Luke Clanton touches down in Canada a pro, ready for his moment
Before he answered his first questions as a professional golfer on Tuesday afternoon at TPC Toronto ahead of his PGA Tour debut at the RBC Canadian Open, the 21-year-old Clanton opened with a two-page statement he had typed out a couple days earlier.
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'I didn't want to forget anything,' Clanton said.
He thanked his 'foundation' – dad, David; mom, Rhonda; and older sisters, Ray and Abby – all of whom 'laid the groundwork for this moment' with their 'love, belief and sacrifices.'
He thanked his coaches, mentors and teammates, and then the various junior tours and organizations he cut his teeth on as a youth.
Finally, as he's done faithfully, he thanked God.
'I know the professional game is a new world, and I cannot be more excited for this moment,' Clanton said in closing. 'I'm ready.'
It's hard to argue. Clanton, who just wrapped up his third and final season at Florida State, has taken an unprecedented path to the big leagues. While Vanderbilt's Gordon Sargent also debuts this week as the first player to graduate from the PGA Tour University's Accelerated program, it was Clanton who earned his 20 points with his play, not with help from awards.
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Clanton began last summer's U.S. Open at Pinehurst with no Accelerated points before matching Jack Nicklaus as the only amateurs to record three top-10s on the PGA Tour in a single season. Clanton did one better than Jack, though, notching four top-10s, including a pair of runners-up. When he made the cut at the Cognizant Classic last February, it marked the final point needed for PGA Tour membership.
'It was just kind of really quick,' Clanton said. 'It all happened very fast, and it was amazing.'
In recent months, Clanton had blended back in with his team. He won four times this spring, including the NCAA Tallahassee Regional on the Seminoles' home course. He also captured the Hogan Award a couple weeks ago, a formality. But sometimes the perfect ending is hard to achieve, and Clanton found that out at last week's NCAA Championship; he closed in 4-over 76 after starting the final round inside the top 10 individually, and his missed birdie putt on his 72nd hole allowed Ole Miss to edge Florida State by a shot to earn the eighth and final match-play berth.
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A year after Clanton lost his match to Auburn's J.M. Butler as Florida State fell in the NCAA final, the Seminoles didn't even make it to Tuesday at La Costa.
And Clanton's amateur career was over.
'It was a hard one to kind of wrap up,' Clanton said. 'Kind of coming back and hanging out with the guys for the last couple of days was definitely a bit rough. … But it's something we all chase for to become a professional.'
When Clanton, with a fresh cut and no facial hair, boarded his flight to Canada, it finally hit him. All those nights rolling putts on the scruffy practice green at Country Club of Miami, a municipal in Hialeah, Florida, while David held an industrial-sized flashlight had paid off.
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David owned two businesses, in landscaping and glass treatment, while also teaching a few junior golfers, including his only son until Luke turned 17 years old and began working with instructor Jeff Leishman. So that Clantons could afford to put Luke through private school at American Heritage, David offered to do the school's landscaping.
Rhonda worked as a flight attendant with Delta, which provided the family free flights and Rhonda the flexibility to home school her kids and travel with them to tournaments.
Both David and Rhonda are now retired, ready to cheer on Luke as he lives out his dream.
'My dad and my mom never, ever get enough credit for what they did for me in my journey and my life, but I always think about it because it's what my dad set for me as goals,' Clanton said. 'Ever since I was a kid, he always told me I was going to be the best in the world, and he kept saying that to me every single day, and he made me believe it. Without that belief and without that trust in the process of what we were doing, 11 o'clock at night with a flashlight on plastic greens, it was definitely tough, but we did it.
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'It just shows that if you have a dream and you have a goal, you can get there.'
And now, Luke Clanton is here – and he's ready.
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