THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Caddying for John Brodie, filling in at PGA Tour events, and other Jeff Gove stories

In the early 1990s, Jeff Gove was on the golf team at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. 

One of his teammates was John Geiberger, whose last name you might recognize. 

John’s dad, Al Geiberger, once shot a 59 in a PGA Tour event. When Al moved on to the Senior PGA Tour, his son caddied for him whenever he could. 

Growing up in suburban Seattle, Jeff Gove played at Inglewood Golf Club in Kenmore, Wash. When the Senior Tour stopped there in the early years, Jeff, starting at age 15, showed up at the course on Monday and try to land a bag with a various pro that week. 

Then, as a freshman at Pepperdine, Jeff Gove met John Geiberger. 

“I’ll get you a good bag,” John told Jeff. 

And in 1991, Jeff Gove was on the bag when John Brodie, the former NFL quarterback who died Jan. 23 at age 90, won for the only time on the Senior Tour, the 1991 Security Pacific Senior Classic at Rancho Park Golf Course in Los Angeles. 

“It was definitely an amazing week for me — and for him, obviously,” Gove, now the director of instruction at The Idaho Club outside Sandpoint, recalled earlier this week. 

A YEAR or two earlier, Gove caddied for Brodie at the senior event at Inglewood, then called the GTE Northwest Classic, “and we just kinda hit it off,” said Gove, who at the time knew of Brodie as a football player, and even more recently, a football analyst on NBC.  

Gove caddied for Brodie the next summer at Inglewood. 

After that, the former star quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers told Gove he’d love to have him caddy for him again. 

In October 1991, with the Senior Tour stopping at Rancho Park in L.A., Gove, now a sophomore at Pepperdine, called Brodie. 

“Hey, you want me to caddy for you in L.A.?” Gove asked. 

“Absolutely,” Brodie replied. 

During that rainy week in L.A., Gove toted Brodie’s bag through the two pro-am rounds, then the three rounds in the 54-hole tournament. 

Gove helped Brodie with the read on putts. Gove remembered Brodie would go back and forth, from a regular putter to a long putter, each round. 

“The next thing you know, we’re right in the hunt,” Gove recalled. “And he ends up in a playoff with George Archer and Chi Chi (Rodriguez), and he hits it (a 9-iron) in there about 6 inches from the hole and won the tournament. It was amazing.” 

BECAUSE OF the rain, a big part of Gove’s caddy duties involved trying to keep the grips on Brodie’s clubs — which included irons made by Henry-Griffitts in Hayden — dry. 

On the 15th tee in the second round on Saturday, Brodie was near the lead, and it was raining hard. 

“His club slipped and he hit it way to the right, and it went on to this alternate green that had a big white circle around it,” Gove recalled. “Which in golf, typically means ground under repair. The rule sheet had said that green, you had to play it from there.” 

But ...  

“I didn’t read the rule sheet; I’m a college golfer,” Gove said. “John knows the rules. So he marked his ball and was about to drop it and a rules official came over and said ‘John, you can’t take a drop here.’” 

“Whaddya mean?”, Brodie said. “This looks like ground under repair.” 

“You’d never want to hit off an actual green; it doesn’t seem right,” Gove recalled. 

Brodie was assessed a two-stroke penalty for picking up his ball. He then put it back where he had marked it, and hit his full approach shot — taking a divot out of the green. 

“He was mad, but he handled it really well,” Gove remembered. “And as a caddy, gosh, I should have known that ... but luckily he didn’t really blame me. But I had other tour caddies come up to me: ‘You should have known that, as a caddy.’ 

“Guys, I’m a college golfer; I don’t know all this stuff.” 

SUNDAY CAME, and Brodie, despite the penalty from the day before, remained calm throughout the final round. 

“It was just a great week for him,” Gove said. “He just hit some amazing iron shots.” 

Brodie hit a 5-iron and birdied the par-3 17th hole to tie for the lead. On 18, he left a 15-footer short, and it was on to the playoff. 

The first hole of the playoff was No. 10, an uphill par-4. 

“The second shot is kinda blind; you can see the pin but you can’t see how close the ball was,” Gove recalled. “And the crowd was going crazy, so you knew it was close. We went up there, and it was 6 or 8 inches from the hole, it was a gimme.  

“Chi Chi and George Archer had a putt to tie and they both missed. So Chi Chi walked over, and he carries that handkerchief that he pulls out when he does his sword dance, and he wipes the putter down like he killed the bull. So he took that handkerchief and he put it over John’s eyes like he wasn’t going to miss the putt. He tapped it in and that was it.” 

Brodie finished at 13-under-par 200. 

Gove ended up with a check for $7,500 for his week’s work — the standard 10 percent of the golfer’s winnings, which was $75,000. 

“As a college kid it was amazing,” Gove said. 

AFTER COLLEGE, Gove turned pro, and played 181 events on the PGA Tour, 375 events on what is now called the Korn Ferry Tour, and seven on what is now called PGA Tour Champions. 

Last spring, Gove qualified for the Senior PGA Championship in Bethesda, Md. And this past fall, Gove qualified for the 2026 event in April in Bradenton, Fla. 

Last summer Gove, who attended Inglemoor High in Kenmore, Wash., qualified for his hometown senior tour event, now called The Boeing Classic, and now played at The Club at Snoqualmie Ridge.  

Gove lived in La Quinta, Calif., for more than 20 years before he and his family — wife Heather, son Jacob and daughters Annie and Hailey — relocated full-time to the Sandpoint area in 2019. 

Jacob was a kicker and also played golf at Sandpoint High, and later punted for two seasons at Division III Cal Lutheran. Annie and Hailey were cheerleaders at SHS, and Hailey plans to turn out for golf this fall, her senior year. 

Gove learned of North Idaho before then, when his mother-in-law moved to the Selle Valley from California in 2006, and Gove and his family eventually spent summers here. 

As his mother-in-law's house was being built, so was The Idaho Club, a few miles away. 

He bought a lot at the Idaho Club, then sold it a couple years ago. 

Gove and his family live on 10 acres in the Selle Valley, north and east of Sandpoint, where they have chickens and a couple of goats. 

A couple of years ago, Gove and his wife opened a chicken teriyaki restaurant in Ponderay called Chicks. 

Gove sells real estate, in addition to giving instruction at The Idaho Club — in the simulator during the winter. He also has a simulator at his house. 

“What I need to do is use it more,” he said. “I don’t hit enough balls in it. I watch everyone else hit ‘em ... “ 

THAT WOULD have come in handy last weekend, when Gove ended up filling in at a PGA Tour event, The American Express in La Quinta. 

In part to get out of the North Idaho winter for the weekend, Gove took his two daughters down there for the weekend to get in some outdoor practice, visit his mom, and to be available in case he was needed to fill in for a pro who became sick or injured during the event. 

“I used to do it in the past, when I used to live down there,” Gove said. “They usually have a few guys on call.” 

The first three rounds of the event are a pro-am (one pro, one amateur); just the pros play in the final round Sunday. 

Last year, Gove filled in for a pro on Friday and Saturday. 

Last week, he got a call on Friday, asking if he was available — but he was at another club in the area practicing, and couldn’t make it over in time. 

“Keep your phone on,” he was told. 

On Saturday, Gove took his daughters to the course, to watch Scottie Scheffler warm up, and to say hi to a few friends. 

He was standing on the driving range next to Jason Hicks, another Sandpoint guy, when his phone went off. 

“Where you at?” 

“Well, I’m actually on site.” 

“Hold on a sec.” 

Gove got a call back. 

“You’re on the first tee.” 

Turns out, Ludvig Aberg had fallen ill. He had hoped to play on Saturday, but couldn’t go. 

Gove grabbed his shoes and his clubs. 

By then, his group — which included his friend Harris English and his amateur partner — had teed off. 

Gove was driven out to the second tee, where he joined them — and met Aberg’s amateur partner, which was now his amateur partner for the day. 

“I didn’t get any warmup,” he said. 

Gove’s daughters watched Scheffler tee off, then headed back to grandma’s house before joining dad for the nightly concert at the course. 

“I actually hit the ball OK, didn’t putt very well, but that’s OK, it was fun,” Gove said of the round. “I’m trying to hit good shots, but trying to stay out of Harris’ way. If I made a birdie or par for the amateur, it counted (toward the amateur’s score).” 

WHEN NOT teaching, Gove finds time to play in some of the Pacific Northwest Section PGA tournaments. 

This summer, he plans to try to qualify for the U.S. Senior Open. He’s played in two. 

He came up just short at the PGA Tour Champions qualifying tournament a couple years ago. 

“This year they canceled Q-school for the Champions Tour,” Gove said. “So there’s no way to get on now, except for Monday qualifying, or get an invitation and win. So the door’s kinda closing on the Champions Tour, unless I go out and try to qualify every week.” 

Gove also has a win as a caddie on what was then called the Nike Tour, carrying the bag for a friend after Gove didn’t qualify for the event that week in Gulfport, Miss. 

“I’ve got a win on the Champions Tour, and on the Korn Ferry (then-Nike) Tour,” Gove said. “I don’t know how I’m going to get one on the PGA Tour; I’ve got to figure that out.” 

AFTER THAT win on the bag for Brodie in 1991, Gove said he probably caddied another 8-10 events for him (either in Southern California or at the senior event in the Seattle area) over the next few years — including one memorable round at Inglewood where one of the other pros in their group was Arnold Palmer. 

Gove, now 54, and Brodie kept in touch over the years. Gove recalls playing golf a couple times with Chris Chandler, the former Washington Husky and NFL quarterback, and Brodie’s son-in-law. 

After Brodie suffered a stroke in 2000, Gove remembers Brodie telling him, “I’m going to learn to do this (play golf) one-handed.” 

One year during the senior tournament in the Seattle area, Brodie and wife Sue came over for dinner at the Gove household. 

Gove said the last time he saw Brodie was perhaps a year and a half ago, down in La Quinta. 

Gove said he was “definitely saddened,” when he heard the news last Friday. 

"The caddying was amazing, but it turned into a friendship after that, too,” Gove said.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports. 

    Courtesy photo Jeff Gove and his wife, Heather, at Pebble Beach Golf Links.