NAPLES, Fla. — Tim Herron can’t wait to take some new lumps after joining the PGA Tour Champions.
And Herron, who turned 50 on Feb. 6, is absolutely fine with that. He is nicknamed “Lumpy” after all.
“It’s still somewhat casual out here and I’m going to kind of take that and not get too intense with it,” Herron said Wednesday at the Chubb Classic, where he’ll make his tour debut at The Classics at Lely Resort this week. “I know these guys can still play and there’s a lot of guys that take it serious.
“It’s a time in life to play some serious golf but also have some fun. That’s what I’m looking forward to do. I think it’s a perfect fit for me.”
It pretty much encompasses Herron, who won four times on the PGA Tour, has embraced the nickname, and is more than ready to do some damage on the 50-and-over tour. He even made a hype video on YouTube, featuring Herron hitting a tee shot and then putting on glasses to try to track the ball.
“He’s got a great personality,” Champions Tour player John Daly said. “He’s great with people. He’s going to fit this tour just perfect.”
Herron has not shied away from the nickname he got from a job he had in Wayzata, Minnesota, as a kid.
In fact, he’s marketed it, well, to a T (or tee).
“The nickname is a brand, so we’re going to keep it like that,” Herron said.
Herron was working at a golf pro shop when his fellow workers asked if he had a nickname. He said no, then went to pick balls at the driving range. He had one when he came back.
“I came up after picking the range, and they said ‘Lumpy, how are you doing? Do you like your nickname?’ I said ‘No,'” Herron said. “Because I said ‘No’ I learned from right there that it was probably going to stick. It stuck all the way through all of the years.”
And Herron has taken it all the way to the bank.
LumpCo.com has everything from apparel to a best-of awards (and that includes snacks and even his favorite ATM at a tour stop) and has an advice section. His last piece of advice was from November, and concerned the easily-tied-into-golf subject of romance.
“DEAR LUMPY: My dad golfs. Anyway, I’m a seventh grader at Cedar Creek Middle School. ThereTim H’s a super cute boy named Josh in my science class that I like, but I don’t even think he knows I exist. What should I do?
DEAR BEAKERS & BOYS: Take him to Arby’s and make him a Justin Bieber mix. My World and Believe; JB’s strongest records, display his vocal range and passion for going steady, while 2010’s, My World 2.0 left me feeling empty inside.”
Gold for sure.
The site also has a “Masters” link, and it does concern that Masters, the major championship golf tournament played each April, but not exactly.
As Herron describes in the section, he dropped some marinara sauce on the practice green in 1998 and hasn’t been invited back. So while some apparel-driven golfers may post what their outfits are going to be during certain tournaments, like majors, Herron does the same.
Last year? A green body suit for getting body-mapped for “Full Shoulder Turn 2020” on Thursday, a full coat with a hood for cleaning his garage on Friday, a full swim suit, floppy hat and flip flops after getting a Groupon for the water park Saturday, and an old-age European-looking green outfit complete with tights to hand out samples at his friend’s wife’s cheese shop on Sunday.
Herron also is active on Twitter, and has more than 11,000 followers. Of course, he had to have fun with his Twitter profile too. “Led the tour in backspin and follow-through in 2008. Once ate a whole Bloomin’ Onion,” it says in part.
Last year, he tweeted at Lakers star LeBron James that he would teach James to get out of a bunker, if James could teach the 5-foot-10, 250-pound Herron how to windmill dunk. And he did it on a Tuesday, so he had to play into James’ creation of Taco Tuesday by placing a taco — after taking a bite out of it — next to a ball on a tee and hitting both.
“I didn’t get anything back (from James) I don’t think,” he said. “I showed him how to hit a shot off a taco, so …”
Now Herron has the perfect pairing for tacos — his own beer, called Lumpy’s Lager from Bauhaus Brew Labs in Minneapolis. Herron said the beer is “course tested” and recently debuted a commercial on social media.
All kidding aside, Herron has kept himself ready, playing on both the Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA Tour. He missed the cut at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am last week.
“I played anywhere from 12 to 18 events out on the tour (the past few years),” he said. “I felt that was probably good enough.”
In addition to spreading the Lumpy name, he also got some quality family time with the more abbreviated schedule.
“I really got to know my kids (Carson, Mick and Patrick) in the last six years, so that’s been good. I think they’re ready for me to be on the road a little bit. My goal is to get every kid out, just one-on-one and have them come out every so often.”
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