekend golfer at the Bayou Club near Largo -- "Believe it or not, I've been playing really well," he says.

He's regained his amateur status with the USGA, carries a brand new handicap index of .2, and will team with former FSU teammate Cameron Knight this summer in the FSGA Four-Ball Championship. He also plans to join former Spruce Creek teammate Bo Smith (who played at Florida Southern) and attempt to qualify for this summer's USGA Four-Ball.

"I think it'll be fun to play that type of golf," he says. "I don't see myself playing in a ton of individual events. I've done that enough. I like the team aspect of it, a ton."

A fine line

Meanwhile, Graham's childhood competitor, 29-year-old Kevin Aylwin, continues traveling the highways and fairways of minor-league golf, hoping to join the list of well-known professional golfers who didn't "make it" until after years of grinding.

"There's a fine line," says Aylwin, who has won three of his last four starts on the Florida Tour. "You have to believe that your 'good' is good enough. That's the key. Then it's just about playing good at the right time, in the Tour qualifying, playing good in the right stretch of a couple of weeks. That's what it boils down to."

Aylwin was playing the Canadian Tour last summer and struggling mightily when an offer came to become an assistant coach at the Division I college level.

"I'm looking at guaranteed money with a job, and I'm up there spending money and missing cuts. Sounded like a good idea," he says now. "I decided against it, and rattled off 35 grand in the next five months playing golf. I was happy I didn't choose to give it up."

Aylwin hopes to join the likes of Ocala's Ted Potter Jr., Satellite Beach's Nicholas Lindheim, and the all-time late-bloomer, 1996 British Open champion Tom Lehman, in eventually making the PGA Tour after a long road.

Most, however, never get over that hurdle. The mini-tours are loaded with golfers in their 30s, and beyond, who won't -- or perhaps can't -- give up the dream. Graham saw that and, in a move that could've hinted at his future in insurance, decided it wasn't a risk worth taking.

"I definitely didn't want to end up 35, 40 years old, still in the same spot," he says. "I've seen that a few times. It's such a fine line, not making any money in golf and making millions. I tried it for a few years and decided that it was in the best interest of myself and my family to go in a different career path."

What Graham says about his career arc is something golfers of all abilities feel on any given day about a random round of golf. Former Tour winner Mac O'Grady once famously described the fickle nature of golf in this fashion: "One minute you're bleeding. The next minute you're hemorrhaging. The next minute you're painting the Mona Lisa."

As all golfers know, it doesn't always happen in that order.

"I just don't know how you get to the point where you're the absolute best at what you do," Graham says, "and now you're super average, out of nowhere."

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