Jeronimo Esteve’s Resilient Journey

As a rule, competitive golfers do not receive much praise for their physical toughness. But more than a few have shown their resilience over the years. Perhaps most famously, there was Ben Hogan winning the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion just 16 months after nearly being killed in a car accident, his legs bandaged and, in many ways, still battered when he prevailed in that championship. And Tiger Woods taking that same tournament almost six decades later with a fractured tibia in his left leg, and a knee so seriously damaged it needed to be surgically repaired immediately after that win.

Much less known but equally compelling is the story of Jeronimo Esteve, a Puerto Rican-born amateur who moved to Miami with his parents when he was 9 years old – and who was good enough to compete on the golf team at Dartmouth College for four years before turning professional. After bouncing around the mini-tours for a short spell after graduation, he helped his father run the family Toyota dealership in Miami. Esteve also married, and then fathered a s...