Sluman says fewer tournaments better fit his schedule
Life changes dramatically for Chicago's only member of PGA Tour Champions following the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship this week in Phoenix.
Jeff Sluman will enter the retirement phase of what has been a great 40-year career on the PGA Tour and the 50-and-over circuit.
"I'm not going to go full-time anymore after this year," said Sluman, now 63. "I will still play golf, but don't want to do it 28 weeks a year - maybe just half that. I'll pick and choose (his tournaments)."
There's more to it for Sluman than fewer tournaments. He'll be back to being a full-time Chicago resident.
Sluman lived in Hinsdale for years when he played the PGA Tour, then moved to Delray Beach, Fla., as a Champions Tour member while maintaining a part-time residence in Chicago's River North. Now both the Florida and River North places are sold and Sluman and wife Linda are living in an apartment in Clarendon Hills until their new place in Hinsdale is ready.
Giving up the warm weather in Florida in favor of Chicago winters isn't a concern.
"Growing up in Rochester (N.Y.), it's not that big a deal to go back to that horrendous weather in December, January and February," Sluman said. "We have family and friends (in Chicago) and it's really important at this time in our lives to have them around."
Their daughter, Kathryn, is working in Chicago after her graduation from Sluman's alma mater, Florida State, and that's a factor in the relocation as well.
Sluman's game tailed off in this pandemic season. His Schwab Cup ranking (No. 70) is the lowest ever and his best finish was a tie for 26th Sunday in the TimberTech Championship at The Old Course at Broken Sound in Boca Raton, Fla. The course is a few miles from Sluman's former home in Delray Beach. He joined PGA Tour Champions in 2007 and the last of his six victories on the circuit was in 2014.
"I've been winding down," he said. "It's a common theme as guys get older. You don't putt as well, and that showed the last three years."
In his days on the PGA Tour Sluman was a big-time player. He won a major, the 1988 PGA Championship at Oak Tree in Oklahoma, and five other tournaments. Two of the others came at the now defunct Greater Milwaukee Open, and Sluman also had a then-course record 63 at Cog Hill's famed Dubsdread course when the Western Open was played there. (The record was bettered by Tiger Woods' 62 in a BMW Championship.)
Rarely injured, Sluman played in more than 1,000 PGA Tour events, or more than 3,000 rounds and 59,000 holes. Thanks to his consistent play over four decades he has more than $30 million in career winnings.
"There's still golf in my future, just not as much," Sluman said. "This is a great way to wind down your career, semi-retire and still get those competitive juices going. You can't do that in any other sport."
His last full season isn't one to remember fondly. The pandemic led to eight of 27 Champions Tour tournaments being canceled and many more rescheduled. Still, the Champions was the first circuit to allow spectators and - unlike the others - conduct weekly pro-am events.
"It's been difficult for everybody in the world," Sluman said, "but personally we did all right. My family's healthy, and my daughter graduated from college. She spent four to five months with us, which normally wouldn't have happened. She's working now, but probably would have gotten an apartment in downtown Chicago earlier than she did. The pandemic is what it is, and we're all going to have to live with it and get on with our lives."
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