Daughter's memory lives on through PGA TOUR rookie Hayden Springer

MCKINNEY, Texas – Hayden Springer was born two months early into a family of high-achievers.

His father, Neyland, was a U.S. Navy pilot. Hayden inherited his father’s preternatural calm, though it sometimes exhibited itself as abundant caution.

“If you sent Hayden across the street for a cup of sugar from the neighbor,” his mother, Jennifer, said with a laugh, “he would check the weather. He would check to see if there are any cars coming. He would be a lot more detailed about making sure the trip was safe.”

Springer’s childhood swing coach in Dallas, Rosey Bartlett, described a preteen Springer’s swing as John Daly-esque, but he shortened it by roughly 25% to improve consistency.

And in college, when he met the woman who would later become his wife on the first day of school at Texas Tech, he waited multiple months to ask her out. Emma eventually said yes.

But life also includes things that no amount of caution can protect you from or patience can prepare you for, like the grim news that Hayden and Emma received as they prepared for the birth of their first child. Hayden is perhaps the unlikeliest rookie on the PGA TOUR this year, and the road to fulfilling his dream also contains more heartbreak than most people could endure.

When Sage Elyse Springer was born on Oct. 1, 2020, she was expected to live just one to three days, if she survived birth at all, because of the genetic chromosomal condition Trisomy 18. What was supposed to be the happiest day of the Springers’ lives was clouded by sadness and uncertainty.

Hayden and Emma didn’t bring a car seat to the hospital, nor any newborn clothes. They were told they weren’t needed.

But Sage didn’t know about her dire prognosis. She left the hospital with her parents and went on to live for three years. They were three years that contained the full spectrum of emotions. The joy of parenthood was tinged with the knowledge of Sage’s condition and the short amount of time she was promised.

Sage was feisty and playful. She loved light-up toys and kicking her feet in bed. Cuddles, bubbles and her flying-saucer swing all made her smile. She loved all these things, so her family loved them too. Hayden and Emma held on tightly, determined to make the most of whatever time they had with her. Hayden was with her whenever he wasn’t trying to progress toward the PGA TOUR.

“During Sage’s life, he never shied away from learning how to care for her and in providing her care,” said Hayden’s mother, Jennifer. “During Sage’s hospital stays, Hayden spent most every night sleeping in the hospital room with her when he wasn’t traveling, and getting up when she needed something or when an alarm sounded on her monitoring devices. Sleeping at the hospital is rough after one night much less consecutive nights, and then practicing and playing during the day takes drive and commitment.”

Somehow, Hayden hit both marks – being there as a husband and father but also charting a path to the highest level of professional golf. If the measure of success is not just what we achieve but also what we overcome to achieve it, then Hayden Springer already stands tall even before the first ball is struck at TPC Craig Ranch this week.

"We don’t know what two years, or five years, or 10 years from now looks like," Springer said. "Trying to live knowing that, and also knowing that we’re very blessed to be healthy; we’re very blessed to be here, and for me to be playing on the PGA TOUR, it definitely is a blessing. There are times that are harder than others. I don’t know what the future looks like, so just trying to live each day with that, and working hard."

Time grows murky when late night meets early morning in a hospital’s pediatric care unit.

It was Jan. 6, 2021, and Sage, 3 months old, was being prepared for open-heart surgery. After completing a Florida mini-tour event that afternoon, Springer, in his third year of professional golf, arrived at the hospital just before midnight, joining his family in Texas until Sage was taken for a life-saving heart repair at 6:30 a.m. the next day. Again, she pulled through.

Hayden’s commitment endured for the better part of three years, the love story of a resilient child with inspirational spunk and her resilient dad who intended on playing the PGA TOUR someday. It was made possible by their family’s enduring support.

It would be unfair to expect a jet-lagged dad, spending nights in the hospital after returning from places like Brazil or Peru, to keep up with the constant flow of competitors who were vying for the same TOUR cards as him. While his competition committed every waking hour to the craft, Hayden was committed to being at Emma’s side. He would trade places with Emma during the day so he could work on his game, then return to the hospital at night. But for Springer, 27, that was the path to the top of his profession.

“He was well equipped to handle what he had to go through,” said Barry Hawkins, Springer’s golf coach at Byron Nelson High School and part of his close circle to this day. “He’s a faithful man. His trust is in something beyond what we understand, and I think that’s how he and Emma handled that.”

Yet … “I can’t fathom it,” Hawkins added. “I don’t understand it.”

Sage died Nov. 13, 2023. A month later, Hayden earned his first PGA TOUR card by tying for fourth at the final stage of PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry. It was the first time since 2012 that Q-School offered a direct path to the PGA TOUR, and only five cards were available. The celebrations, which included the Springers’ second daughter, Annie, were accompanied by the void that Emma had left.

That void is filled with love. With hope. And with the memories.

Her family agreed that Sage would have relished the décor at last week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans. “A string of beads was something that she could easily grasp,” Jennifer said. “That was something that she could easily hold onto and that she loved.

“I love the way Sage looked at her parents and the way they looked at her,” she continued. “While she couldn’t verbalize her love with words, she conveyed her emotion with cuddles, snuggles, big kicks and big smiles.”

During the final months of Sage’s life and shortly afterward, her dad authored a story of competitive resilience that paralleled her spirit. (Hayden is Sage’s dad, after all.)

Six months before Q-School’s Final Stage, Springer made perhaps the putt of his life, a 7-footer for double-bogey to close his second round at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas Wichita Open. He had hit his tee shot out-of-bounds but made par with his second ball to make the cut on the number.

Springer didn’t realize it at the time, but that putt would prove pivotal. Rather than be sent back down to the mini-tours, he retained a tenuous but real connection to the PGA TOUR. As a conditional Korn Ferry Tour member, he essentially earned starts on PGA TOUR Canada with that tie for 53rd in Wichita. He ran with the opportunity, riding a small swing thought about his address position to two victories in his final three starts. The wins vaulted him to the top of the Fortinet Cup standings.

The No. 1 spot on PGA TOUR Canada meant full 2024 Korn Ferry Tour status at minimum, plus direct access to Q-School’s Final Stage for a chance at a TOUR card. He capitalized.

“When you come at it from a faith perspective, the timing is never wrong,” said Springer’s dad Neyland. “I think a lot of things that have happened in Hayden’s life have prepared him for what is coming now to fruition, and maybe were placed in his life to mature and to learn and to be ready for the opportunity.”

Springer, whose sister is also a pilot, pursues what he believes in. It dates to his preschool years, when a 4-year-old Springer would get upset with his dad for not bringing him to the golf course.

Springer was a good football and baseball player, even a solid wrestler. But professional golf was always in his mind’s eye.

“(He said) I plan on getting a degree, but if I don’t give this a shot, then I will never forgive myself,” Hawkins said. “He’s the only player that’s ever said that to me in 15 years.”

Springer’s unwavering commitment to his dream is a family trait. In hard times, it means leaning on others to support you as you press on.

“Joy and grief are swirling together like they were put into a blender,” Emma wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of her, Hayden, Annie and a PGA TOUR card. “Each one magnifies the other. We are blessed. We are sad. We are joyful. Thank you to our village!”

Sage’s legacy shines in her family as they navigate new experiences on the PGA TOUR, and through their foundation “Extra To Love,” which provides financial assistance for families of kids with Trisomy 13 and Trisomy 18, assisting in the cost of traveling for medical care and for adaptive aids “to help them experience more fullness of life.”

As Emma spoke Tuesday at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson, she wore a necklace with four letters: S-A-G-E. The letters glittered in the afternoon Texas sun.

“I think what we learned from her is just that joy does not come from your circumstances,” Emma said, “because she was just such a joyful girl. You’d be in a situation where anybody else would just be miserable, and she'd have the biggest smile on her face. She’d be kicking her legs. She'd be so happy to play with you.

“And I think everybody has a lot to learn from that.”

The Springers now strive to share that joy with the world, through “Extra To Love” and beyond. Joel Thelen, who befriended the Springers while playing on PGA TOUR Americas, described Hayden as “super positive.”

“I think they realized it was a miracle that (Sage) persevered as long as she did,” Thelen said.

That spirit, uplifting amidst even the most gripping times, was apparent during Sage’s funeral service, eight days after her passing. Guests wore pink for Sage, and her dad delivered a moving remembrance.

“I’m about to turn 60,” said Hawkins, a father of 24-year-old triplets, “and for the life of me –I’ve witnessed some emotional things, nothing more powerful than watching Hayden during Sage’s funeral. Nothing more powerful. And I can’t say any more than that … just an absolutely powerful moment as a dad. All of a sudden, and I’m about to tear up now, I went from being a teacher and a mentor to him, to being a student, for what I saw.”

A month later, Springer earned his first TOUR card at Q-School’s Final Stage, completing an incredible display of inner strength that nearly defies belief – until you realize he was building this inner strength all along.

Through their foundation, and through everything Hayden and Emma do, really, believe Sage will live on. They don’t remember much about their wedding’s first dance, but the song from their last dance remains imprinted in their hearts: “How Long Will I Love You” by Ellie Goulding.

How long will I love you?
As long as stars are above you
And longer if I can