Jonathan Kaye

Kaye was born in Denver, Colorado. He attended Sunnyslope High School in Phoenix, Arizona, where he was a star in golf, graduating in 1988. He graduated from the University of Colorado in 1993 and turned pro that same year. He began playing on the PGA Tour in 1995 after successfully competing in qualifying school finishing T-29th
His first year in 1995 was a big success as in 25 events he made only 8 cuts but was in the top ten twice, T-9th at the Buick Open and 2nd at the Quad City Classic, a shot back of winner D.A. Weibring who birdied his final hole while Kaye made bogey. He was 94th on the money list with earnings of $191,883. During the year he endured shoulder pain and after the season had rotator cuff surgery in Feb. of 1996. Missed most of '96 and '97 due to this injury. When he returned in '98, his confidence was shot.
1998 was not good, in 21 starts he only had one top-25 finish a T-18th at the Deposit Guaranty Classic. He finished 190th on the money list and had to return to the Qualifying tournament. In talking with Sports Illustrated Josh Elliott he said, "I started to think that maybe I'd had my run," Kaye said. "It was almost to the point where I quit. I couldn't play. I couldn't swing. I didn't know what to do." Three weeks before Q school, almost as an act of desperation, Kaye contacted Manuel de la Torre, the legendary swing coach from Milwaukee, who was in Phoenix working with some club pros. Kaye was more confused than impressed when de la Torre told him to address his ball with a driver, then stood two feet behind Kaye and commanded him to swing. Forced to keep his hands inside, Kaye rotated on a perfect plane and smoked the ball. After 15 minutes of similar swings, "I was
back," Kaye says. "I felt better than I'd ever felt before. It was almost scary." Kaye tore through Q school, coming in T-2nd to Mike Weir.
He started a good run that lasted seven years in which Kaye won twice on the PGA Tour, at the 2003 Buick Classic and the 2004 FBR Open, and he had 28 top-10 finishes. He is a self-taught player who has never had a teacher. "There's nobody who could teach my swing," he has said.
Things went awry in 2006. During the year he experienced pain in his right toe. Things were so painful that he underwent toe surgery in December 2006. He had a bone spur that had grown into a nerve which caused him shooting pains from the big toe up his ankle. It's an injury similar to "turf toe." He didn't play at all in 2007 and returned to playing in 2008 but it became a lingering problem. He only played in 8 events in 2008 and his best finish was T-44th, all because of the throbbing pain in the toe, the pain became unbearable.
In 2009 the pain got bearable but his game wasn't. He played in 17 events and made 8 cuts, he only had one top-ten, T-9th at the Reno-Tahoe Open. But the end of the year it was another disaster year as he was 163rd in the FedExCup standings, meaning another trip to Q-School. He finished T-34th which put him in limbo between the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour. Neither worked and Kaye became a part-time player, playing his last PGA Tour event in 2011. The silver lining to all of this, he and his wife Jennifer, who played golf professionally, have two daughters. So Kaye is staying home and hanging out with the family which has made him a hit with his daughters who declare him "Dad of the Year."
Kaye played a total of 329 PGA Tour events making 195 cuts with 31 top-ten finishes. He won twice and won a total of $10,597,848.
Kaye played events every now and then. The family summers in Colorado and he was T-2nd in the Colorado Open in 2016. In July 2017, 21 years after winning his first Colorado Open, he won it again with a record-tying 23-under-par 265 in the 53rd CoBank Colorado Open, earning $100,000. With the good play, he tried to play again on the PGA Tour in 2018.
When he turned 50 in 2020 he started playing regularly. In the past Kaye's two PGA Tour wins would have gotten him a year or two of exemptions to the PGA Tour Champions. But with rule changes, he will have to go through the qualifying process. He got to play in the 2021 Shaw Charity Classic and finished T-37th. The next week he Monday qualified for the Boeing Classic and finished T-18th. He qualified again at the Ascension Charity Classic and finished T-16th. At the end of the year, he was back to Q-School but didn't have good results finishing T-47th.
In 2022 the only PGA Tour Champions event he has gotten into due to Monday Qualifying was the Rapiscan Systems Classic. He finished T-23rd.