Golfer Kevin Roy aims to return to Korn Ferry Tour — and win

Only a select few make it onto the PGA Tour. Then there’s the matter of sticking around. Kevin Roy knows. After three-plus years of competing on the Korn Ferry Tour — which is effectively the AAA level of American professional golf — Roy shot his way onto the PGA main stage for the 2022-’23 season. He was 32.

This year, he’s back on the Korn Ferry Tour. While Roy didn’t play badly during his PGA Tour stint — he finished in the top 25 in three tournaments and made nine cuts — he didn’t rank high enough to stay. “There’s a small avenue to make the tour,” the Lakewood Ranch resident says by phone during a tournament stop in Knoxville, Tennessee. “But it’s not like it’s icing on the cake. You still have to play really good golf to stay out there.”

Not that the Korn Ferry Tour is a backwater where impoverished golfers live hand to mouth. Through mid-June, he had made just shy of $175,000 in winnings for the season. (Sponsorships cover most of his travel costs.) He ranked 19th in the Korn Ferry standings with 14 events to go. The Top 30 move up to the PGA Tour next season. Roy likes his chances. “I’m playing really good golf,” he says. “I’m one or two good tournaments away from pretty much locking it up.”

Roy does not doubt he’s talented enough to have an extended career on the PGA Tour. Most Korn Ferry players have the requisite ability, he adds. The difference between the top-level pros and the AAA strivers is mostly between the ears. To that end, about a year ago Roy hired a mental coach, Brian Cain, who’s based in Scottsdale, Arizona. 

“It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” Roy says. “Before that, it wasn’t like I’d have a bunch of crazy outbursts, but in my mind, or under my breath, I would beat myself up. That clearly wasn’t working. Before talking to Brian, I’d have a tough time leaving a bad round of golf on the course. Like, I’d bring it home. I’d be in a bad mood. That’s when golf isn’t fun. Now I feel more loose and calm, and I’m having fun out there.”

The performance coach has instilled in his charge the need to focus not on expectation but execution, to stay in the moment and to leave bad shots immediately behind. Roy has improved in “his ability to compete versus compare,” Cain says in a phone interview, “to compete with himself, and to be the best version of himself versus comparing himself to the leader board or the other people that are playing. Kevin is consistent emotionally. And that’s important. Emotion clouds reality.”

Cain’s coaching is not restricted to the golf course. For instance, he suggested Roy get into the habit of making his bed immediately after getting up. “You start the day with a win and you just stack small wins on top of each other,” Cain says. “Plus, if you get your tail kicked [on the course], you want to come home to a bed that’s made to remind you that tomorrow is gonna be better.”

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These days, Roy has more to look forward to after a round than a tidy bed. He and his wife of nearly three years, Annie, have a daughter, Mia, who recently turned 1 year old. “Mia doesn’t care if I shoot 66 or 76; when I walk in the door, she’s still gonna say ‘Dada,’ and smile and laugh,” Roy muses. “She makes it easier to turn golf off in my mind.”

Annie is a sideline reporter and studio host for Cincinnati Reds telecasts. (The daughter of former Reds star third baseman Chris Sabo, her professional name is Annie Sabo.) The couple’s careers make it so Roy spends substantial periods of time away from his wife and daughter. He takes these separations in stride. Kevin and Annie are “wildly supportive” of each other’s careers, Roy says, and they have a strong family support system. “Her mother is like a traveling nanny right now,” he adds. Roy heads to Cincinnati on off weeks. Annie brings Mia and joins him on tour when possible. Then there are the off-seasons in Lakewood Ranch, where the family has lived for a year after moving from South Tampa.

Roy grew up in Syracuse, New York. His father, Jim, played a year on the PGA Tour and, then at age 50, made the PGA Tour Champions senior tour, where he competed for a couple of years. Jim is now one of his son’s swing coaches. 

Roy played basketball and golf in high school, and earned a golf scholarship to Long Beach State University, where he played all four years. He decided he would give pro golf a shot “about midway through college.” After graduating in 2012, he experienced a couple of lean years, playing in entry-level tournaments, paying his own way, bunking in low-budget motels or occasionally catching a few hours sleep at truck stops. Weary of the grind, he left professional golf in 2017, only to return a year later, rededicated. 

Roy has surely paid his dues. And it has paid off — just not quite enough. “Right now, the goal is to get my PGA Tour card back,” he says. “And once we check that box, the next goal is to stay out there. Check that off and the ultimate goal is to win [a tournament]. If I was to win on the PGA Tour and someone said I could never play golf again, I’d be OK with that. I’d say it was a successful career.”