Jonathan Currie Byrd (born January 27, 1978) is an American

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

. He was the 2002

PGA Tour Rookie of the Year The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champions ...

, and has won five times on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

Amateur career

Byrd was born in

Anderson, South Carolina Anderson is a city in and the county seat of Anderson County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 28,106 at the 2020 census, making it the 16th-most populous city in South Carolina. It is one of the principal cities in the Gree ...

. He attended

Clemson University Clemson University () is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university near Clemson, South Carolina, United States. - The blue-shaded pattern denotes university property. This shows Clemson University is ''out ...

from 1997 to 2000. During his Clemson career, Byrd was the first four-time First Team All-ACC player in Clemson history and was named a First Team All-America in 1999. He represented the United States on the

Walker Cup The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams: United States, and Great Britain and Ireland featuring players from the United Kingdom and Ireland. The official name is the Walker Cup ...

team in 1999.

Professional career

Byrd turned professional in 2000 and played on the Buy.com Tour (now

Korn Ferry Tour The Korn Ferry Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either not yet reached the PGA Tour, or who have done so but then failed to win enough FedEx Cup points to stay at that level. ...

), winning the Buy.com Charity Pro-Am at The Cliffs and finishing eighth on the money list. In his first season on the

in 2002, Byrd won the

Buick Challenge The Southern Open was a golf tournament on the PGA Tour from 1970 to 2002. It was played at the Green Island Country Club in Columbus, Georgia, from 1970 to 1990 and at the Callaway Gardens Resort (Mountain View Course), Pine Mountain, Georgia, ...

and was named

. Byrd won the B.C. Open in 2004 and the

John Deere Classic The John Deere Classic is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It is played annually in July, usually the week before The Open Championship, at TPC Deere Run in the Quad Cities community of Silvis, Illinois. History The tournament bega ...

in 2007.

Byrd had an average season in 2008 with two top-10s and a little over $1,000,000 in earnings. His best finish in 2009 was at the

Memorial Tournament The Memorial Tournament (branded as the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, Inc., Workday for sponsorship reasons, and also referred to as simply the Memorial) is a PGA Tour golf tournament founded in 1976 by Jack Nicklaus. It is played on ...

, where he was joint second round leader with

Jim Furyk James Michael Furyk (born May 12, 1970) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions. In 2010, he was the FedEx Cup champion and PGA Tour Player of the Year. He has won one major championship, the 2 ...

. Byrd would go on to finish T3. On October 24, 2010, Byrd defeated

Martin Laird Martin Charles Campbell Laird (born 29 December 1982) is a Scottish professional golfer, playing on the PGA Tour. He has won four PGA Tour events in his career, most recently the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in 2020. Until Russell Knox ...

and

Cameron Percy Cameron Blair Percy (born 5 May 1974) is an Australian professional golfer. Percy was born in Chelsea, Victoria and turned professional in 1998. He joined the second-tier Nationwide Tour (now known as the Korn Ferry Tour) in 2005, but enjoyed l ...

in a sudden-death playoff at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open for his fourth

title. Byrd made a

hole-in-one In golf, a hole in one or hole-in-one (also known as an ace, mostly in American English) occurs when a ball hit from a tee to start a hole finishes in the cup. Holes-in-one most commonly occur on par 3 holes, the shortest distance holes on a sta ...

on the fourth hole of the playoff, the par-3 17th, to win the championship. On January 9, 2011, Byrd defeated

Robert Garrigus Robert Ira Garrigus (born November 11, 1977) is an American professional golfer who is currently a member of the PGA Tour. He won the 2010 Children's Miracle Network Classic, the last event of the PGA Tour season, to guarantee exempt status on th ...

on the second hole of a playoff to win the PGA Tour season opener the

Hyundai Tournament of Champions The Tournament of Champions, currently titled as The Sentry, is the calendar-year opening tournament of golf's PGA Tour season, played in Hawaii on the island of Maui. The tournament was founded in 1953; for most of its history the field was rest ...

. On October 2, 2017, Byrd won the 2017 Web.com Tour Championship by four strokes, securing his full PGA Tour card for the first time since 2014.

Personal life

On July 7, 2009, Byrd 's father, James, died aged 65 after a long struggle with

brain cancer A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign (non-cance ...

. The death of his father caused Byrd to withdraw from the

, an event he won in 2007.

Awards and honors

In 2002, Byrd earned the

award

Amateur wins

''this list may be incomplete'' *1999

Northeast Amateur The Northeast Amateur is an amateur golf tournament played annually at the Wannamoisett Country Club in Rumford, Rhode Island. It was first played in 1962. In December 2021, the Northeast Amateur joined with six other tournaments to form the Elit ...

Professional wins (7)

PGA Tour wins (5)

PGA Tour playoff record (2–1)

Web.com Tour wins (2)

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the half way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.

Summary

*Most consecutive cuts made – 2 (three times) *Longest streak of top-10s – 1

Results in The Players Championship

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Results in World Golf Championships

QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = Tied
Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.

PGA Tour career summary

''* As of the 2020 season.''
''** Byrd did not join the PGA Tour until 2002 so he was not ranked on the money list until then.''

U.S. national team appearances

Amateur *

Palmer Cup The Palmer Cup is a 1200–1215 CE goblet from northern Syria or Jazira region, Jazira, and an example of early Islamic glass. It is sometimes described as "Ayyubid", since it corresponds to the time when the Ayyubids disputed control of areas of ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

(winners),

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Professional *

Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge The Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge was an unofficial golf event held in November at the Rio Secco Golf Club in Henderson, Nevada at Reflection Bay Golf Club. The tournament was a unique stroke play event, and, as the name suggests, pitted three teams, ...

(representing PGA Tour): 2011

References

External links

* *
Player Bio: Clemson Official Athletic site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Byrd, Jonathan American male golfers Clemson Tigers men's golfers PGA Tour golfers Korn Ferry Tour graduates Golfers from South Carolina Sportspeople from Anderson, South Carolina 1978 births Living people