2013 CLEMSON MEN’S GOLF 2014
Jonathan Byrd - Ring Of Honor The 13-month period between October 2010 and November 2011 was quite a time period for Jonathan Byrd. It started with an incredible hole-in-one to win a PGA Tour event in Las Vegas, and ended with his induction into the Clemson Ring of Honor. It just doesn’t get much better than that. On October 21, 2010, Byrd was struggling to make the top 125 on the PGA Tour Money List and earn his PGA Tour card for the 2011 season. On October 24, 2010, he made the shot heard around the golf world when he made a hole-in-one on the fourth playoff hole, in near darkness, to win the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital for Children Open. It marked the first time in the history of the PGA Tour that a player won a tournament with a hole in one, never mind it being in a playoff. That victory clinched Byrd’s Tour Card for 2011 and 2012. So how did Byrd start his 2011 season? All he did was win the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii with a 24-under-par score in another playoff. Although the events were two months apart, that gave Byrd wins in consecutive tournaments and both were in playoffs. By the end of the PGA Tour 2011 season he had won a personal best $2,938,920 and finished 22nd on the money list, the second best finish by any Clemson golfer in any season and the best among former Tigers in 2011. He made 17 cuts in 26 events, including the first place at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions and second place at the Wells Fargo in Charlotte. He actually tied former Clemson teammate Lucas Glover at the end of regulation, then lost in a playoff in what must be considered the greatest day of publicity for Clemson golf in history. The year ended with a phone call from yours truly that informed him that he had been elected to the Clemson Ring of Honor. “This is a great honor,” said Byrd. “To be in the same class as Frank Howard, Banks McFadden, Jeff Davis, Barbara Kennedy, that is very meaningful. I am humbled. This has great meaning to me because Clemson has been such a big part of my life. “I can’t thank everyone in the Clemson family enough, especially Coach (Larry) Penley, who has had such a positive impact on my life.” Byrd enrolled at Clemson on a golf scholarship in the fall of 1996 and it didn’t take him long to have an impact on the Clemson program. A starter from just about day one, he helped elevate the Clemson team to a consistent top 10 program. It is not a surprise that the first Clemson team to put four straight top 10 finishes together coincided with Byrd’s four years at Clemson. “We finished in the top 10 all four years he was at Clemson, including a third place in 1997 and second place in 1998,” said Head Coach Larry Penley. “He won the Puerto Rico Classic in the first tournament of the spring of his freshman year. That was huge for us and huge for the program going forward.” Clemson finished third in the nation at the NCAAs that 1997 spring, as fellow Ring of Honor inductee Charles Warren won the NCAA Championship. Byrd was named first-team All-ACC as a freshman and would go on to become the first Tiger golfer to be named first-team All-ACC all four years of his career. The next season Clemson improved to second in the nation, losing by just three shots to UNLV at the NCAA Tournament at New Mexico State. Byrd was named honorable mention AllAmerican that year. In 1998-99, Byrd’s junior year, he took over more of a leadership role, as Warren had graduated. Byrd earned first-team All-America honors with a 72.10 stroke average and seven top 10 finishes. He shot in the 60s 10 times. He was also honored as a second-team Academic All-American by CoSIDA and became the first Clemson golfer to earn Academic All-American on the course (1st team) and in the classroom (2nd team) in the same year. In 1999-00, he led the Tigers to a third ACC Championship in four years by shooting a 67 in the final round at the Old North State Club. He finished fourth overall and was named first-team All-ACC, honorable mention All-American and Academic All-American. Clemson then closed the year with a fourth straight top 10 team finish. “We made a significant move forward nationally when he was at Clemson, finishing in the top 10 every year, “ said Penley. “He set a high standard of excellence on and off the course because he was a two-time academic All-American in years he was an All-American on the course.” There are many reasons Jonathan Byrd had such an outstanding career at Clemson on the course and in the classroom, but his biggest asset was his family support system. First, there was his brother, Jordan, now an assistant coach under Penley at Clemson. Jordan Byrd was three years ahead of Jonathan as a college golfer at Furman and he was a trailblazer as to the proper way to do things on the course and in the classroom. Then there were his parents, Jim and Jo Byrd. They were very supportive number-one. I personally walked a lot of holes with Mr. and Mrs. Byrd and there could not be two finer parents. Jim Byrd was a college athlete himself as a college football player at North Carolina in the early 1960s.
If you want to know where Jonathan gets his mental toughness, just remember this story. At the opening kickoff of the 1965 North Carolina at Notre Dame game, Byrd suffered a broken nose after he was tackled. But, he got bandaged up and played the rest of the game with that broken nose. Now, Byrd continues that success professionally thanks to the support of his wife Amanda and their three children, Jackson and Caroline, and Kate. Byrd has gone on to win five PGA Tour events, all with incredible low scores. He has won the five events with an average score of 22-under-par. Just 12 years into his career, he has already won nearly $17 million. Byrd’s victory total, more than any other former Tiger on Tour, is no surprise to Penley, who continues to benefit from his former player’s success. “Jonathan’s induction into the Clemson Ring of Honor, is well deserved and it shows how much he has meant to this program over the years, not just the time when he played. “We still use the same practice drills in the short game area and putting that he used when he played here. Many of his accomplishments have yet to be duplicated when it comes to on the course and in the classroom. “And, today the way he handles himself on the PGA Tour, he is just the consummate professional and is someone our current players look up to. Our players aspire to be like him as an all-around student-athlete. He is the standard.”
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