The legend of Tommy ‘Two Gloves’ is getting a revival on the PGA Tour Champions

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[PHOTOS: Chris Condon]

Wearing two golf gloves and sporting an unorthodox, 10-finger swing that no one would dare emulate, Tommy Gainey became something of a PGA Tour folk hero in the early 2010s. He was easy to cheer for – an aw-shucks country boy from South Carolina who worked on an assembly line and bounced around mini-tours for most of his 20s. Then, incredibly, he made it to the big leagues with two victories in 2010 on the now-Korn Ferry Tour and won what would be his only title on the PGA Tour in the 2012 McGladrey (now RSM) Classic in Georgia.

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“Two Gloves” had long been his nickname since he took after his dad slipping gloves on each hand for comfort, and with success in the game came a legion of fans who loved to shout encouragement to a guy seemingly cut from the same cloth as the likes of Bubba Watson and Boo Weekley.

The attention can be fleeting on tour, of course, when the results falter, and Gainey mostly drifted out of view after losing his tour card after the 2013-2014 season. He never earned it back, though Gainey did capture the KFT’s Bahamas tournament in 2020.

During the past few years, Gainey was eager for his 50th birthday to arrive in August 2025, and though the PGA Tour Champions can feel sometimes like a closed shop because of so few opportunities to earn a card, leave it to Two Gloves to have pulled it off the hard way.

After earning his fourth of five senior tour starts through open qualifying by shooting a 64, Gainey overcame a four-shot deficit yesterday with a closing 66 to win the Constellation Furyk & Friends tournament at Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville, Florida. Gainey’s charge was punctuated by a long eagle putt he made from off the green on the par-5 13th hole.

With a 14-under total for the 54 holes – good enough to beat Australia’s Cameron Percy by two shots – Gainey went from having no status to securing his PGA Tour Champions card for next season. In only five events, he’s climbed to 37th in the Charles Schwab Cup moneylist at $US505,950.

Better yet, the legend of Two Gloves has once again reached marquee status.

“I grinded for a long time, and finally I can say that grinding and hard work has paid off,” Gainey said after the win. “Man, a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.”

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Tommy Gainey plays a shot in the final round of the Furyk & Friends.

Gainey’s victory featured a number of milestones: he’s the youngest winner on the senior tour this season, the 15th player in history to win after open qualifying into an event, and the 23rd golfer to win on the PGA, Champions and Korn Ferry tours.

“My goal coming in this tournament was just trying to top-10,” Gainey said. “If I couldn’t win the tournament, it’s top-10 to try to get that spot into [this week’s SAS Championship]. That was the No.1 goal. It’s always to win, but just me doing all these Mondays and having no status, I’ve got to take it as it comes.”

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The biggest relief, Gainey noted, was that the win means not having to open qualify anymore.

“Listen, it’s tough, it’s tough out here, these Mondays,” he said. “Listen, they have three spots, and you feel like these guys can still play… You’ve got to figure that if you’ve got 40 or 50 or 60 players, you’re going to have one or two guys go low. So you’ve got to shoot six-under or better to have a chance at getting one of those three spots, and that ain’t easy.”

With four official event left on the schedule, Gainey is already showing he’s a player to watch. In his five senior starts he’s notched three top-11 finishes, including a T-5 in his debut in August in the Rogers Charity Classic

“If you’ve got dreams, go for it,” Gainey said. “Everybody dreams, everybody has a dream. They want to be this, or they want to be that. It just so happened that my dream was to play on the PGA Tour, be a winner and live my life out here. Now that I’ve turned 50, I’m on the Champions tour and loving every minute of it out here.”