ORLAND PARK, IL — There are certainly days when Alec Martinez takes a second to stop and consider his surroundings. After all, a life in professional golf was never the plan until his original life map took a detour.
The 26-year-old Orland Park native is in his second year on the Advocates Professional Golf Association Tour, a breeding ground for players whom one day hope to play among the game’s elite on the PGA Tour. But considering that Martinez never even picked up golf until his baseball and basketball career got sidetracked tearing his anterior cruciate ligament during his senior basketball season at Carl Sandburg High School, the fact he is where he is still takes a moment to sink in. Even for Martinez.
The APGA offers Martinez, who holds a master’s degree in finance from St. Xavier University, where he transferred after starting at Moraine Valley Community College, to travel the country, playing some of the nation’s top golf courses. On Monday, the tour makes a stop at TPC Deere Run in Silvis – a course Martinez knows well after playing it 10 times during his golf career at Saint Xavier.
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The chance to be home is a welcomed stop for Martinez, who, like many players on the tour, is just getting started on his golf journey. Life on a lower-tier tour isn’t always glamourous with players booking their own travel and accommodations and paying their own entry fees while making a name for themselves in a game many dreamed of playing since childhood.
But considering Martinez’s journey and his late start in golf, the dream is just beginning as he finds his footing in a journey he never expected to be on.
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“(The APGA) opens your eyes to the real world of professional golf and what you need to do and what you need to do to prepare to be successful,” Martinez told Patch on Friday.
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In the last month, Martinez’s schedule has taken him from Florida to Las Vegas to Arizona — all on his own dime. The tour teaches players about the importance of saving money and watching how they spend it as a way of managing their finances along the way. For unsponsored players like Martinez, footing the bill for a life in professional golf can become a grind at times. But considering the experience tours like the APGA provides, the lessons learned at this level prove to be invaluable.
This is especially true for Martinez, who – unlike many tour players – didn’t grow up in a country club environment or with a private swing coach. But the fact that Martinez has carved his own path after earning a golf scholarship at SXU after failing to make the Sandburg golf team as a senior has made the journey to this point even more meaningful.
Martinez now plays out of Cog Hill Country Club but spent more time playing Silver Lake Golf Club in Orland Park. While his fellow tour pros grew up with more advantages, Martinez said he could never afford some of the luxuries other players enjoy, which makes him appreciate the APGA reaches out to kids in under-represented communities to introduce them to the game and to provide tips — and sometimes even golf clubs — to youngsters who want to get their start in the game.
On Saturday, the tour will host a youth clinic at South Shore Golf Club in Chicago as a way of reaching kids who may not otherwise be exposed to golf. For Martinez, who considers himself self-taught in his own golf journey, the fact the tour he now belongs to is using its platform to teach the game to youngsters makes his spot on the tour even more special.
Martinez first started playing golf on a regular basis at Morraine, where he had gone to focus on basketball and baseball. But after breaking his ankle playing baseball his freshman year, Martinez turned to golf as a sophomore and has never looked back. After tearing his ACL in high school, doctors told Martinez he could only play golf while his knee healed. Three solid months on golf courses laid the groundwork that began paying off in college. After qualifying for the national championship tournament at Morraine, Martinez earned a scholarship at SXU where his golf career really took off.
But now, as a tour pro, Martinez still feels like he needs to put in the work just to keep up.
“Every day, if I feel like I don’t go practice, I feel like I’m falling behind because I did have such a late start,” he told Patch. “It feels like I need to work two times or three times harder or hit more range balls because I’ve got to catch up to how much practice some other guys may have had growing up and playing their whole lives.
“So if I hit those extra 50 (range) balls every day, it feels like it’s just going to build because I didn’t hit those 50 balls growing up.”
While the golf life is still relatively new compared to others around him, Martinez is making the most of each day he has. Some of the tour’s stops – including TPC Scottsdale and Valhalla Golf Club — where next year’s PGA Championship will be played — offer him the chance to step onto some of the game’s biggest stages.
There are times it is difficult to conceive that he is in some of these places, but he knows that each tour stop offers him the chance to take yet another step forward. And although his journey doesn’t look like many of his fellow tour players, the fact Martinez has made the experience his own allows him to enjoy the ride that much more.
“It definitely gives you perspective and I’m definitely proud of how far I’ve come,” Martinez told Patch. “I have an appreciation because I have come a long way and I’ve done it mostly by myself and just self-taught myself. I would say that’s what I’m most proud of and I know I still have a long way to go, but I feel like I can keep getting better and better.”
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