ON THE BEAT International Man of Victory BY ALAN SHIPNUCK ohn Catlin grew up in Sacramento and attended the University of New Mexico but has received his golfing education as a citizen of the world. Catlin, 30, took a conventional route after turning pro in 2013, deciding to play PGATour Canada, which is a feeder to the Korn Ferry Tour. But the following year he began working with swing coach Noah Mont-gomery, who advocated a different path. “I look at professional golf a little differently,” says Montgomery, who was a narcotics cop in Oakland before immersing himself in the golf swing. “If you can’t earn a minimum wage and support yourself are you really a professional golfer?” Montgomery preached the virtues of playing the developmental circuits in Asia, which offered compa-rable purses but cheaper travel options and a lower cost of living. Duly swayed, Catlin established a home-base in Thailand. Three victories across lower-level tours in 2016 and ’17 secured his playing privileges on the Asian Tour for the 2018 season and Catlin seized the opportunity, winning three tournaments and being named Player of the Year. J John was a perennial MVP at Jesuit High, but it was playing in NCGA events that expanded his notion of what he could achieve in the game. That punched Catlin’s ticket to the EuropeanTour, and in 2020 this innocent abroad won two marquee events, planting his flag at Valderrama (“the Augusta National of Europe,” says Montgomery) and then three weeks later claiming the Irish Open. At press time, Catlin had rocketed to 96th in the Official World Golf Ranking and his sights are set squarely on the top 50, which guarantees invitations to the major cham-pionships and World Golf Championships and the promise of sponsor’s exemptions to PGA Tour events. “It’s been quite a ride,” Catlin says of his overseas success, which has an antecedent in Brooks Koepka’s circuitous path to stardom. The dream, of course, is to play the PGATour full-time, a pursuit that began back at his childhood home, where he idolized his brother Ben, nine years his senior, who was always a supportive mentor and a good enough player to earn a spot on the Santa Clara men’s golf team. Asked how old he was when he first beat his big bro, Catlin says with a laugh, “I don’t remember but I’m sure Ben does.” John was a perennial MVP at Jesuit High, but it was playing in NCGA events that expanded his notion of what he could achieve in the game. Catlin made a name for himself on the NorCal amateur circuit by capturing back-to-back NCGA Amateurs in 2010-11 at Spyglass Hill but it was going back-to-back at the Memorial Amateur Championship at Ancil Hoffman Golf Club in Carmichael, that felt like “the start of something,” Catlin says. “Those wins showed me that playing professionally wasn’t just a dream, it was some-thing I could achieve.” Linking up with Montgomery was an important development along the way. After his years as a police officer, Montgomery says, “I know people pretty well. And what separates John is that he has zero quit in him.” That helps explain how Catlin has endured so many years plying his trade away from home. (He does keep a place in Sacramento and, when in town, plays and practices out of The Ridge in Auburn.) “There was defi-nitely some culture shock,” he says. “I had to figure it out on my own and grow up as a person and a golfer.” He has largely been spared travel nightmares or culinary horror stories but does have plenty of good tales, like the time he flew into Pakistan for a tournament. “We were picked up at the airport by armed convoy and whisked straight to the military base where the course was,” Catlin says. “We weren’t really allowed to leave.” Must’ve been unsettling. “Not really – I shot a final round 65 and finished top 5.” It turns out that precise ball-striking and cerebral course management travels well. Catlin is hoping to pick up sponsor’s exemption to a few PGATour events in the early part of 2021; he was granted one for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in ’20. But he is more concerned how he plays than where. “It doesn’t matter if I’m in Pebble Beach or Pakistan or Thailand or Spain or Ireland,” Catlin says. “It doesn’t matter where we are: my goal is to have an opportunity to win on the back nine on Sunday.That’s all that matters.” Alan Shipnuck is a senior writer for Golf Magazine and columnist at Golf.com. He lives in Carmel. 14 WINTER 2021 | NCGA.ORG
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