Ryan Palmer reminisces on cusp of 500th PGA TOUR start

Ryan Palmer was in a reflective mood Wednesday.

On the cusp of his 500th career PGA TOUR start at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches, Palmer thanked his wife, Jennifer, for making it possible. He laughed at how the pro-forma post-round beer in his younger days became the post-round gym workout today. He described in vivid detail his first TOUR win, at the end of his 2004 rookie season, at the FUNAI Classic at Walt Disney World.

“For some reason I remember a lot about that week,” said Palmer, 47, who is playing this week on a sponsor exemption. “We had dinner that night at Magic Kingdom. I had a turkey leg. I was six back. Vijay (Singh) had won nine times that year. I'd kept my card a few weeks earlier in Mississippi, in Jackson, so it was kind of a fun week to realize we were at Disney World.

“Woke up the next morning on a Sunday,” he continued, “and ended up shooting 10-under par and sat around for almost two hours watching the guys finish.”

He would win not just that day but three more times – most recently at the 2019 Zurich Classic of New Orleans – and rack up 71 top-10 finishes on the way to $33.5 million in career earnings. He’s nothing if not grateful.

“I owe a lot to a lot of people,” he said.

In addition to wife Jennifer, he cited his first coach, Neil Wilkins, and his current coach, Randy Smith; his caddie, James Edmondson; and his manager, Mike Chisum.

Of the thousands who have racked up 20 or more starts on the PGA TOUR, only about 6% have made it to 500. Palmer has played in PGA TOUR events alongside Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and 20-year-old Nick Dunlap, the then-amateur who won The American Express earlier this season.

Palmer made his first start at the 1998 U.S. Open and first in a non-major at the 2002 Valero Texas Open. With the exception of the COVID-shortened season in 2019-20, he is the only player that has played in at least 20 PGA TOUR events in every season since he joined the TOUR at the start of 2004.

He has played in 66 different PGA TOUR events.

“If I look back, there's not one moment,” he said of his lengthy career. “…The one thing I'm most proud of is for 20 straight years, I've never really changed the way I've played the game. I've always done it my way. Never chased swings, equipment deals. Always kind of played the game the way I felt I wanted to play.”

Palmer, who lost in a four-man playoff at PGA National in 2014 (Russell Henley won), will tee off from hole No. 1 at 6:56 a.m. Thursday with Tyler Duncan and Tom Whitney.