His world changed: Chez Reavie and what it means to win

June 19, 2024

DETROIT — The boys were nice enough to wait. The charter flight, booked by Chez Reavie and two other PGA Tour players, was scheduled to travel from Connecticut to Detroit on Sunday night. They were going from the Travelers Championship to the Rocket Mortgage Classic and splitting the cost of a private ride instead of flying commercial.

Takeoff would have to be delayed, though, because after going 11 years without a Tour win, Reavie bent the future to his ends and won Travelers with a defiant, door-slamming final-round performance. Like that, his career, one that once seemed lost in the march of time, hit a dramatic inflection point. So, yeah, the fellas had to hang tight.

“Everything happened so fast,” Darren Blake, Reavie’s agent, said. “His world changed.”

This is what happens when you win — when a guy like Chez Reavie wins. Not that Reavie is some long-shot anomaly. He’s been a pro since 2004, made 173 cuts, posted over 20 top 10s and earned nearly $15 million in his career. He didn’t fall out of the sky. But Reavie did vault himself into a different conversation by beating a Travelers field including Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Jason Day, Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth, Bryson DeChambeau and others. Back in early June, Reavie was far from a household name or a commodity on Tour. At 37 years old, he never finished in the top 10 of a major prior to 2019. Then came a trip to Pebble Beach two weeks ago where Reavie played in the second-to-last group of the U.S. Open and finished tied for third. And then came four rounds of 65-66-63-69 at Travelers and Reavie’s first career win since the 2008 RBC Canadian Open.

Now everything is different. And it goes well beyond the $1.3 million payday.

“This opens up so many doors,” Blake said.

But first Reavie had to get to Detroit. Post-round festivities took a few hours. The flight took a few hours. There was some time set aside for proper celebration. Monday morning came hard and fast. On a normal week, Reavie would go through the natural, gradual assimilation to another town, another course, another tournament. This week he spent Monday morning responding to media requests. He did a live call-in for “Morning Drive” on the Golf Channel. He connected with reps from the Rocket Mortgage Classic because, suddenly, he was now a draw for the event.

A few weeks ago, Reavie was another name on the tee sheet. This week, Reavie is in one of the tournament’s four featured groupings in Rounds 1 and 2 that will be shown on PGA Tour Live. He’s playing alongside world No. 2 Dustin Johnson and 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed. On Wednesday, Reavie sat for a news conference inside the media tent at Detroit Golf Club. He was one of four players to hold solo pre-tournament sessions with the media. The others were Johnson, Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler and U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland.

“The biggest difference is just my perspective,” Reavie told reporters on Wednesday about his 11-year window between wins. “Going through injuries for a few years kind of helped me figure out life a little bit, have a good perspective and really appreciate my opportunities out here on Tour and really love every second of it.”

After his college playing days at Arizona State, Reavie began his professional career in 2006, making 17 of 22 cuts on the Web.com Tour. He earned his Tour card in 2008 and led wire to wire at the RBC Canadian, beating Billy Mayfair by three strokes and vaulting 100 spots up the FedExCup points list to 29th. (How long ago was that? Billy Mayfair is now 52.)

Reavie took a step back in 2007 and, over the next 10 years, battled a combination of injuries and swing issues. A knee injury cost him swaths of time. Then a wrist injury in 2014 resulted in surgery and the hollow feelings of a career in flux. He spent seven months in different casts and two months rehabbing. He was unsure when or how he would swing again. Six years removed from the win at the RBC Canadian, Reavie was, in many ways, starting over.

“I wasn’t even really contemplating winning at that point, it was just getting back out here and being a regular PGA Tour member again,” he said.

Gradually, Reavie returned. He shallowed out his swing to take the pressure off his wrist and rebuilt his game. He won on the Web.com Tour in 2015 and returned full-tilt to the PGA Tour in 2016. He posted four top 10s the next year and finished 2017 ranked 39th in the FedExCup standings. He climbed up to No. 34 in 2018 on the back of 12 top-25 finishes.

Reavie won the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands with a final tally of 17-under. (Bill Streicher / USA TODAY Sports)

That all led to this year and Reavie’s career shifting into a new light.

“I enjoy every minute of every week I’m out here now, and I don’t think I would necessarily be that way if I didn’t go through those tough times,” he said.

It’s a nice story, but winning a tournament adds the ultimate chapter. Now Reavie gets to ride the windfall. As of now, he holds endorsement deals with TaylorMade (equipment), Titleist (balls), Peter Millar (clothing) and G/FORE (shoes), along with some corporate deals. He also holds a deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks, whose logo appears on Reavie’s hat because of a longstanding friendship with team president Derrick Hall. When Reavie won on Sunday, the Diamondbacks aired his winning putt on the jumbotron inside Chase Field.

According to Blake, Reavie’s win at Travelers triggered multiple “substantial” bonuses from all of his sponsorship deals. Moreover, the win will create not only a market for new sponsors to get involved, but also push all the bargaining chips to his side of the table when deals with his current sponsors are due for renewal later this year. Reavie is not only more marketable as a winner, but his schedule in 2020 is guaranteed to include all four majors. He’s also well-positioned for a chance to land on this year’s Presidents Cup team and, currently at 12th in the FedEx standings, likely to advance to the 2019 Tour Championship.

All it took was one win 11 years in the making.

“I came close to winning a couple of times over the last couple years and didn’t do it,” Reavie said, adding, “It was one of those things I felt like I could do it, but there’s a big difference between feeling like you can win and actually winning.”

Now he knows, once again, what it takes, and where winning can take him. Reavie is in Detroit this week as an old name with a new story. It was worth the wait.

(Top photo: Bill Streicher / USA TODAY Sports)

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