LIV Golf's most interesting player had wild trip on way to the big time

UTTOXETER, United Kingdom — John Catlin was a split second away from pushing a button that would have ended his career. It was 2016, years before the Sacramento native made it to LIV Golf as an injury substitute for Charles Howell III on Crushers GC, which is captained by Catlin’s childhood friend and Northern California rival, Bryson DeChambeau.

Catlin was in Asia, and he was over it. All of it.

He was splitting his time between the Canadian and Asian tours to maximize playing opportunities. “The travel was aggressive,” Catlin, 33, told Golf Digest on Wednesday at LIV Golf UK.

At the end of 2016, Catlin was struggling to retain status in Asia when it all came to a head in Jakarta, Indonesia. “I was playing horribly and borrowing money from my parents,” he said. Catlin shot 77 in the final round of the Indonesian Open and “made 700 bucks.” He was down to the last $2,000 in his bank account—just enough to buy a flight home to California. He was going to quit golf and get a regular job. On his iPhone, Catlin had a flight loaded and ready to purchase. He held his thumb over screen. “But I couldn’t do it; something in here told me not to quit,” Catlin said, pounding his chest.

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Instead, he used the phone to call his coach, Noah Montgomery, a former narcotics police officer in Oakland who had become a golf swing guru, who urged him to at least play his next tournament. It was the Combiphar Golf International, a step down on the Asian Development Tour (ADT). The ADT had arranged a bus between events for players and Catlin was sharing a hotel room with a friend. His local caddy was $15 a day. “I felt like s--t. But I was already in Indonesia,” he said. “I won the tournament, and it saved my career.”

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And so Catlin began his journey back from the doldrums, a comeback that included multiple Asian Tour wins, bouts of food poisoning and travel disasters, shooting 59 in Macau, a handful of DP World Tour victories during the COVID-19 pandemic and ultimately, to LIV, where is arguably its most interesting player.

Overlooked

Growing up in Sacramento, Catlin was small and skinny. He still is, but he was smaller and skinnier. To top it off, he had an unconventional swing. “More unconventional than it is now,” Catlin said. Regardless, he dreamed of being a pro golfer from the age of 10, when he watched on TV as his idol, Tiger Woods, obliterated the field at the 2000 U.S. Open at the Northern California course Catlin was desperate of to play one day: Pebble Beach.

He practiced every day at Northridge Country Club in Sacramento, where his parents are members to this day. Catlin worked a 20-yard draw given it was easier to get distance.

Catlin didn’t know how fortuitous it would be, but growing up, he befriended a teenaged DeChambeau. They frequently played in the same events, from AJGA to Northern California Amateurs and Cal State Amateurs. Both went to college at a similar time. “Bryson’s mother Jan recently showed me a picture of he and I in the [match play] bracket at the 2013 Cal State Amateur,” Catlin said of the event at Monterey Peninsula Country Club that also included Open and PGA champion Xander Schauffele and PGA Tour winner Jake Knapp.

In high school, Catlin began emailing college coaches at some of the best golf programs in the country. Most knocked him back. “A lot of coaches told me my swing was too unorthodox and I didn’t have enough top five finishes on the AJGA,” he said.

With a chip on his shoulder, Catlin won the Northern California State Amateur in 2010 and 2011. “You’ve got names like Johnny Miller on that trophy,” he said. He also won the Memorial Amateur Championship in 2012 and 2013. By that time, the University of New Mexico took him in, and he became an Academic All-American from 2011 to 2013. He also earned an honorable mention as an NCAA All-American in 2012—the year he won the Arizona Intercollegiate.

The grind

When Catlin turned pro in 2013, “there were people at my own golf club, who didn’t think I was going to be successful or that my swing wasn't going to hold up,” he recalled.

Around that time, Catlin changed coaches to work with Montgomery, who would alter the trajectory of his career. Montgomery spent 15 years as a narcotics officer with Oakland Police Department and became a golf coach after he’d left the force. “If you want to talk about handling pressure, how about getting shot at in the street?” Catlin said. “I’m not sure I would have handled the pressure of pro golf without Noah in my corner. He’s a great human and he’s become my best friend.”

Catlin says Montgomery is something of a savant when it comes to instruction. “I’ll be overseas on a driving range, and he’ll listen to the sound of me hitting balls through the AirPods in my ear and he can tell if I’d hit it thin and right, and how to fix that,” Catlin said.

Montgomery’s most important contribution, apart from technique, was suggesting Catlin try the Asian Tour in 2015 instead of continuing to grind on the Canadian tour as a pathway to the PGA Tour. Montgomery reminded Catlin that although he dreamed of getting to the PGA Tour, he needed experience and professional golf was a business. He couldn’t be losing money.

“There is no substitute for experience; you have to play tournaments, you have to f--k them up, you have to play well, and there are no shortcuts,” Catlin said. “I didn’t have much money and I had to make it work. I could play the Asian Tour for a full year for $25,000 in expenses. If I played amazing golf, there was a possibility to make a million dollars in a season. My money was going further in Asia. I could play a lower-level development tour event for 500 bucks [entry fee] and finish 30th and make a profit. Tell me another development tour on the planet where you can finish 30th and cover your expenses.”

Catlin moved to Hua Hin Beach in Thailand in 2015 to ease the travel, though it was still aggressive. The Asian Tour wasn’t without its challenges, either. Catlin lost his card multiple times and was relegated to the ADT. There were multiple bouts of food poisoning while navigating Asian countries, food, and languages.

In 2015, Catlin and three other pros piled into a taxi in Kuala Lumpur from the airport, somehow squeezing their golf travel bags and luggage in. They were sharing a two-bedroom hotel with three beds and a bunk bed. When the taxi drove off, Catlin realized his backpack was on the front seat. He chased after the car and called the taxi company, but never found it. “It had my laptop and cash and I was broke already,” he said. “For the next 18 months, I was without a laptop and had to borrow my parents’ iPad to book all my travel and receive emails from the tour.”

That grind was what made his 2016 Combiphar victory so meaningful. In 2018, Catlin won three times on the Asian Tour and earned Player of Year honors and a European Tour card for via its order of merit. In 2020, Catlin secured his maiden win on the DP World Tour at the Andalucia Masters at Valderrama and then the Irish Open two weeks later.

He faced controversy during COVID-19 when he broke the strict DP World Tour bubble protocols by getting dinner at a pub with his caddie one night. The player hotel was at an airport, 45 minutes from the tournament and its kitchen had closed by the time Catlin left the course. It was his only option to eat. Catlin was the first DP World Tour pro to be removed from a tournament, the English Championship, because of a bubble breach.

Earlier this year, Catlin put himself back on DeChambeau’s radar when he shot the first 59 in Asian Tour history during his victory at the International Series Macau—a group of tournaments funded by LIV Golf—and the Saudi Open. As the series’ order of merit leader, Catlin was seconded to LIV as one of three injury reserves for the league. In June 2024, when Howell went down with a tibia injury, DeChambeau immediately chose his childhood friend to join the Crushers GC and make his debut at LIV Golf Houston.

Since then, Catlin hasn’t finished worse that T-24 in three LIV events, with a T-7 at LIV Nashville. He’s won $946,667 in individual prize money alone. “It’s awesome; I’m thankful for Bryson for this opportunity and I’ve never been this well looked after as a pro,” Catlin said.

Last week, Catlin made his first cut in a major championship, in his fourth start, when he finished T-16 at the Open at Royal Troon. It was a full-circle moment given Catlin and his family had vacationed in Scotland in 2004, playing golf and attending the third round of the Open at Troon. Catlin got an autograph from Todd Hamilton that Saturday night and asked him what advice he’d give a 13-year-old dreaming of being a pro golfer. “Listen to your parents,” Hamilton joked a day before hoisting the claret jug.

On Tuesday at Troon last week, Catlin lined up a practice round with the 2004 Open champion and relayed the story to him. “Todd was blown away and he taught me a bunch of shots on approach and around the greens at Troon and it definitely helped my result,” Catlin said.

It wasn’t the first time he’d been starstruck by a major champion. In 2022, Catlin was registering at the Old Course for the 150th Open when a voice behind him said, “Hey John, how you doing?” It was his idol, Woods. “It scared the s—t out of me; it was an honor to meet him,” Catlin said.

This week, Catlin is back on LIV Golf for its U.K. event at the JCB Resort in England’s Midlands region. He continues to fill in for Howell, who is fit enough to hit balls at home but not compete. Catlin could remain on LIV through several avenues: play his way into the top 24 on its individual points; retain his place atop the International Series order of merit, the winner of which is awarded LIV status for 2025; or go to LIV qualifying school.

As it matures as a league, LIV Golf would do well to find more players like Catlin. While its band of major winners and superstars who were paid enormous signing bonuses to join LIV draw crowds, feel-good stories like Catlin’s sustain the interest of true golf fans who respect the grind. “The top players on this league earned their right to be here and I look up to them; my journey was just a little different,” Catlin said.