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Few in golf know how hard the professional road can be the way Tommy Gainey does. “Two Gloves” became an everyman hero when he won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2010 and parlayed that into his only victory on the PGA Tour at the McGladrey (now RSM) Classic in ’12.
Then, like so many who find the spotlight to dim quickly, Gainey faded and all but disappeared, losing his KFT card after the 2013-14 season and never gaining it back He did win that circuit’s Bahamas event in 2020, but bided his time for eligibility on PGA Tour Champions when he turned 50 in 2025. Then Gainey earned his card in the most impressive way—by capturing October’s Furyk & Friends tournament, as a Monday qualifier, to be fully exempt on the senior tour for 2026.
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As a past champion at the Bahamas, a well-deserved triumphant return for the KFT opener next week in the Caribbean would seemingly be in the cards for Gainey. But the man from Darlington, S.C., who went to Central Carolina Technical College, looks at life a bit differently, and he made a selfless decision we all can get behind.
As reported on Saturday by Monday Q Info on X, Gainey, 50, called Bahamas tournament director Josh Franklin to let him know that he was giving up his spot to give a younger player an opportunity to compete. Understand, the Bahamas tournament carries no small purse—$1 million—with about $180,000 going to the winner.
“It’s 10 times harder than when I came up. I didn’t want to take a spot from a guy,” Gainey told Monday Q’s Ryan French in a phone interview.
The golfer said he told Franklin that he didn’t want to “disrespect the event,” but added, “These young guys are so good, any one of them can win, even the last guy in the field.”
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Gainey, who got into four of his first five senior events last year through Monday qualifying, is set to make his Champions Tour debut as a full-time member on Jan. 22 in the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai.
English (US) ·