Work Can Wait

It’s no secret that I love Mondays. 

Alex Welch works at Galco Hardware in Santa Fe, Texas. Five days a week, he moves concrete, wood or whatever else needs to be done. His parents own the small business in the Houston suburbs, and his sister is the store manager. After his shift, Welch heads home to take a quick nap and then heads to Magnolia Creek Golf Club to work on his game. He started playing again three years ago after quitting for a year at the end of an abbreviated college career. Welch, 23, has played only a handful of mini-tour events as a pro while making just one cut. 

On Monday, he qualified for the Valero Texas Open. 

It's rare when I don't recognize a name in a PGA Tour Monday qualifier, but I had never heard of Welch. A quick search produced little information. I did find a small bio from his short-lived career at Texas A&M-Commerce and his name in a handful of All Pro Tour events, a mini-tour based in the central U.S. He hadn't played in an event in more than a year. I tried to find him on social media. No luck. 

I then reached out to an official with the South Texas PGA section, which had run the Monday Q, and passed along my number. Soon after, my phone rang.

“Ryan, this is Alex Welch,” he said by way of introduction in a Texas twang. “I heard you wanted to chat with me.”

Welch had a decent high school career and played collegiately at Texas A&M-Commerce, which is located 65 miles outside of Dallas. He played for a couple of years before dropping out. Welch says he partied too much and got too far away from his faith, a subject he talked about often during our 15-minute conversation. 

After leaving school, he quit golf and went to work on cooling towers in factories across south Texas. Despite its name, a cooling tower is anything but cool. The large structures use water to cool chemicals in plants. When I asked about his job, Welch told me, "I was a gopher. G-O-P-H-E-R. When someone told me to go get something, I did." 

After not touching a club for almost a year, Welch played again with a family friend. He shot 67. The friend asked why he was working in cooling towers. Soon, he wouldn't be. 

He improved quickly, and a neighbor of the family said he would help Welch financially if he wanted to play professionally. His initiation into pro golf was a tough one. In 2022, he played in six All-Pro events, missed every cut, and broke 70 just once. 

That’s around the time his family bought the hardware store, and as is the case with many small businesses, it was all hands on deck. Welch settled into a routine of working in the morning, sneaking in a nap and practicing in the late afternoon. His game continued to improve. 

This year he hasn't played a mini-tour event—it's hard to do when you’re working five days a week—but he played two qualifiers, failing to get through the pre-qualifier. 

On Wednesday at the Valero pre-qualifier, Welch shot a bogey-free 66 at Cypresswood to easily qualify for Monday in what would be his first PGA Tour Monday. 

First, there was work to be completed, so he was back at Galco Hardware on Thursday and Friday, moving cement and helping customers. On Monday, he headed to Fair Oaks Golf and Country Club outside San Antonio, and after turning in 2-under 34, Welch made four birdies with nary a bogey on the back and posted another 66 to win the qualifier. 

Alex Welch won't be working at the hardware store this week. He will be busy playing in his first PGA Tour event.

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