For Swedish rookie Tim Widing, the atypical has become typical

Tim Widing attended an atypical golf school, the University of San Francisco, and upon meeting the woman who would become his wife agreed to an atypical first date. He and Jazmine Kelleher went on a 16-mile run that resulted in Widing contracting severe dehydration and requiring hospitalization.

All of which is to say Widing is not a conventional PGA TOUR pro.

With interests ranging from disc golf to cooking and baking – he’s the lead cook at home, Jazmine said – Widing counts his varied interests as his superpower, the broader perspective that could help him extend his career.

“Working as hard as I can and still enjoying it, that’s very important, and that’s why I go back to playing a lot of sports and having hobbies, to make sure golf is not my life,” Widing said. “It’s a big part of my life, but it’s not everything.

“Having that balance is going to make me enjoy golf a lot more.”

The Swedish rookie, who played high school golf alongside world No. 6 Ludvig Åberg, will make his TOUR debut as a member at this week’s Sony Open in Hawaii. Widing earned his TOUR card less than four years after turning pro, and his diverse skill set bodes well. He won back-to-back Korn Ferry Tour events last spring (at a combined 51-under), and he finished fifth on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour Points List, earning 2025 TOUR membership.

Åberg pegs Widing as the first player in their circle who could take it deep.

“When I was around 15 or 16, he would always shoot these super low scores,” Åberg said, “and we would be like, ‘Man, he shot 8 or 9 under.’ He’s got the speed, he’s got the height, and he’s competitive, plays aggressively.”

And yet Widing is no monomaniacal careerist, with his extracurriculars providing ballast, of sorts, amid the inevitable turbulence of his day job.

His No. 1 hobby is hockey, which he has played for many years and hopes to for many more. During his TOUR rookie interview last fall, Widing felt goosebumps as he discussed his favorite NHL team, the New York Rangers, and the idea of attending a game in Madison Square Garden. Widing sometimes plays arena music from the HV71, the Swedish hockey team he played for as a kid, while warming up for a competitive round.

The Widings now reside in San Luis Obispo, California (between Los Angeles and San Francisco), near Jazmine’s hometown of Cambria. There isn’t an ice rink nearby, so Widing will often make a three-hour round-trip to play in Santa Barbara. It’s check-free hockey, which decreases the risk, but only marginally. He suffered a rib injury during the 2023 Korn Ferry Tour season that didn’t require any time off, but he felt it in his swing.

Jazmine sometimes wonders whether to condone his puck-chasing.

“I have battled that line of, ‘Do you encourage somebody to do something that’s putting their body in harm’s way?’” she said. “But when you see the amount of joy that it brings him, you realize that the pros outweigh the cons.”

Widing was born into a sporting family. His dad Alexander was a professional ping-pong player (as is his brother Charlie), and he was encouraged to try several sports.

“Tennis, floorball, even did street dancing, bowling,” Widing said. “I tried everything.”

His top four were golf, hockey, soccer and ping-pong, which he narrowed to golf and hockey in his teens. He eventually chose golf, with a dream of playing on the PGA TOUR. He wasn’t fluent in English upon his arrival at USF, but he embraced the challenge – a consistent theme in his ascent to the PGA TOUR.

By the time he met Jazmine in the school cafeteria his sophomore year, conversation was no trouble. “We agreed to go on a run together … and immediately, he started talking to me,” Jazmine laughed. “I’m like, ‘We’re talking and running, OK, got it.’”

Widing was attracted to Jazmine’s ambition – she works in construction project management and owner’s representation for Jenny Rios Home, and she often leads virtual meetings while her husband is competing.

“She’s the most organized person I’ve ever met in my life,” Widing said.

His proposal in the spring of 2020 was typically atypical. The couple had bonded over scavenger hunts, so Widing created a scavenger hunt around Jazmine’s hometown of Cambria. At each spot, she picked up a puzzle piece that guided her to the next stop, leading to her favorite restaurant and eventually to a beach on Big Sur. Widing ran down to set up a tent – no easy task on a windy afternoon – and the couple began to complete the puzzle, which it turned out had four pieces missing. Widing reached into his pocket to grab them, each with one of the following words: “Will. You. Marry. Me.”

Widing made the All-West Coast Conference First Team for three straight seasons and was a 2020 PING All-America honorable mention before turning pro in 2021. Despite some adversity in his first full year (he battled food poisoning and was robbed at gunpoint), he finished No. 33 on the 2022 PGA TOUR Latinoamérica standings, then earned Korn Ferry Tour membership via Q-School. After earning guaranteed starts at Final Stage, he shared an emotional FaceTime conversation with Jazmine.

“I think that’s the most I’ve ever felt his career was on the line,” she said.

Widing had a respectable Korn Ferry Tour rookie campaign in 2023, finishing No. 46 to keep full status, but he felt that his mental game was holding him back (he now feels his physical game was pro-ready out of high school). He committed to working with mental coach Peter Ostlund, whom he has known from the Swedish national team, and to staying active outside the ropes rather than returning to his hotel room and scrolling on his phone.

In 2023, Widing might have spent hours putting after a poor day on the greens, then putted more in his hotel room. But that extra work had brought diminishing returns. Last season Widing and Ostlund played miniature golf a few days before Widing’s first title at the LECOM Suncoast Classic in the spring. They played disc golf together.

This atypical cross-training would turn out to be the missing link – it was OK to not think about golf all the time, and it made it easier to shake off bad rounds.

“I’ve been accepting that, ‘Today is maybe not the day, but tomorrow might be a different story,’” Widing said. “And not trying to fix something here and now. It’s not like there’s a secret recipe to it. Try to get out of your own way somehow and try to be as present as possible and free up your swing. Even though you’re maybe playing bad, have stable confidence and still think you can execute the shot.”

He's had plenty of these types of conversations with Jazmine.

“The funny thing about golf is many call it the greatest social experiment of all time,” she said. “It’s such a philosophical endeavor, and I think that to be able to continue showing up when maybe you don’t feel good or maybe to think something is off, but to keep showing up … I’m really proud of him for continuing to persevere.”

It was a winding road with four years of twists and turns, but for the atypical Widing, he of the 16-mile first date, you wouldn’t expect anything less.