After 40-foot, playoff-winning eagle, Doc Redman’s emotions flowed

Doc Redman had already looked away. His Sunday at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Visit Knoxville Open hadn’t gone according to plan. Redman caught and passed 54-hole leader Cooper Dossey, but Hunter Eichhorn fired a career-low, 10-under 61 to tie him and send the tournament to a playoff.

A win would give Redman two on the KFT season and put him in a fantastic position to re-earn a PGA Tour card after a dip in his game saw him lose privileges on the top circuit after the 2023 season. But golf hasn’t been easy for the former Clemson standout of late. So, when he rolled his 40-foot eagle attempt on the first playoff hole on Sunday, he quickly looked away and started walking, believing he had missed. But the ball kept rolling and then stopped on the lip.

It hung there for several seconds, the crowd urging it to drop. Then golf gave Doc Redman something back.

That playoff-winning eagle has Redman now ranked second on the Korn Ferry Tour’s season-long points list. The top 20 at year’s end get PGA Tour cards for the 2027 season.

Golf has not been kind to Doc Redman of late.

After missing a cut at the 2023 RSM Classic, Redman, a former college star at Clemson, went down to the Korn Ferry Tour and struggled. On the KFT, the courses are easier, and the scores are low. You have to be able to hit the gas pedal in order to win. In 2024, Redman needed to win the Korn Ferry Tour Finals to get back to the PGA Tour. He led with four holes to play but made a double bogey on 15 and a bogey on 17 to miss a playoff by one. After blessing him early on for years, golf has battered Doc Redman recently. Last spring, he took some time away from the game to be with his family and think about his future. He loved golf and wanted to keep pursuing his dream, but knew he wouldn’t find success without enjoying the grind.

On Sunday in Knoxville, with a trophy in hand, Doc Redman got emotional as he talked about that break and the perspective he found while stepping away to be with his wife and newborn son.

“I just wasn’t happy playing golf,” Redman said. “I think the tough thing about golf is, especially out here, everyone’s so good, and if you’re not enjoying it, you’re not going to get the best out of your game. Then there’s almost no reason to be out here just kind of spinning your wheels. And we had just had my son, and I think I was just struggling with all the sacrifice there was in being away. So I needed kind of a reset to figure out why I was out here and refind kind of the love for it. So eventually I realized that, but it took a while.

“It’s always tough and it’s always going to be tough being away. And golf doesn’t always go your way,” Redman said later. “I think it’s easy to eat away at your confidence, your self-belief, and your image. So I think I’ve done a much better job of just whatever happened today wasn’t going to change my opinion of myself or how I’m playing and that’s made a big difference.”

Redman FaceTimed with his wife and son after the win, the tears welling in his eyes. Tears of happiness and of sacrifice — the price of the belief needed to stick to your dreams even when they seem so far away.

“They’re my biggest supporters and I love them very much. I miss them, but we’ll see them soon,” an emotional Redman said.

Redman thought about the break he took and how his wife’s support enabled him to recalibrate and keep going. Professional golf is a grind on all involved, and Redman is able to continue his climb because of the support he has around him — one that wouldn’t let him bow out.

“Maybe it became obvious that I didn’t have a lot of other qualifications and this is what I’m best at,” Redman said, when asked if he thought about other pursuits during his time off. “So it’s ablessing to be able to pursue what you’re best at and get paid to do it and that’s pretty awesome. She makes a lot of sacrifices and I do, too, and it’s not easy, but being able do this is really cool.”

What Redman found during his golf hiatus was the realization that success, especially in golf, isn’t linear. It’s a constant ebb and flow. Often, players don’t reach their peak until later. Redman pointed to Brooks Koepka, who grinded up the European Tour ranks before getting to the PGA Tour and becoming one of his generation’s great major champions.

Success in golf is found in persistence — in coming back time and time again, even when you don’t want to. Water breaks a rock not because of its strength but because of its consistency.

“I think that’s something that would be great for me to reflect on and think a lot about and just give myself props for sticking with it,” Redman said. “I think I try and remind myself all the time of all the great players who are playing late in their years and don’t have success until they’re probably mid-30s, you know, especially at the PGA Tour level. I think that’s the beauty of golf is that there’s no rush, you’ve just got to stick with it.”

Doc Redman never gave up, and now, after an improbable 40-foot eagle in Knoxville, he can finally see his return to the PGA Tour on the horizon.