Once trusted with launching nuclear weapon, Tom Whitney now navigates rookie PGA Tour season

LA QUINTA, Calif. — For Tom Whitney, the struggles of a 34-year-old rookie on the PGA Tour come into focus because of his time in the U.S. Air Force as a nuclear missile operator. He literally was the person who could launch such a weapon if the President of the United States called.

“Golf is just what I am currently doing, and I’m completely blessed to do it. But I could still be in the Air Force, at a place I don’t want to be,” Whitney said Tuesday afternoon as he prepared for the first PGA Tour start of his rookie year at the American Express, just six miles from where he attended La Quinta High School.

“I could be in harm’s way,” Whitney said. “I could be fighting enemies. I’ve lost friends and loved ones in the armed forces. I have friends that are deployed. And I’m here in Palm Springs with two miles per hour wind, 75 degrees, getting paid to play these fantastic golf courses. Absolutely, I have a different perspective.”

Whitney played college golf at the Air Force Academy before serving his four-year stint in the military. He has become as well known for his old job in a bunker in Wyoming overseeing nuclear missiles as for his golf game. But his golf was good enough on the Korn Ferry Tour last season to earn him a full PGA Tour exemption which begins this week at the American Express on golf courses he played as a junior.

“I was a little bummed I didn’t get into the field in Sony (Open in Hawaii) and get my year started last week, but the silver lining is I get to make my debut here in my hometown in front of a hometown crowd,” Whitney said. “I’m pretty comfortable at this place.”

Whitney’s only PGA Tour check in three career starts came in the 2018 American Express, a start that came after a late sponsor exemption on a Sunday night and a frantic cross-country flight from Miami to the Coachella Valley. Whitney finished tied for 67th that week to earn $12,095.

That one PGA Tour check has been surrounded by years on mini-tours, the PGA Tour Latinoamericas and several seasons of fighting conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour. Throughout that time, though, Whitney was able to see things in a different perspective because of his military service.

“I signed up to basically say I’m willing to give my life for this country, and never came anywhere close to that point,” he said. “But I mean, that’s kind of what you’re agreeing to when you join the military. Just understanding that, like, man, there’s tough days out (on the tour), but in the grand scheme of things, I get to play golf for a living, I get to represent some awesome companies, I get to do what I love, and pretty much have control over my schedule and what I do day-to-day. So, yeah, it’s definitely fixed my perspective on life.”

Whitney’s military job sounds like something straight out of an action-adventure movie, though he admits a 24-hole shift in a bunker in Wyoming could be relatively routine and even boring. But Whitney acknowledges the main purpose of the bunker wasn’t lost on anyone.

“Ultimately, our main training part of the mission is we are the ones that launch the missile if the President sends the order,” Whitney said. “And it goes from the President to the USSTRATCOM (U.S. Strategic Air Command), USSTRATCOM to us. So, there’s only one entity in between us and the President, if we are launching a nuclear missile.”

American Express: Thursday tee times

No launch code was ever sent to Whitney or the others who controlled the missiles. When he wasn’t in the bunker, Whitney was back in Colorado, working on his game and planning a career in golf that never really dawned on him before he graduated from La Quinta High School in 2006.

“I had five individual titles during my tenure (at the Air Force Academy playing in the Mountain West Conference),” Whitney said. “I had a pretty impressive string of top 10s, either my sophomore or junior year. Then, my senior year I spent a good chunk of time in the top-25 individual rankings.

“It was at that point that I truly knew like, okay, I’m going to honor my commitment to the Air Force,” he said. “I’m going to finish that out, and then I’m going to give golf a go, because I can’t not try and be able to live with myself if I didn’t do it.”

Success didn’t come quickly for Whitney, though he did win an E Golf Tour event about seven days after leaving the military at Avondale Golf Club in Palm Desert.

“That was just pretty cool validation of me stepping away from a full-time job with guaranteed promotions, guaranteed salary, benefits, all that jazz, to chase the little white ball,” he said. “For me to win my first tournament out was, yeah, validation that I was on the right path for the time being.”

Tom Whitney during a practice round on the Pete Dye Stadium course at PGA West ahead of the 2024 American Express in La Quinta, California. (Photo: Taya Gray/The Desert Sun)

The lessons learned chasing a full PGA Tour exemption feel different for Whitney now than they would have 10 years ago.

“I’m looking back at a lot of pieces of advice I received from veterans and they kind of went in one ear and out the other, and you don’t really internalize those until you live it and experience it yourself,” Whitney said. “I mean, kudos to the young guys that have already figured it out at this point, but, yeah, I’ve learned a lot in my 10 years.

“I wouldn’t trade it for getting here any sooner, I think the timing is perfect,” Whitney added. “God’s got me right where I’m supposed to be. Yeah, just looking forward to entering my prime.”

Whitney, who now lives in Dallas with his wife, an Air Force reservist herself, and their four kids, earned his way onto the PGA Tour with a 21st-place finish in the 2023 Korn Ferry season-long points race and a 20th-place finish on the money list. While Whitney made the cut in just 13 of 23 starts on the Korn Ferry Tour, he had one second-place finish and two third-place efforts among his six top-10s.

There are days, Whitney admits, he misses being in the Air Force, his friends in the military and even his old job.

“It’s not a sexy job while you’re doing it, and at times it can not even be very enjoyable,” he said. “But I’ll tell you, it didn’t take very long after I separated and left that job and started golf full-time to where I missed it. I completely misgauged what I had, and you think the grass is literally greener as you’re entering the career of golf, and, man, I had it easy.

“People told me where I had to be, when I had to be there, what I had to wear, how long I had to be there for, what I was going to get paid. I pretty much knew what I was going to be fed. I mean, all the hard decisions were made for me,” Whitney said with a smile. “I just kind of had to follow a checklist.”