Hello Hoosiers and golf fans!
My name is Chad Collins, from Cloverdale, Ind., and I am about to give you week-to-week insight on life on the road playing the best tour in the world, the PGA Tour!
I was born in Indy and grew up on the west side near George Washington High School, where my parents graduated from. I lived there until I was 5, and then we moved out of the city into the country, to the small town of Cloverdale, where I reside now. I was born on Sept. 20, 1978 and pretty much had a golf club in my hands since then.
My dad introduced the game to me at a young age and gave me the solid fundamentals needed to hopefully one day become a pro golfer. I played in my first-ever tournament as a kid at Clover Meadows (my home course) around the age of 10 to 12, and won. I went to school at Cloverdale and played on the golf team all four years and had some success, but none at the state championships, unfortunately.
I graduated high school in ‘97 and then went to a small Division III school named Methodist University in North Carolina. I won 18 times throughout my career there along with three NCAA titles. I went on to graduate there in ‘01 and turned pro right away and played the Hooters Tour for three years. My dad was able to travel with me for most of those three years on the mini-tour circuit, and we had two wins in back-to-back years in Savannah, Ga.
I tried Q-school each and every year and finally made it to the finals of Tour school on my fourth attempt and received my full status on the Nationwide Tour for ‘05.
Dad and I teamed up again for most of the year on the Nationwide Tour, where we had an awesome victory in Richmond, Va., my rookie year! I played the Nationwide Tour for three years, finishing 31st my rookie season, 28th the next year and 23rd last year, which was good enough to earn exempt status on the PGA Tour.
So far, the year has gone by fast and not as well as I would like at this point, but I still have six tournaments left to secure my card or win!
Stay tuned into to my weekly blogs each week as I tell my life stories on and off the road, chasing the ultimate golfer’s dream job of playing the “Big Tour!”
Good day…
CC