Jeff Sluman
Born: Greece, N.Y.
Residence: Chicago, Illinois
Jeffrey George Sluman was born in September of 1957 and raised in Greece near Rochester, New York.
He grew up playing golf at Craig Hill Country Club (now known as Deerfield) and quickly became known as one of the top junior athletes in the Rochester area. His father George, and older brother, Brad, were also low-handicap golfers, and helped guide a young Sluman during his early teenage years.
“He told me to stop killing every one of them and at times to use one club less than I’d like to hit. It worked. And my brother has been helping right along, too,” Sluman said in a quote to the Democrat and Chronicle, 1975.
Sluman won the Rochester District Golf Association’s (RDGA) Boys’ Sub-Junior Championship in 1971 at Durand Eastman Golf Course. He was also an impressive bowler in his youth, having competed in Rochester Junior Bowling Association leagues and received recognition at as young an age as eleven. At fourteen, he recorded his first hole-in-one at Ridgemont Country Club.
He qualified for the 1975 U.S. Junior Amateur, which was his first golf tournament on the national stage and flew down to Nashville, Tennessee to the Richland CC. He successfully qualified for match play after posting 77-77 to make the cut by five strokes but lost to David Abell of Fort Pierce, Florida in the first round, 3&2.
After graduating from Greece Arcadia High School in 1975, Sluman attended Monroe Community College. As a freshman, he helped lead his team to a Region 3 Junior College Golf Championship and first National Junior College Athletic Association Championship appearance. He finished 11th overall as an individual and achieved second team All-America status in 1976. His success at Monroe Community College set him up to play college golf for Division 1 program Tennessee Tech on scholarship. The college, shortly thereafter, yielding to pressure from other intercollegiate sports, cut the golf program to redistribute the athletics budget elsewhere.
Although he was on a hiatus from the collegiate ranks due to his ill fortune with Tennessee Tech, he continued to compete and face plenty of talented local foe at state and district amateur events in the late 1970s, including the likes of NYSGA Hall of Famers Don Allen, Joey Sindelar, Alan Foster, and Bill Tryon.
During the summer of 1977, he placed third in the NYS Men’s Amateur at Albany Country Club, four strokes behind winner Rich Serian. A couple of weeks later, he breezed to a nine-shot victory over three rounds at Irondequoit Country Club to win the Rochester District Men’s Amateur title.
The following summer, the NYS Amateur was contested at Moon Brook Country Club in Jamestown. 20-year-old Sluman was four shots back entering the final round of the 1978 tournament and posted 4-under 68 to win by three (75-71-79-68). He was the only player in the field to shoot a tournament round in the 60s, and was two groups ahead of the 54-hole leader on the final day. His final round consisted of three birdies, an eagle and one bogey. He holed out from 130 yards on the 10th hole with a 9 iron for his eagle, just before rain moved in causing a 1-hour rain delay. When he restarted, he missed the next three greens in regulation, but was confident in his ability to finish strong and maintain momentum. He finished the championship with another highlight on the eighteenth; a 40-foot putt for birdie.
This was his third attempt at the Ganson Depew Cup. In the RDGA District Championship following his state title, he posted a runner-up finish while trying to defend his title.
Sluman soon landed at Florida State University to finish his collegiate golf career with the Seminoles. He’d met head coach Don Veller during the 1977 NCAA Championship at Colgate University’s Seven Oaks Golf Club, even though he wasn’t competing in the tournament. Veller was impressed by the young Rochesterian and invited him to join the team the following season.
While at Florida State, the diminutive 5 foot 7, 130 pound Rochesterian’s highlights included finishing 2nd at the 1979 Metro Conference Individual Intercollegiate title during his first season with FSU, and winning the Metro Conference title the following year in 1980. The team competed in the NCAA Championship during his senior year at Ohio State’s Scarlet course where he finished tied for 76th as an individual. The transition from upstate New York, where he was only able to practice and play six months out of the year, to four seasons of practice in Florida helped him continue to elevate his game.
He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in finance in the spring of 1980 and began looking forward to the professional ranks.
He’d qualified for the U.S. Open as an amateur that May, but failed to survive the cut at Baltusrol. In June, he captured the 1980 Monroe Invitational in Rochester. In his last state amateur attempt in 1980 he battled with other college talents from the Empire State, Joey Sindelar and Jim Roy. He held a lead of two strokes through 54 holes at Vestal Hills Country Club, but was unable to post a strong final round and finished as the runner-up to future NYSGA Hall of Fame Inductee, Sindelar.
Sluman turned professional and after a successful run at PGA Tour Qualifying School in the fall of 1980 became a member of the PGA Tour until 2007 when he became eligible for the PGA Tour Champions and still competes today.
The highlight of his professional career came in August of 1988 when he won his one and only major, the PGA Championship at Oak Tree Golf Club in Oklahoma. Sluman shot a final round 65 (-6) to win by three strokes over the 36 and 54-hole leader, Paul Azinger. He entered the final round trailing his former college teammate by three. This also marked the first of Sluman’s six career victories on the PGA Tour.
During the first round of the 1992 Masters Tournament, he recorded a hole-in-one on the fourth hole at Augusta, which is the only ace on that hole in Masters history.
He was inducted into the Florida State University Hall of Fame in 1989.
He won the 2001 B.C. Open (held from 1971-2006) in his home state at En-Joie Golf Course in Endicott. His victory came in a playoff against Paul Gow of Australia, after both finishing at 22-under. He previously finished runner-up in this PGA Tour event in 1994, and 1987 (to Joey Sindelar).
Sluman, now in his mid-60s, has been competing on the PGA Tour Champions since turning 50 in 2007. He’s won six events since joining the tour, his first having been in 2008 during the final Bank of America Championship. Since then, he’s won the First Tee Open at Pebble Beach three times.
In 2019 he joined a group of 21 players who’ve played in 1,000 PGA Tour events, with famed players like Arnold Palmer, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Hale Irwin, and Tom Kite. He competed in 700 events on the PGA Tour and has surpassed over 300 on the PGA Tour Champions.
Sluman resides in Chicago, Illinois and Naples, Fl. with his wife Linda. They are parents to a daughter, Katherine, who like her father is a graduate of FSU. His nephew Trevor, who grew up in Rochester, won the NYS Men’s Amateur in 2015 at Turning Stone’s Kaluhyat Golf Club. When Sluman isn’t playing golf, he’s following one of his favorite sports teams, FSU, the Chicago Bears, Bulls or Cubs, and has season tickets to the Bulls. He also enjoys Formula One racing, and is a collector of rare, fine wines.
Jeff Sluman's Career Highlights
- 1971 RDGA Sub-Junior Champion
- 1975 U.S. Junior Qualifier: Advanced to MP
- 1977 RDGA Amateur Champion
- 1977 U.S. Amateur Qualifier: Lost in R3 of MP
- 1978 NYS Men’s Amateur Champion
- Played collegiate golf at Florida State University
- 1979 Metro Conference Individual Intercollegiate Champion
- 1980 Monroe Invitational Champion
- 1988 PGA Championship Winner
- Inducted into Florida State University Hall of Fame in 1989
- 6-time PGA Tour winner
- 6-time PGA Champions Tour winner
- 18 total professional victories
- Best finishes in major championships:
- U.S. Open: 2nd (1992)
- Masters Tournament: T-4 (1992)
- British Open: T-25 (1990)