Jim Herman in whirlwind after unexpected Masters invitation

Jim Herman had planned to spend Monday morning in the car, dropping his daughter off at school. But then he took the greatest detour of his professional life.

The 38-year-old picked up his first PGA Tour victory in his 106th career start when he won the Shell Houston Open on Sunday, leading to a whirlwind of changed flights, little sleep and a Masters Tour­na­ment invitation.

A chip-in birdie on No. 16 lifted him to the win.

“I was planning on flying home last night, and I was going to get home at midnight, see my kids this morning, take my daughter to school – and that’s obviously changed,” Herman said Monday. “She’s on her way up here with my wife and my son, and her mom and dad are driving up. I think my mother and my brother are flying down …”

Ten years ago, Herman was an assistant pro at Trump Na­tio­nal Golf Club in Bed­min­ster, N.J. One day, he played with future GOP presidential candidate Don­ald Trump, who wondered
why Herman wasn’t on tour.

“I don’t know what it is; when I play with him, I usually play pretty well,” Herman said. “But yeah, he’s been a big supporter of mine. He helped me early on in my years financially and maybe just a little shot in the arm of confidence. I was able to play with him just this past week right before Easter and had another really good round with him. We were victorious in our match.”

Herman said he hasn’t spoken with Trump since the Hous­ton win, but Trump did tweet him a couple of congratulations.

In the wild stretch of interviews and autographs after Sun­day’s win, Herman had to wait about an hour and a half to have a tear-filled call with his wife.

“She’s been right there with me my whole ride on the PGA Tour, and before that, she was with me before I was struggling on the mini tours and I was a club professional,” Herman said.

A longtime friend runs a Twit­ter account (@POTUSBall­Marker) in which he tweets out which presidential coin Herman will use for a marker in a round. Before Houston, John F. Kennedy beat Lyndon Johnson and James K. Polk by winning 65 percent of the vote. Twenty-three users voted.

“I’m expecting we’ll probably have President Eisen­hower this week,” Herman said.

Herman, who turned pro in 2000, has five top-25 finishes this year and had eight in 2015. He will make his first Masters appearance after only three previous appearances in majors (all in the U.S. Open, most recently in 2013). 

After getting his Na­tion­wide Tour card in 2008, he attended that year’s Saturday round at the Mas­ters. Seven years later, thanks to a member, he got to play a round at Augusta National.

This week will be different – even if he sometimes doesn’t believe it’s happening:

“I feel like maybe I’m going to wake up and I’m going to be still on maybe Sat­ur­day night going into the final round again and I haven’t done it yet. But I don’t think that’s happening. I think we’re here.”