DENNIS SILVA II | STAFF WRITER
Though he’s close to earning his PGA Tour card, there was a point last year when Abraham Ancer never felt further from that goal.
A McAllen native who graduated from Sharyland High, Ancer lost his father Abraham Sr. to heart problems in January and suffered a bad back injury in July that kept him away from golf for two months.
“It was a terrible year for me,” Ancer said of 2014. “I was just in a bad spot the whole year.”
But it turned out for the best. Ancer, 24, could hardly walk during the couple of months of rehab, but he saw a sports psychologist and spent a lot of time with family and friends in dealing with the loss of his father, the man responsible for first putting a golf club in Ancer’s hand “when I was in diapers.”
“It was the best thing that happened to me, being able to take some time off, talk to some people about what had been going on in my life and working through that,” Ancer said. “It gave me time to heal physically and emotionally.”
Less than a year later, Ancer stands No. 5 on the Web.com Tour regular season money list rankings ($192,945 total year-to-date money). With six more tournaments left this year, Ancer will earn his PGA Tour card if he finishes in the top 25. He will have an opportunity to enhance his standing with a playoff tournament between the top 25 and the worst 75 players on the PGA Tour at the end of the year.
“Everybody I talk to says I’m sitting pretty,” Ancer said. “I’ll get my card. I just need to keep playing well, and that’s my focus.”
THE PROCESS
Ancer was born in McAllen, but moved to Reynosa not long after that. He moved back to the states, to Mission, when he was 14 years old.
He played his first golf tournament when he was 6 years old and played amateur tournaments in Mexico. At Sharyland High, he qualified for state individually his junior and senior years.
“He was very disciplined,” said Fernando Rodriguez, Ancer’s coach at Sharyland and in his 15th year as a golf coach for the Rattlers. “He was always willing to do the little things to get better. His aspiration was always about making it to the big-time. He’s put in the work to do so.
“I never had to tell him to work on his game or what to work on. He’d do it on his own. He was a humble young man who’s always known what he’s wanted.”
It showed during Ancer’s senior year at the regional golf tournament in 2009 at Fort Worth. Ancer had to make par on hole No. 18 to advance to state. A bogey would force a play-off.
“My nerves were crazy,” Rodriguez said. “It was a 10-foot putt, and here I was behind a tree, just waiting with my eyes closed. I didn’t even know what happened until I heard the applause.
“Of course he nailed it.”
Ancer never let up. He attended Odessa Junior College his freshman year, receiving the 2010 Jack Nicklaus Award as the Golf Coaches Association of America junior college player of the year, before heading to Oklahoma and finishing second in school history in career scoring average in relation to par, behind only three-time All-American Anthony Kim.
Ancer turned pro after graduating as a Sooner in 2013.
“Getting to the PGA Tour has been my dream since I was a kid,” Ancer said. “From Mexico to Mission to Odessa to Oklahoma. I’ve enjoyed the process. I’ve learned a lot, and learned a little bit at every stage in my life to help me get to this spot.”
THE REBOUND
Losing his father and suffering a back injury could have derailed Ancer’s prospects. Instead, it clarified things for him.
“That first day I was able to step back on the course last October was big for me,” Ancer said. “Spending two months without touching a club was tough, and it was then that I knew my dream was my dad’s dream and this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”
The dream is now closer than ever. In his 13th tournament of the year earlier this month, Ancer won the Nova Scotia Open with a 15-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff. It was his first Web.com Tour title, and launched him from 32 on the rankings list to No. 4 at the time.
A little more than a year ago, Ancer said he had no motivation. All he could think about was his father and how he was putting a lot of pressure on himself to make opportunities count as he fought through “Q” school, the annual qualifying tournaments for leading tours such as the PGA.
But now Ancer is calm. He’s confident again. And, still, all he can think about is his father.
“It was huge,” Ancer said of the win. “I’d had a taste of it at the beginning of the season in Brazil, where I finished second. That opened my eyes that I can compete at this level. I’m just being more patient and that’s what helped me in Nova Scotia. Trust in your abilities and it will come at the right time. I just felt really confident with my whole game that week.
“It was for my dad, that win. He was there with me.”
Ancer’s only true coach throughout his career had been his father. He never had a swing coach as an amateur. He doesn’t have a professional coach. Rodriguez and Oklahoma coach Ryan Hybl simply left him alone because there wasn’t really anything to tweak.
Ancer hits straight shots, almost always finds the fairways and the greens, and “if the putter’s working, it’s going to be a great week.”
But Ancer — who has dual citizenship in the US and Mexico, but represents the latter as a pro because that’s where he grew up and learned the sport — is the golfer he is because of the work he’s put in, and the work he’s put in has been because of his father.
“I never would say I’m the best player, but that’s the mentality I have,” Ancer said. “It’s about knowing that you’re working hard, and the way you’re working is the right way.”