But he was too nervous for that.
"I was thinking to myself, 'What if I three-putt this and that hit it into the water on 18?,'" Gove said, laughing in reminiscence.
No such trouble for Gove. In fact, quite the opposite. The veteran drained his 20-footer for birdie, then proceeded to hit his approach to inside the foot on the 18th, leading to back-to-back birdies and a closing 67 on the final day of this year's final edition of PGA Tour Q-School.
With the effort, Gove tied for 10th. With the effort, Gove will return to the PGA Tour full-time for the 2013 season.
"You can really make a mess on those last holes," Gove said. "The final day, tons of pressure, similar to the Tour Championship when you're fighting for your card. I'm thrilled to be going back."
It certainly wasn't the expected end-of-year result for for the San Diego resident and Washington state native, especially considering the turmoil he experienced earlier in the season. Gove endured a stretch of eight missed cuts in a nine-event stretch earlier this spring and summer, despite rarely making a mess of a round. He simply wasn't shooting low enough scores, on a tour that demands it.
It got to the point where he even considered giving up the game.
"I wasn't sure if it was still worth it," Gove said. "Traveling all the time, especially with a wife and two kids. I didn't know what I was going to do."
Gove never got to the point of giving up on the season, though. Resolved to turn things around, he continued to do the little things - going to the gym, tinkering with his putting - to give himself a chance to get better. The putting came around, and the results started to show. With the help of a string of top-30 finishes in the early fall, Gove put himself in a position to make the top 60 on the money list (and retain full Web.com status for 2013) if he could make the cut and finish reasonably well in the final two events.
After missing the cut in both (and missing the Tour championship), Gove needed to go back to second stage of Q-School, needing to advance and perform well at final stage to get back on the Web.com Tour full-time, much less the PGA Tour circuit. Mission accomplished: Gove shot 6-under for four rounds at the tricky Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta, CA, and he entered final stage with plenty of confidence.
"Going in, I had a different feeling than I've had in previous years," Gove said. "I really thought I was going to make it."
Armed with the late-season confidence in his putting, and the rest of his game, Gove attacked the Stadium and Nicklaus courses with precision over the Q-School week, sticking to his game plan and making sure not to get too up or too down. The plan worked: he only shot one round in the 70s (a fifth-round 71), and he hovered around the top 25 the whole week. Before he knew it, he hit the beautiful approach on the 18th hole of his final round, listening to and appreciating the roars of the crowd.
After tapping in for a final-round 67, he happily greeted the assembled fan club that included his parents along with friends from along the way. Gove lived in the PGA West vicinity for a few years after the turn of the century, and knows the area quite well.
"We all had a bunch of high-fives and celebrated," Gove said. "After being close so many times, I was kind of in shock. It was great."
From there, he made the very enjoyable two-hour drive home before cracking a bottle of wine and celebrating with his family. Not a bad way to end a heck of a week.
Now he switches gears to preparing for the PGA Tour, where courses are almost always played under difficult conditions - fast greens, thick rough, and plenty of distance. Although the Web.com Tour strives to provide a PGA Tour-like environment, the nature of the schedule amkes this a near-impossible task on some occasions, Gove said. Take the United Leasing Championship in Indiana earlier this summer, where temperatures above 100 degrees kept officials from keeping the greens dry. Consistent watering became necessary to prevent the greens from burning out, and players got to fire at pins.
With early-season swings through hot climates, the PGA Tour climate is free of such concerns, for the most part. Gove knows he needs to bring his A-game to meet his goals, which include keeping his card (by finishing in the top 125) and ultimately winning an event.
In addition to the different courses and schedule, the PGA Tour brings an exponential increase in crowd attendance. Gone will be the days of two or three-person galleries, where officials can outnumber spectators at times.
Gove looks forward to it.
"Having the crowds keeps me focused," Gove said. "It's fun, and obviously there's plenty to play for."
Gove will get into the first full-field event in Hawaii, and he reasonably hopes to play in four of the first six events on the West Coast swing. If he can pick up some solid finishes early and gain some momentum, he can set himself up for an enjoyable year, where his family plans to attend a sizable portion of events in the summer months. Events in Hilton Head and Charlotte are two of the tournaments that he points out as being specifically excited to return to.
After longtime friend Jeff Brehaut qualified for the Champions Tour by way of a second-place finish at Champions Q-School, two weeks prior to the PGA Tour edition, Brehaut told Gove that it was time for him to make him through himself.
After making it through on the final day at PGA West, Gove was greeted by an estimated 150 texts, e-mails and calls of congratulations from family, friends and peers. Gove maintains friendships with PGA Tour contemporaries such as Zach Johnson and Jonathan Byrd, and is excited to spend more time with them as he returns to the big tour.
So here he is, a journeyman veteran, back from the abyss (and then some) in the span of a few weeks. From potentially out of a job to the biggest tour in the world, with a few good rounds of golf at the right time.
With impeccable timing, Jeff Gove opened up a world of potential - with opportunities like Augusta and the FedEx Cup Playoffs within reach if he keeps up his sound play.
Just another of the endless stories that comes by way of the game of golf.
"What an experience," Gove said.
