Stuart Appleby

Appleby was born in Cohuna, Victoria, and grew up on a nearby dairy farm. He began golf by hitting balls from paddock to paddock after completing his farm chores. As a youth, he played Australian rules football.
Appleby turned professional in 1992 and began his career on the PGA Tour of Australasia. In 1995 he won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour. He won the 1995 Monterrey Open, becoming the eighth player in Korn Ferry Tour history to win his first start. He qualified to compete on the PGA Tour the following year by finishing the season fifth on the money list.
In Appleby's career, he played 52 Korn Ferry Tour events making 29 cuts with eight top-ten finishes. He played the tour full-time in 1995 and again in 2018 when in 12 events won $12,001 and was 196th on the money list.
Appleby has won nine times on the PGA Tour. He was a member of the International Team in the Presidents Cup five times in 1998, 2000, 2003, '05 & '07, with a 4-14-1 record. He was featured in the top ten of the Official World Golf Ranking in 2004, getting as high as 8th after finishing 2nd at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. His best performance in a major championship came in 2002 when he lost in a four-way playoff to Ernie Els at The British Open. He played in 55 majors, making 34 cuts with four top-ten finishes. His best finish in the Masters was T-7th in 2007, in the PGA Championship T-4th in 2000 at Valhalla, and T-10th at the 1998 U.S. Open at the Olympics.
In 2010, during the final round of the inaugural Greenbrier Classic, Appleby became the fifth player in history to shoot a 59 in an official PGA Tour event and won the PGA Tour Comeback Player of the Year award. Appleby played full-time on the PGA Tour between 1996 and 2018, playing in 551 events and making 371 cuts with 69 top-ten finishes. Between 1996 and 2006, he finished no higher than 55th on the money list (in 2001) and had his biggest money year in 2006 when he won $3,470,457. In his career on the PGA Tour, Stuart won $29,828,521. In the FedExCup years between 2007 and 2014, he was inside the top-125 six times. The best was in 2008, when he was 17th, and the last time he was inside the top-125 was in 2014 when he was 31st.
One of Appleby's problems playing golf was a sore back, dating back to 2000. He used constant osteopathy techniques for years, but in 2015 he underwent surgery for a herniated disc. Despite the surgery, he still suffered nerve impingement which sapped some of the strength from his left leg requiring him to retrain his motor patterns. Years after the surgery, Appleby never knew any success from the surgery. Two years after the surgery, when he could swing hard at it, his clubhead speed was way down before the surgery.
Another tragedy in his life came in London Waterloo Station in 1998 when a taxicab struck and killed his wife, Renay. It was just after the British Open, and they were on the way to Paris for a second honeymoon. She was retrieving a piece of luggage when a cab driver accidentally lurched his car in reverse, pinning her against another vehicle. Renay, who was 25 then, died almost instantly from internal injuries. They met while playing on the Korn Ferry Tour, and Renay was his caddie. The couple got married in December of 1996, and everything good was happening. Stuart's career took off, and they had a new house in Orlando. Appleby felt he had just won the raffle. Appleby regrouped and started playing again a month later at the PGA Championship. In 2002 love hit him again as he married his second wife, Ashley Saleet, and they went on to have four kids. Appleby also endured another tragedy when his friend and next-door neighbor Payne Stewart was killed in a plane crash in November of 1999. After that, Appleby became a key father figure for Stewart's children, Chelsea and Aaron.
Appleby started thinking about senior golf a couple of years before turning 50, playing in three Korn Ferry Tour events. When COVID hit, he couldn't play, but when he turned 50 in May of 2021, he got ready and played his first PGA Tour Champions at the Pure Insurance Championship, finishing T-34th. Because of his back, he can't practice much, and playing 18 holes pain-free is impossible. He finished out 2021, T-46th at Furyk & Friends and then T-12th at the SAS Championship.
2022 Notes: Played in 22 PGA Tour Champions events with two top-ten finishes. He was 43rd in the Schwab rankings and 43rd on the money list with $506,343 in earnings. With four rounds in the 60s, Appleby finished T-3rd at the Regions Tradition, seven shots back of winner Steve Stricker. He was T-7th at the SAS Championship and finished the season T-47th at the TimberTech Championship.
2023 Notes: Best finish T-11th at the Invited Celebrity Classic.