PGA Tour winner and Chattanooga resident Stephan Jaeger was at McLemore earlier this week

photo: Paul Payne

The professional golf journey over the past dozen years has not been easy for Stephan Jaeger, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. He realized that the foundations of the success he now enjoys were laid through struggles and periods of self-doubt.

Although he’s had a storybook year on the PGA Tour, the 35-year-old Jaeger doesn’t take anything for granted. There’s still a lot of work to be done to improve his game, he relentlessly pursues perfection – which he admits is unattainable – but he still pursues it so that one day he can look back on his career without regrets.

There was a quiet sense of confidence in Jaeger, who served as host of the “First Tee and Friends” event promoting local junior golf in McLemore earlier this week. Recalling the unforgettable season in which he captured his first PGA Tour victory and competed for his native Germany at the Paris Olympics, Jaeger reflected on the winding road to his breakout season.

Jaeger now has full status for 2025 with exemption from Signature Events and Players Championship. For once, he’ll be able to enjoy some free time with his wife, Shelby, and their soon-to-be two-year-old son, Fritz, at their home on Chattanooga’s North Shore.

“Winning clearly changed the tournaments I entered and prepared me to be able to set my schedule this year,” Jaeger said. “When I started playing at Korn Ferry, my goal was always to protect your card, get to the next level and get on Tour. In your first few years you’re just trying to get used to it and I went back and forth a few times between tours. My self-belief has always been there, but sometimes you have to see something positive happen, like, ‘Wait a minute.’ ‘I think I can do this.’ “Winning in Houston kind of changed things for me.”

Jaeger defeated Scottie Scheffler by one stroke at the Texas Children’s Houston Open in late March and earned the right to play in his first Masters Tournament two weeks later, competing in all four majors. He followed that up with a runner-up finish at the Black Desert Championship three weeks ago; This was one of four races in the season where he finished in the top 10 and earned $4,732,554.

“The highlight of the year was definitely Houston, seeing my son and my wife come out to celebrate that moment together,” Jaeger said. “That’s pretty special for a first win and having them was a memory I won’t forget.”

Jaeger’s participation in the Olympics was another special moment of his campaign; He was able to represent his native Germany on the international stage.

“I’ll never forget the first shot in Paris,” Jaeger said. “I don’t know what I was expecting, but I’ve never seen this many people in the first inning. I played with Shane Lowry and he told me to expect that many people would be on every hole. “The Olympic atmosphere and seeing your flags on the golf course was a really great experience.”

But Jaeger points to his third-place finish at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in late January as a key indicator of next season.

“I’ve loved Torrey for years and it was so much fun to be able to compete against some of the best players in the world on that final day on a really tough golf course,” Jaeger said. “I played well at Sony and very badly at American Express, so I went to San Diego, which had positive vibes for me. It was a really great week for us and we had some friends from Chattanooga come and watch on Sunday. “I walked away from that weekend with great confidence in my game.”

As he looks ahead to the upcoming season, Jaeger hopes to build on his success in 2024.

“I’m not someone who has big goals, but there are some things I want to achieve,” Jaeger said. “I’d like to play in the Ryder Cup. I’d like to go to the Tour Championship. I’d like to win a few tour events. When I’m trying to win a tournament, I’d like to be somewhere near the top there. And obviously, I’d like to win a big prize.

“But these are things that are not actually in your control, in a sense you can control the process. You can control what you do, and if it works, great. If not, you’ve done your best. “I’m more of a ‘Hey, I’m going to hit from every angle and work as hard as I can in every aspect of the game.'”

Jaeger came to Chattanooga from Munich as a 17-year-old boarding student at the Baylor School. The day after his arrival, he was introduced to his first Hardee’s biscuit and immediately went out and tamed the sight of the Honors Course like never before, a preview of his future success.

He chose to stay in town, competing collegiately at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, earning All-American honors for the Mocs before turning pro at age 23.

But his professional journey did not follow the same linear upward path. After spending his early years between the PGA Tour Latinoamerica and the Korn Ferry Tour, he graduated to the PGA Tour full-time for the 2017-18 season. He enjoyed some success during his two seasons at the top level but then found himself back on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020.

But that year Korn Ferry topped the money list with a pair of wins and advanced to the PGA Tour, where he gradually improved each season. finished 94^This 56th in the FedEx Cup standings in 2022, then.^This Before climbing to 43 in 2023^third Last season’s rankings.

“My career has been on a steady rise,” Jaeger said. “My first few years on tour I finished 165th, then 152nd.^And and I lost my card. What I like to see is a steady slope and correct trend. Wins are great. The runners-up are great. Top 10s are great. But I like to see the progress that improves every year.”

When Jaeger looks back on the path that brought him to his current position on the PGA Tour, he appreciates the challenges he experienced along the way. He lost confidence in his driving over a long period of time but has worked tirelessly to improve this part of his game and is now in the top 10 in overall driving rankings on the Tour. He understood that hard times would only make him better in the long run.

“If things hadn’t gotten this bad, I don’t think I would have put as much effort into getting better,” Jaeger said. “I’ve been lucky enough to find a way to get rid of that fear and now I think that’s probably one of my strengths in my game. Trust is earned. You don’t get confidence from winning. You get confidence from the things you do on the field. It is your habits that instill confidence in you. Of course, it was terrible at times, but if it wasn’t for him, I don’t think I would be the golfer I am today.”

Having reached the top of his profession, Jaeger is far from satisfied. There are still many mountains to scale in the coming years.

“I’m going to push this really hard for the next 10 years,” Jaeger said. “I am 35 years old and ready to tackle anything… what am I working on, how am I practicing, how much am I practicing and what sacrifices do we have to make as a family to achieve this? next step. It’s a matter of embracing the quest rather than the goal.

“When I’m done, I want to look back and say, ‘Man, I worked my ass off all these years and I’m proud of what I accomplished.’ I don’t want to look back and count the wins. I love looking back and saying, ‘You know what? ‘I gave everything I had and this was the result.’ “I think knowing that will be the biggest positive I can take from this.”

Jaeger, who won the Korn Ferry Tour six times before his victory in Houston, knows it’s the intoxicating thrill of being in the heat of battle on Sunday that continues to fuel his passion for competition.

“Winning is the goal, of course, but I think everyone who has won in their life realizes that it does not come with eternal happiness,” Jaeger said. “It’s an incredibly high number to win. But I think the chances of being there on Sundays are really high. The happy place is to have the chance to win. You won’t do it all the time and probably most of the time you won’t. But being there on Sundays and getting the adrenaline pumping, that’s what I love the most This.”

Jaeger is a Big Fan of Kale

McLemore has a special connection to the Lookout Mountain resort, as it is prominently displayed on Jaeger’s tour golf bag.

Jaeger, one of the first golfers to play The Keep, the highly anticipated mountaintop masterpiece designed in collaboration with Bill Bergin and Rees Jones, was effusive in his praise of McLemore’s latest addition.

“I saw The Keep from the very beginning,” Jaeger said. “We went there when it was just a forest, and then we saw it taking shape. I think it will be an experience that will leave everyone’s mouth open. The views are spectacular, but I think they did a really good job of not centering the views. “The golf course is special even without the view.”

Jaeger’s round 71 is still a standard that has not been eclipsed, but he hopes to bounce back and improve on his first points tally.

“The day we played, there were clouds moving up over the cliffs, making it feel like we were in San Francisco,” Jaeger said. “They’ve done a good job of making golf holes memorable, where no two are alike. There’s something to like about every hole, which is unique to most golf courses. I think some of my favorite holes were the ones without a view.”

Jaeger especially liked the uphill par 4 17th^This It has an amphitheater-like castle made of rock formations and boulders surrounding the green area.

“This is an incredibly great hole. “They did a really good job providing 50 miles of views from the green, but they also took over this God-given piece of land.”

Jaeger, who has played at many of the sport’s most iconic venues, predicts The Keep will rise to the level of many of these famous golf courses.

“I can think of some special places like Torrey Pines and Pebble Beach, but being able to be on a mountain rather than on the ocean makes The Keep unique,” ​​Jaeger said. “I’m really excited to see what the situation will be in the next few years when they have time to grow the native territories. “It will be incredible.”

First Tee Chattanooga Continues to Expand Its Influence

Under the guidance of First Tee Chattanooga director Tim Haralson, the organization continues to make an impact on the local junior golf scene. Tuesday’s trip is another example of this outreach.

With a full field of 18 teams competing at McLemore’s Highlands Course, the fundraiser included a silent auction and dinner, as well as a Q&A session with Jaeger moderated by McLemore manager and former PGA Tour player and Golf Channel personality Charlie Rymer .

“Fundraising is important, but raising awareness for our programs, donors and those who have a stake in the development of youth golf is more important,” Haralson said. “That’s what we would do if we didn’t do anything, just because of awareness and bringing these people together to support our mission.”

With the event now in its second year after being held at Chattanooga Golf and Country Club last year, Haralson is excited about the future of the First Tee program, which is run at the UTC Player Development Center off Hickory Valley Road.

“We have traditional education classes, but we will also continue our initiative to work with inner-city kids and bring golf programs to schools that don’t have them,” Haralson said. “We have a training facility location. We have equipment we can donate. We have coaches who can help. “We will launch them and then hope that schools will pick it up and implement it.”

Paul Payne can be emailed at [email protected].

McLemore manager and former PGA Tour player and Golf Channel personality Charlie Rymer interviews Stephan Jaeger at “First Tee and Friends”

photo: Paul Payne