After 12 years and 165 tournaments, William McGirt finally has his first win

McGirt's victory was his first in 165 PGA Tour starts

As Solomon Northup would tell you, 12 years is a very long time. It’s longer than the sentence for trying to lethally poison someone. It’s the same amount of time since Arsenal last won the Premier League. It’s longer than it takes to become a fully qualified doctor. 

It’s also how long William McGirt has had to wait for his first PGA Tour win, since turning pro way back in 2004. 

In his 165th PGA Tour start, a playoff at The Memorial Tournament secured McGirt his first ever PGA Tour victory. McGirt already had three runner-up finishes to his name, but managed to go one better at Muirfield Village Golf Club on Sunday. 

36-year-old McGirt picked up a winner’s cheque for $1.53 million, a three-year PGA Tour exemption and entry to the U.S. Open, PGA Championship and the Masters, setting himself up for the next few years at least, but he has had to do it the hard way. 

McGirt has played on seven different ‘feeder’ tours since turning pro, first qualifying for the PGA Tour in 2011. 

“It’s just been years and years of practice and getting your nose bloodied and learning from it,” he said. “If somebody was holding a tournament, I was there playing. There were times when I would play a mini-tour event, finish Saturday or Sunday, drive all the way to a Monday qualifier. If I didn’t get in, which I never did, turn around and drive back and play a mini-tour event the next day.”

Despite a career that has, to this point, been more lows than highs, McGirt explains that maintaining the focus has never been an issue. 

“I’m crazy. We’re all nuts. We play this game. We chase a little ball around the grass and do it 18 times. We’re all nuts. I kept doing it because this was my ultimate dream, to get on the PGA Tour and try to win on the PGA Tour.

“The other thing was, I didn’t know what else I was going to do.”

In an age when many of today’s tour pros took the fast track straight to the highest level of golf, McGirt has experienced the less glamorous side of being a playing professional. 

“The guys who don’t seem to appreciate what we have every week are the guys who never had to play the mini-tours,” he said. “When you show up, you’re paying for range balls, you’re paying for practice rounds and, honestly, the people don’t want you there. They’re giving up their golf course. They don’t want you there.”

As a PGA Tour winner, McGirt will now receive a warm welcome wherever he goes.