Chad Ramey is an American professional golfer who has made a name for himself on the PGA Tour with his exceptional talent and competitive spirit. Known for his potent driving game and precise short game, Ramey has quickly gained recognition among golf enthusiasts.
Born on August 3, 1992, Ramey discovered his passion for golf at a young age. While still in high school, he began participating in local tournaments and quickly demonstrated a natural ability for the sport.
Early Career and College Years
During his time at Mississippi State University (MSU), Ramey flourished as a player. He showcased his skills by consistently performing at a high level, achieving remarkable victories and numerous top finishes. Following his college career, Ramey turned professional in 2014 and began his journey on the developmental tours, where he honed his skills and gained valuable experience.
Ramey's breakthrough year came in 2018 when he secured his place on the Korn Ferry Tour (formerly Web.com Tour), the official pathway to the PGA Tour. His exceptional play on the Korn Ferry Tour allowed Ramey to earn his PGA Tour card for the 2020 season.
PGA Tour Journey
In his debut season on the PGA Tour, Ramey proved that he belonged amongst the elite. Ranked 225th in the world, Ramey’s lone PGA Tour victory came at the 2022 Corales Puntacana Championship, an opposite event. For securing his maiden PGA Tour title, Ramey earned $666,000 and 300 FedExCup points.
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Ramey earned his way into the Players Championship by being among the top 125 in FedEx Cup points last year at 85th. Ramey has struggled for most of 2023, having missed his last three cuts including at the Honda Classic, and finishing 38th at the 39-player Sentry Tournament of Champions.
In April 2024, Ramey and his partner Martin Trainer shot a final round 63 to take the lead of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. The contrast was striking in Sunday’s playoff at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans: relative unknowns Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer, squaring off against major champions Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry.
It wasn’t just that Ramey and Trainer entered the week with a combined two PGA TOUR wins, compared to 26 between the all-Irish duo. It was that Ramey and Trainer began the final round in 27th place, seven strokes off the lead, with little evidence in recent form that a near-historic comeback was in the offing.
But the match of swashbuckling Californian and soft-spoken Mississippian nearly turned the golf world on its head, as Ramey and Trainer teamed for a 9-under 63 in Sunday’s Foursomes (alternate shot) format - tying the event’s Foursomes record and posting 25-under 263 nearly three hours ahead of the final grouping. Ramey and Trainer waited as several contending groups fell short of that mark, before McIlroy/Lowry eventually made birdie on the 72nd hole to force a playoff, then won with an alternate-shot par on the first extra hole - as Trainer couldn’t convert a 6-footer for par to extend.
Ramey and Trainer fell short of the winner’s circle in Louisiana, but the result offers important perks. This marked the first top-10 finish for each since they teamed for a T9 at last year’s Zurich Classic. The first three rounds at TPC Louisiana were solid if unspectacular - 66 in Thursday Four-ball, 69 in Friday Foursomes, 65 in Saturday Four-ball.
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Ramey/Trainer opened with birdies on Nos. 1 and 3 at TPC Louisiana, then rebounded from a bogey at No. 6 with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 7 and 8. The back nine got nearly silly with five straight birdies on Nos. 10-14, then shaking off a bogey at No. 15 with birdies at the short par-4 16th and par-5 18th to post a 25-under number that stood its ground on an increasingly windy afternoon in Cajun country.
Aside from McIlroy/Lowry, that number held against all challengers. The all-Utah duo of Zac Blair and Patrick Fishburn, the 54-hole leaders, stood 25-under with two holes to play but made double bogey on the par-3 17th as Blair missed right of the green with a 4-iron and Fishburn’s chip shot failed to reach the putting surface. Although they didn’t come away with hardware, Ramey and Trainer will cherish the memories from a remarkable Sunday that nearly saw the TOUR’s largest final-round comeback (by position) since Brandt Snedeker won the 2016 Farmers Insurance Open from T27 into the final round.
The Players Championship 2023
Prior to Monday of this week, Chad Ramey had never played the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, had never set foot on the tee at the famous par-3 17th hole. A Players Championship rookie, Ramey, 30, made it look simple at the longtime home of the tournament, including at the iconic hole that is surrounded by water.
Ramey didn’t make a bogey in his 8-under-par round of 64 and knocked his approach with a pitching wedge to mere inches at the 17th hole. He had eight birdies. He was the leader of the tournament after the early wave of players finished, holding a one-shot lead over Collin Morikawa and a three-shot advantage over Taylor Pendrith.
Ramey birdied three of his first seven holes, capped by a 30-foot putt at No. 7, then capped his round with a shot to within 13 inches of the cup at the par-3 17th hole and finished with an 8-under-par 64 to lead two-time major champion Collin Morikawa by one shot and Taylor Pendrith and Ben Griffin by two in the first round of The Players Championship.
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Ramey made everything look easy, from hitting 10 fairways and 10 greens, getting up-and-down for par four times, and requiring only 24 putts. He said his best shot of the day, a wedge into No. 17, was more or less what he expected since he had played the WM Phoenix Open and its par-3 16th hole, in front of thousands of fans.
Trust him, he said. It wasn't easy. "Not easy at all ... I might have made it look that way but it wasn't easy at all," he said. "It was fun, first time to shoot a score on such an iconic course like this. You can't ask for any more."
Players took advantage of the relatively tame conditions to attack the course, with 39 posting rounds under par in the clubhouse and nine more working on red numbers at the time of the suspension. The 11 players tied for sixth or better represent five countries. Ramey, Griffin and Lee are in The Players for the first time -- as well as Justin Suh, who was 5-under with three holes to play when the tournament was suspended. Only Morikawa and Scheffler among the top-10 have won major championships.
“There’s always nerves, but it’s just they don’t mean anything. It kind of means you care. You’ve just got to deal with them. That’s why we play the game. It’s why we’re here is to have those nerves. Just kind of push past them, push them aside, and just do what you’ve got to do."
Personal Life
A resident of Fulton, Miss., who went to Mississippi State, Ramey is married to his wife, Kelly. He's also playing as a father for the first time. His wife Kelly gave birth to their first child, a son, last week.
He's also playing as a father for the first time. His wife Kelly gave birth to their first child, a son, back home in Fulton (population 3,961) last week. "Obviously golf is a lot less important now, and you never know, maybe that's why I played better today," he said. "It's a lot less important now that I have a child, and hate I'm not there with him, but just glad to be here and to at least play well.
“The game’s really felt close, said Ramey, whose wife, Kelly, had a baby boy last week. “I know the scores haven't showed it, but it's felt really close. I just made one little tweak in my swing, and it really seems to be paying off.
Ramey's success on the PGA Tour has also earned him a devoted fan base, as his charisma and genuine love for the game shine through in every round he plays. Off the course, Ramey is actively involved in philanthropic efforts, using his platform to make a positive impact in his community.
His father, Stanley, is the superintendent at Fulton and the Ramey family house sits on the course. Chad lives in his childhood home. Stanley is Chad’s unofficial coach. The two work together on his swing and his game as a whole. The pair has always strived for consistency that will withstand the toughest tests. In their humble utopia just outside of Tupelo, they’ve achieved that and more.
"That is one of the things my dad and I have tried to emphasize is to live by the consistency aspect of it,” Chad said. “Let’s try to get every part of my game as consistent as possible.”
Underestimate Chad, Stanley and Fulton at your own risk. It’s home to two professionals. Chad grew up playing with Ally McDonald Ewing, a two-time winner on the LPGA Tour and the 17th-ranked player in the world. Stanley has caddied for Ewing on numerous occasions and had a front-row seat to watch the two transform into the stars they’ve become today.
Chad and Ally crushed tens of thousands of golf balls together, on this very same plot of grass he stands on, two days removed from his first professional win, resting between holes No. 2 and 3 at Fulton Country Club. Ramey hits 30-100 yard wedges to the various tee boxes on hole No.1. If he wants to dial in his irons, he turns slightly to the right and pounds them down to a landing area roughly 60-70 yards short of No. 1 green, where most members cannot reach with their tee shot and don’t land in barring a catastrophic approach shot.
“I have known the people and the members my whole life,” Chad said. “Everyone is okay with it. They know I play for a living. I just try to stay out of the way as best I can.”
When he works on woods and the driver, he simply hops on a vacant hole and hammers away. There isn't much of a short game and putting area at Fulton, and the greens roll about a six on the stimpmeter, which is basically unrecognizable to anything he’ll ever play in a professional setting.
“I’ve never really had a problem going from slow greens to fast greens though,” Chad retorted.
These trees, these greens, this patch of grass and this quaint nine-hole track made Chad Ramey who he is today and helped fuel his rise. Stanley has tended to this property for over two decades. His father nurtured the course before that.
Table: Chad Ramey Career Highlights
| Achievement | Year |
|---|---|
| PGA Tour Debut | 2020 |
| Corales Puntacana Championship Winner | 2022 |
| Secured PGA Tour card via Korn Ferry Tour | 2020 Season |
Perhaps above all else, the people of Fulton helped push Ramey to where he stands today as an incoming rookie on the PGA Tour. Professional golf is an incredibly expensive dream to pursue. Money is both what fuels the chase and often brings it to a premature end. The elite college players sign with agencies and court sponsors more quickly than the others. For everyone else, funding can be a little bit more difficult to come by. Fulton Country Club has just over 200 members. When Chad turned pro, ten members put up $5,000 apiece to get Chad up $50,000 to start his career. This helped pay for entry fees, travel and other expenses.
"We're a laid back club, a small club," Stanley said. "Everyone takes care of each other around here. We are so incredibly appreciative of them helping Chad."
One indisputable fact about Chad Ramey’s rise in professional golf is that nothing has been handed to him. He started where most aspiring professionals do: on the mini tours. It is an adventurous life, to say the least.
“It’s basically legalized gambling,” Chad said. “You put up $1,500 to win $10,000-12,000.”
Ramey missed two of his first four cuts to start the 2020 season. He registered a T-2 finish at the event in Mexico to kickstart his season. The season was suspended six days later as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the entire globe to grind to a halt. He wouldn’t tee it up again in competition until mid-June. Ramey returned home to Fulton and worked on his game. With the world shut down, there was quite literally nothing else to do but play golf. Ramey is quick to point out that the pandemic didn't alter his lifestyle drastically. He practiced, ate, slept and repeated -- all at the heart of his comfort zone. Consistency is his philosophy. It's similar to what he works on with his coaches at Old Waverly and with Stanley. His motion on a pitch shot is shorter, but not that dissimilar to his driver action.
Just off the 3rd tee box at Fulton Country club is Chad Ramey’s wedge lab He made the cut in each of the first 10 events back, including a solo 3rd, 6th and T-2 finish. After that missed cut in late August, he finished off the year with a T-3 and 4th place finish. In a normal year, he would've earned his PGA Tour card and moved on to golf's biggest stage, but the pandemic presented a truly unprecedented set of circumstances, and it meant Ramey had more work to do to realize his dream.
“It is obviously not something I wanted to happen," Chad said. "But It was just something that was completely out of my control and the mindset I had was just keep grinding, keep my foot on the gas and work for every single point.."
"I do realize some of the things that I have done, but I just feel like that in this profession, as soon as you take a step back to realize what you have done, bad things can happen. You have to keep looking forward.”
Ramey registered two top-10 finishes in the first four events of the 2021 portion of the schedule. He was inching toward becoming a lock to earn a PGA Tour Card. But that's the thing with this grueling tour, the minute you relax, someone passes you by. One Korn Ferry season is difficult enough, then there's remaining in the top 25 for the equivalent of two seasons. Being 30 events and 18 months into a marathon of a season without the guarantee of a PGA Tour card can be demoralizing, no matter...
As a young professional golfer with immense talent and potential, Chad Ramey's journey in the world of golf has only just begun. With each tournament, he continues to refine his skills, while also absorbing valuable lessons from his experiences.
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