Lower Digs Deep

Personal Tragedy Irreversibly Shakes Some People. For Others, It Shapes Their Character. Aspiring Tour Pro Justin Lower Used Guts (And Golf) To Rise Above.

- Alan Shipnuck

THE WEB.COM TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP—excuse us, the Korn Ferry Tour Championship—is the most brutally Darwinian tournament in golf. Last year its very essence was boiled down to one 8-foot birdie putt, faced by a mild-mannered, 29-year-old Ohioan named Justin Lower.

Make it and he would earn a promotion to the PGA Tour; miss it and Lower was doomed to spend another year haunting the minor leagues, with all the frustrations and indignities and money-related stress that entails. As Lower stalked his putt on the 18th hole at Atlantic Beach (Fla.) Country Club, Jim Knous was watching from a Golf Channel set a hundred yards away. (His Twitter nickname, “Jimmy Hard K,” offers a guide to pronunciation.)

Knous had exited the 18th hole projected as 25th on the season-ending money list, which, if it held for another hour, would punch his ticket to the big-time. Lower was the last guy with a chance to knock Knous out of the top 25. What made it all the more awkward is they are close friends, having bonded over the last two seasons in the podunk towns the tour visits. They would scour the Internet to find a local restaurant offering trivia night, and take on all comers with a rotating cast of other players, under the team name Grip It and Sip It. “We kinda stunk,” says Knous. “We were all very knowledgeable about sports but not literature and politics. Except Justin.