Funny swing and all, Gainey overlooked no more

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Tommy Gainey has a trio of third-place finishes in 2011.

Tommy "Two Gloves" Gainey turned 36 last week, but his PGA TOUR career is still in its infancy stage. To wit: This year marked the first time he had played in a major (missing the cut at the PGA Championship) or THE PLAYERS Championship ... and he has yet to qualify for a World Golf Championship event.

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Gainey isn't done venturing where he's never gone before. Thanks to his third-place finish at Sunday's Wyndham Championship -- his third such showing of the year -- he didn't just qualify for his first PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, but he did so as a legitimate threat. By making four consecutive birdies on the back nine Sunday, Gainey salvaged a day where he had started within two shots of the lead and improved to No. 30 in the FedExCup standings entering The Barclays.

So Gainey isn't just among the 125 players still competing for history and $67 million in purses and bonus money during the next four playoff events. He has a legitimate shot at making it to the TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola and all the perks that go with such a finish (trips to next year's majors, World Golf Championships events and invitationals).

This seems like such a stretch for a guy who, about a half-dozen years ago, was practically making minimum wage working on an assembly line in South Carolina wrapping insulation around water heaters. That was before he started playing -- and winning -- on mini-tours and then got his seemingly 15 minutes of fame when he won one of Golf Channel's Big Break competitions.

Gainey obviously is aware of his past -- the water heater company, A.O. Smith, is affixed to his golf shirt as one of his sponsors. But he doesn't want to delve too far into the future.

"I've learned to kind of try not to look too far ahead," Gainey said. "It's a great lesson learned. I've looked too far ahead on some occasions and it's got me in trouble.

I've missed some cuts doing that. I've learned to just hit golf shots and have fun doing it."

Golf, despite all the swing gurus, how-to videos, and sports psychologists in your ears, remains a simple game: Try to get the ball in the hole in as few shots as possible. That's it. It doesn't matter where you come from, how you swing or what people call you.

Everybody calls Gainey "Two Gloves" for the same, simple reason: He wears two gloves. Yes, it's different, especially because he uses thicker baseball gloves instead of the slimmer golf gloves. His father convinced Gainey to wear two gloves when he took up golf because that's what he used to wear when he was playing baseball and it makes sense, considering he's one of the few top professionals who uses a baseball (10-fingered) grip.

Gainey can use the traction of the other glove because he swings the club as if he's really angry. A golf commentator once described his jerky swing as if he's "trying to kill a snake with a garden hose." Others have been less kind.

"I don't worry about what people say about my swing," Gainey said. "I know it's unorthodox, I know it's ugly, but it works. It's comfortable for me, and that's just something I've always done. I was always told ... if it's not broke, don't fix it."

It's definitely not in need of repair. Gainey has earned almost $2 million this year, which is almost double what he previously made as a golfer the last 10 years. Maybe we should change his nickname from "Two Gloves" to "Two Million."

"It might change what I drive and where I live," Gainey said of his millionaire status, but it won't change me."

That's a good thing because Gainey's emergence this year has been great for the game. (And not just because it made Boo Weekley happy because the PGA TOUR "needed another redneck out here.")

Too many pro golfers swing alike, dress alike, have similar workout routines and say the same things. Tommy Gainey has always done things his own way. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

He isn't about to change in his mid-30s. But he would like to alter one thing.

"I do my thing a little different than all these other players," Gainey said. "But I try not to worry about being accepted by the other players because I feel like to be accepted you have to win."

Looking at where he was on that assembly line not all that long ago, he already has.

Craig Dolch is a freelance columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.