Rod Spittle ’78 is finally taking aim at his dream
He put his pro golf aspirations on hold for almost three decades. Then, in his late 40s, he decided to shoot for the stars.
Recently retired PGA golfer Rod Spittle is accompanied for this golf game by his former coach Jim Brown, who led the men’s golf team for 36 years. (Jo McCulty)
It’s a mid-September afternoon, and Rod Spittle ’78 is bathed in sunlight. Sitting in the window-lined lounge of an Ohio State golf team facility at the Scarlet and Gray golf courses, the 64-year-old Spittle is embarking on, what, his third act? Fourth? But really, who’s counting?
Spittle recently accepted an offer to become a volunteer assistant men’s golf coach for the Buckeyes, a team he helped win three Big Ten titles as a player in the 1970s. He’s just weeks past his induction into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and the Ohio Golf Association Hall of Fame following a 13-year run as a pro on the PGA Tour Champions circuit.
It was a career that almost didn’t happen.
“Most athletes are chasing a dream,” Spittle says. “I just put mine on the back burner for almost 30 years.”
After winning back-to-back Canadian amateur titles in 1977 and ’78, Spittle seemed poised for a PGA career. But he wanted to start a family, and the thought of traveling 10 months a year seemed dreadful.
Instead, Spittle embarked on what would be a 25-year career as a corporate insurance executive. But his dream never fizzled.
“On our first date, he told me he wanted to be a professional golfer,” says his wife, Ann, who had a career in real estate with McDonald’s Restaurant Corp. “I didn’t quite grasp what that meant at the time.”
The vision became clearer once their three children graduated from high school.
“I never thought it was a risk. We had come out of the corporate world — we weren’t afraid to work. And we were chasing something.”
In their late 40s, the Spittles quit their jobs, sold their home, put together a business partnership for financing and agreed on a five-year plan either to earn a full-time spot on the Champions tour — for golfers 50 and older — or return to work.
“I never thought it was a risk,” says Rod, who turned pro in 2004 at age 49. “We had come out of the corporate world — we weren’t afraid to work. And we were chasing something.”
While Rod devoted himself to practice and Champions event qualifiers, Ann handled logistics, essentially serving as the partnership’s chief financial officer. Rod enjoyed increasing success as the seasons passed, but he fell short of securing a full-time spot on the tour. That requires an event win or a top-five finish at a qualifying-school tournament that closes each season.
Then, four years and 10 months into the plan, Rod won the 2010 AT&T Championship. He spent eight more years on the tour, retiring in 2018 after the Shaw Charity Classic in his native Canada. His focus these days is family, which has grown to include seven grandchildren.
“Ann and I started this together, and we finished on the 18th green together,” Rod says. “I still cry just thinking about it.”
