Stephan Jaeger has won six times on the Korn Ferry Tour.
But the 34-year-old Jaeger, who has twice earned his PGA Tour card through the Tour’s Triple-A equivalent, downplays the impact that those trophies will have as he looks to finally beat his big-league opponents across the finish line.
“It’s great to have some past success, but that doesn’t really get you anything,” said Jaeger, who leads the Farmers Insurance Open by a shot heading into Saturday’s final round at Torrey Pines.
“I’m going to feel it tomorrow, I’m going to be nervous.”
Jaeger would rather lean on advances he’s made in his game over the past six months, mainly the mental strides under the direction of sports psychologist Julie Elion, who has taken off in popularity on Tour ever since one of her pupils, Wyndham Clark, won the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club.
With Elion’s help, Jaeger better structured how he sharpened his mind. A couple years ago, Jaeger began reading more, listening to podcasts and journaling. He also got into a habit of meditating.
“Every day,” Jaeger says of his meditation routine. “Ten, 15 minutes.”
For Jaeger, the impetus for adding to his routine wasn’t solely golf.
“Not everything I work on is because of the golf course, right?” Jaeger explains. “That’s kind of the stigma that like we golfers just work on mental stuff because we want to win tournaments. I wanted to be a better husband, I want to be a better father to my child, I wanted to kind of be a little more mellow. I used to get pretty angry and frustrated. Wanted to kind of start that trend in the right direction. That’s what kind of started it and it really helped with, you know, like golf as well.
“Now, there’s a million other things that can be done for the golf course, but it didn’t start because of that.”
Jaeger fired opening rounds of 68-64 before carding a 1-over 73 with just six pars on a tough Friday around Torrey Pines South. He still hung onto his one-shot lead, however, and at 11 under overall, Jaeger’s just ahead of fellow Europeans Nicolai Hojgaard and Matthieu Pavon. Belgium’s Thomas Detry is another shot behind in solo fourth.
In total, 17 players are within four shots of Jaeger’s lead. That includes Korn Ferry Tour/Q-School grads Trace Crowe (T-5), Jake Knapp (T-5), Joe Highsmith (T-5) and Parker Coody (T-10). Mav McNealy (T-10) needs just 16 points to satisfy his medical extension. Tony Finau, Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Åberg and Will Zalatoris, in just his third official start back from back surgery, are all T-10 as well.
Speaking of Schauffele, he was paired in the final round with Jaeger during one of his wins, at the 2016 Ellie Mae Classic on the KFT. Schauffele had opened in 62 that week, four shots shy of Jaeger’s first round 58.
“I got lapped,” Schauffele said. "... He just stayed blacked out.”
Jaeger finished at 30 under, nine clear of Schauffele and seven ahead of the field.
Saturday’s finish will surely be much closer.
“I’ve played Torrey Pines enough now that I know you don’t go out and shoot 4, 5 under every day you play the South Course,” Jaeger said. “I just knew that I was playing good enough, my game was good enough that if I just mentally stayed sharp and stayed, you know, on course of what I wanted to do, I had a good chance of having a chance on Sunday. That’s all I really want. You want to come down the back nine, you want to have a chance to win.
“So, I’ve done that. I’m really excited about tomorrow.”
