{"id":536883,"date":"2026-04-18T00:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T00:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/536883\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T00:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T00:34:11","slug":"from-chips-on-his-shoulder-to-trophies-in-his-hands-jordan-gumbergs-road-to-belonging-articles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/536883\/","title":{"rendered":"From chips on his shoulder to trophies in his hands – Jordan Gumberg’s road to belonging – Articles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Across the 2025 DP World Tour season Jordan Gumberg<\/a> hit 7,124 golf shots \u2013 he saved the best til last.<\/p>\n

\"Jordan<\/p>\n

Playing his 34th event of the campaign, he arrived at the Genesis Championship 127th on the Race to Dubai and knowing that he needed a good week to keep his playing privileges, but things were not going his way.<\/p>\n

After getting himself into a decent position over the first three days, he made just one birdie in 16 holes on Sunday and when he failed to pick up a shot on the 17th, it appeared all hope was lost.<\/p>\n

Then something remarkable happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter missing the birdie putt on 17 in Korea, I thought it was already done,\u201d says Gumberg from the range at the Bear\u2019s Club in Florida almost six months later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I needed at least two more and turns out I\u00a0did but I already had the thought that I was going back to Challenge Tour and Q\u00a0School\u00a0so I\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0have a lot of pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to hit the best shot I can on 18 and give myself a chance but there wasn\u2019t pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stood in the middle of the fairway on the par-five last, Gumberg saw his third shot pitch in the very edge of the fringe and roll down the green before tumbling into the hole for an eagle<\/p>\n

Arms raised with a look of disbelief on his face, he ran and leapt into the arms of caddie John Rawlings before hugs were exchanged with playing partners Keita Nakajima and Ewen Ferguson and their caddies.<\/p>\n

Over the course of nearly 12 months, Gumberg had played every event possible barring one and with the final blow of the year, he had secured his job for 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen\u00a0I drove up from the 18th hole to the scoring area and I had my friends and the guys there that\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0been friendly with over the\u00a0years\u00a0all sitting there ready to congratulate me and lift me\u00a0up\u00a0it was\u00a0definitely comparable\u00a0to a win,\u201d he says. \u201cIt felt like a win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked up to my wife in the\u00a0stands\u00a0and she was crying, I was crying, she made me cry!\u00a0She has made such wonderful friends out on the DP World Tour with the other wives and girlfriends and everybody, it was a sigh of relief that we\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0have to say goodbye to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those who\u00a0do not\u00a0play professional golf, it may be difficult to understand why a player who was already a DP World Tour winner and has won again since\u00a0would wildly celebrate finishing 110th on the Race to Dubai.<\/p>\n

But having a place to play is the only way to consistently have a place to win and Jordan Gumberg has learned to live with that more than many throughout his golfing career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0a Q School,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0going to play it,\u201d he says. \u201cIf\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0a qualifier\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0going to\u00a0play, it\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0matter where it is in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cProfessional golf is tough and getting tougher, getting your foot in somewhere is\u00a0very hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Introduced to the game as a toddler by his father Andrew, who had been a professional skiier prior to a successful career in real estate, Gumberg quickly fell in love but did not begin playing tournaments until his teens when he felt \u201cready to take it seriously\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was a few years later while embarking on the collegiate journey so common to American and now many international players\u00a0that Gumberg was truly given fuel for\u00a0his\u00a0fire.<\/p>\n

Competitive by nature, being doubted gave him an extra spur to succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all comes from being told I was not good enough and wanting to prove people wrong,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d\u00a0gone on several college recruiting visits back in the day and certain coaches when they\u00a0asked\u00a0\u2018what do you want to do with your life after college?\u2019,\u00a0I said \u2018I want to play on the PGA TOUR\u2019.\u00a0And a few coaches said to me that that just\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0going to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a chip on my shoulder and wanted to prove them wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a total love affair, I love this game, I love competing and am very competitive but at the same time I really don\u2019t like being told I can\u2019t do something.\u201d<\/p>\n

He initially studied at the University of Tennessee, where he was\u00a0room-mates\u00a0and struck up a friendship with\u00a0HotelPlanner\u00a0Tour winner Lorenzo Scalise, before a move to the University of Arizona and into the paid ranks.<\/p>\n

Between 2017 and 2019 he would play just 17 ranking events,\u00a0making\u00a0two cuts, but giving up was not an option.<\/p>\n

\u201cGolf has always been what I wanted to do, what I felt like I could do,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI battled around on the PGA Tour Canada, PGA Tour\u00a0Latinoam\u00e9rica\u00a0for a little while, I was fortunate enough to get some Korn Ferry starts and\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0really make the most of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played well, played decent, I just\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0know if I was mentally prepared for professional golf when college ended.\u00a0I think it\u00a0took a bit of a learning period of \u2018how do we adapt to the professional\u00a0game?\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn college golf, two under takes you a long way and in pro golf two under might not make a cut so it took a little while to get comfortable out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing there and knowing that I belong was a little bit of a challenge for me. Not that I\u00a0have a confidence problem by any means but just by seeing your idols that\u00a0you\u2019ve\u00a0looked up to in front of you and playing in front of you and measuring yourself against them is a tough little learning curve.\u201d<\/p>\n

During Covid, Gumberg was fortunate enough to be a member at Dye Preserve, a club in a county that had no restrictions and where he could keep playing golf.<\/p>\n

And it was there, once more among some of the best in the\u00a0world, that the learning curve continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cCovid actually helped me a lot,\u201d he says. \u201cLiving and playing in South Florida I was a member at a course called Dye Preserve and during that Covid period it was the only golf club in the state of Florida that had no restrictions at all because of the county we were in.<\/p>\n

It all comes from being told I was not good enough and wanting to prove people wrong<\/p>\n

\u201cSo\u00a0every week we would have 50-person money games with pretty much everybody that lived in the area from the PGA TOUR, Korn Ferry, PGA Tour Canada and so on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat period of playing money games and playing with guys that were better than me and more established on Tour for pretty much that year was actually a huge help. Just going out there and competing with guys like Corey Conners and Charl Schwartzel and Adam Long, you name it, there were guys in our money games. Louis Oosthuizen played a few.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being around guys like that and hanging out with them and learning from them and picking their brain really, really helped me during Covid.\u201d<\/p>\n

2021 brought a \u201cbuilding block\u201d, a first ranking top ten on a course where Gumberg had been a member at high school but with just three other starts that year, he headed to Europe for new opportunities.<\/p>\n

By this time fellow South Floridian Brooks Koepka was a four-time Major\u00a0Champion\u00a0but he had\u00a0played two seasons on the\u00a0HotelPlanner\u00a0Tour\u00a0en\u00a0route and that was a journey from which Gumberg could take inspiration.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up in South Florida, Brooks Koepka is a guy that we look up to down here through junior golf and he went over to Europe and played and always said it was what made him a well-rounded player and I agree with that method,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t necessarily my first choice, my first choice was obviously get on Korn Ferry quickly and get onto the PGA TOUR but it took me a little while to find footing anywhere and coming over and playing Challenge Tour and grinding it out there and finishing top 45 on that money list and having a little bit of success was not really my plan but it just kind of happened and I\u2019m so glad that it did.\u201d<\/p>\n

That top 45 came in 2023, the season where Gumberg would claim two top threes in three events at the Irish Challenge \u2013 which he got in to via a Monday qualifier – and Farmfoods Scottish Challenge supported by the R&A.<\/p>\n

The week in Scotland also saw him start working with experienced caddie Elvis Seme, who had previously carried the bag for Scalise.<\/p>\n

With status now secured on the HotelPlanner Tour and with that limited starts on the DP World Tour, things were looking up, although Gumberg would only make two of his first seven cuts in the 2024 season.<\/p>\n

Then, once again, something remarkable happened.<\/p>\n

Having been hovering around the top of the leaderboard for the first 54 holes, a closing 68 thrust Gumberg into a play-off at the\u00a0SDC Championship and when he birdied the second extra\u00a0hole\u00a0he was a winner.<\/p>\n

The man who was trying to belong, the man with just three top\u00a0tens\u00a0from 67 ranking starts over eight seasons was a DP World and Sunshine Tour champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely surprised\u00a0myself,\u00a0it\u00a0came \u00a0as\u00a0a shock to me,\u201d he said. \u201cI was in on a sponsor invite and just trying to have a good\u00a0week\u00a0but the golf course really suited my eye and the way that I play.<\/p>\n

\"Jordan<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the mindset that after a good first round\u00a0let\u2019s\u00a0just\u00a0keep our head down and keep plugging away. To find myself in a play-off that I\u00a0probably shouldn\u2019t\u00a0have even\u00a0been in\u00a0in the first place was\u00a0an added plus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought second place, even if we\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0win this play-off is\u00a0a great week\u00a0for me,\u00a0let\u2019s\u00a0just keep going and see if we can win this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI love that pressure: this is a play-off and\u00a0I’ve\u00a0got to do something. My play-off record over the years has been\u00a0pretty stellar, I think\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a011-1 so\u00a0I leaned back on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victory, however, only gave Gumberg an exemption until the end of the following year so he was soon back to the grind in his marathon 2025 season.<\/p>\n

Battling for his card, you would think that gruelling schedule would come from necessity but the truth of it is, Gumberg loves to play.<\/p>\n

This is a man, after all, who on one of his rare weeks off won\u00a0the Coral Springs Summer Classic and the US$920 prize that goes with it two days before the U.S. Open.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like taking weeks off,\u201d he said. \u201cI hate seeing my name fall down the points\u00a0list\u00a0so\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0out of necessity but also self-driven. This\u00a0year\u00a0with the\u00a0win\u00a0I\u00a0plan to take a few more weeks off but\u00a0not many.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like playing. Growing up in Florida, I never really took a day off growing up and I\u2019m just used to it. When I\u2019m home for off-weeks I play on a tour called the Minor League Golf Tour and they have a couple of one-day events a week in my area and I like to stay sharp playing those. I don\u2019t like to let the competitive juices die out, I like to keep them going and it keeps me sharp.\u201d<\/p>\n

During our conversation while Gumberg is at the famous Bear\u2019s Club, he speaks of discussing the Hero Indian Open with Alex Fitzpatrick, of how Rory McIlroy has been recommending team members and his\u00a0contact with Shane Lowry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a huge help being out here around these guys.\u201d\u00a0he\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

And\u00a0as he hits balls at the\u00a0centre\u00a0of the golfing universe, less than a month after a second DP World Tour win at the Hainan Classic presented by MAEXTRO, the\u00a0high school kid who was told he was not\u00a0good\u00a0enough is starting to feel at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nice to\u00a0validate\u00a0the first win,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u201cFor the last two years from the win in\u00a0South Africa\u00a0I\u00a0kind of had\u00a0the feeling of, \u2018was it a fluke? Was it just\u00a0a great week? Did all the stars\u00a0kind of align?\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have the struggle after that and the period of grinding through it and\u00a0possibly losing\u00a0the card and then to win again was the validation\u00a0I think I\u00a0needed to know that it\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0a fluke.\u00a0I can do it\u00a0again,\u00a0I can do it hopefully many more times.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has definitely given me the confidence to know that I belong a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Across the 2025 DP World Tour season Jordan Gumberg hit 7,124 golf shots \u2013 he saved the best…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-536883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}