July 2024 - Running Down His Dream

Illinois Open champion Vince India caught in pro golf torture chamber
Photographs by Charles Cherney
This article appeared in the July 2024 edition of Chicago District Golfer.
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Deerfield native Vince India, 35, is at a career crossroads. The former Illinois State Amateur champion has had success to varying degrees on the Korn Ferry Tour, but is reaching the point where he must evaluate his future options both in and outside of golf.

A three-hole playoff against a former college All-American. A gargantuan drive that splits the final fairway, setting up a 160-yard approach on a par 5. A tap-in birdie for the victory. A trophy presentation before a swarm of friends and family.

This was the stuff of Vince India’s dreams when the Deerfield native turned pro in 2011. And it became his reality last summer, when India outdueled former University of Illinois star Dylan Meyer.

But here’s the thing: India envisioned a larger stage and a bigger purse than the $21,702 he claimed at Flossmoor Golf Club by winning the 2023 Illinois Open. And how’s this for humbling? It was the largest check he cashed in a season with more missed than made cuts on the Korn Ferry Tour.

“It was a bright spot,” India says, “in an otherwise sh***y year.”

That’s India. Good or bad, birdie or bogey, he remains as unfiltered as a Ben Hogan Chesterfield.

In late May, he competed in Q-School to gain status for the Canada swing of the PGA Tour Americas. He shot 33 on the back 9 in the third round at Country Club of Ocala in Ocala, Florida. Asked if he discovered something in his game, India replied, simply: “Nope.”

He also texted: “My irons and wedges are terrible … I’m fairly lost.”

India is at a career crossroads. The game he loves is not showing the same affection for him. He’s at the age, 35, where it’s normal for loved ones to ask: Is it time to hang up the sticks?

“This is his passion, his life,” says Meagan Pagano, his longtime girlfriend with whom he shares a condo in Jefferson Park. “I’m more of the pragmatic person. I want to be realistic without breaking his spirit.

“Sometimes he thinks golf is all he can do, but he has so many other gifts. He is entertaining and personable and can talk to anyone. He has a marketing degree (from Iowa). It’s ultimately his decision: Is there a time to let it go?”

India said he hit a low point last season during a Korn Ferry Tour (KFT) event at Panther Creek Country Club in Springfield. He hit a 5-iron out of bounds from the middle of a fairway. His caddie recovered the ball in the middle of a cornfield, acres off-line.

“It was so deflating,” India says.

Things got worse in October, when the PGA Tour penalized him and one other KFT player for betting on golf with a legal online sportsbook. Though the tour noted that “neither player bet on tournaments in which he was a participant,” the penalty was severe – a six-month suspension. It didn’t matter that his average bet size was under $20.

“You’re not looking to make money, but sometimes you just want to see if your intuition is right,” India says. “I wasn’t trying to break the bank or anything. I’m sitting on the couch in an off week, watching the Ryder Cup. I’m like: The U.S. is gonna win at Whistling Straits by 13 points and this is almost becoming unwatchable. How can I make it a little more exciting?”

If he got caught, he figured, he’d get off with a warning.

“Stupid of me to assume that,” he says. “It was a decision I’ll probably regret the rest of my life.”

He does not regret how he used the time away, though. He went to Bulls and Blackhawks games, reconnected with friends and took long walks with the couple’s adopted Australian Cattle Dog, Cowboy.

Meagan underwent back surgery in October, so Vince stepped up while she couldn’t drive – chauffeur, chef, housekeeper, personal shopper.

Golfwise, he addressed two rather important issues – “my game was sh**, my attitude was sh**.”

He sought to get rid of the “lefts” and return to the player who won the 2010 Illinois State Amateur, made the cut in a 2018 PGA Tour event, Monday-qualified for the 2018 John Deere Classic and shot 17-under (to finish fifth) at the KFT season-ending event in 2019.

“My overarching theme: I’ll do everything I can not to hit hooks,” he says. “My goal has been to neutralize everything and incorporate a cut off the tee.”

He cashed some checks on the NEXT Golf Tour, which uses Trackmans and indoor sims. He broke down data with Jake Thurm at Ruffled Feathers Golf Club and has developed an ally in Jeff Mory, the Director of Golf at Conway Farms Golf Club.

“Vince has always been a smaller guy trying to generate a lot of power,” Mory says. “At key times he fights a hook and struggles to control distances on wedges.”

In a perfect world, Mory says, India would be like an NBA player who goes cold but swears he’s about to make his next dozen 3-pointers. But that’s not him.

“He is frank – painfully frank – to the point of self-deprecating,” Mory says.

The 150-pound India jokes that he hit puberty at 29 – or maybe last week.

“Just got a couple of facial hairs,” he says.

India’s analysis of feeling “fairly lost” at the KFT qualifying event in Florida proved prophetic, unfortunately. He ballooned to 77 in the final round, playing quickly to stay out of the way of his playing partners.

He says he almost “blew a gasket” after continually missing greens with wedges. He finished 4-over, 12 shots from earning status.

Asked for a highlight, India offers this: “I got a really nice haircut at a Puerto Rican barbershop. There were a dozen people hanging out, chillin’, and it was the nicest barber chair I’ve ever been in. I got a really sick fade and am looking kinda fresh.”

• • • • •

After returning to Chicago, India got a new trainer and considered his playing options. He can’t justify trying to Monday-qualify for Korn Ferry tournaments because he’s not making enough birdies in practice sessions.

He’s hoping for a sponsor’s exemption into the NV5 Invitational presented by Old National Bank, the KFT event at The Glen Club that begins July 25. He’s also planning to vie for his third Illinois Open title when the event returns to Flossmoor in early August.

I share a line with him from a recent conversation with Meyer, who has finished as high as T-20 at the 2018 U.S Open but is also struggling to gain status on the KFT. As Meyer’s former Illini coach, Mike Small, put it: “Golf owes you nothing.”

Everything must be earned.

India can relate, saying: “I’ve never put in more hours or more work and have gotten any less out of it … I’ve got to figure at some point, that turns around.”

What keeps him going?

“I don’t feel 35 – and I don’t think I’ve hit my peak physically or mentally,” he says. “I still have a lot to learn – and have a lot of grit and fire.”

A longtime sports columnist and golf writer at the Chicago Tribune, Teddy Greenstein now works in online sports betting.