All day on Sunday, Jim Herman roamed uncharted territory, and all day, he looked like he belonged.
As a result, the 38-year-old journeyman and former assistant pro at Trump Bedminster in New Jersey earned an invitation to the most unfamiliar territory of all: Augusta National.
In his 106th career PGA Tour event, Herman captured his first victory, winning the Shell Houston Open with a gritty final-round 4-under 68 and a 15-under total, staving off some of the game’s biggest stars — Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler and Henrik Stenson among them.
With the victory, Herman earned a spot in his first Masters this week, along with a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour.
In other words, Herman, who entered the week ranked 191st in the world, changed his life forever.
“This is crazy. I’ve dreamt of this for a long time, and now it’s here,” Herman said Sunday night. “This is unreal.”
For those with dreams of making it as a PGA Tour pro, Herman is a living, breathing lesson in perseverance. He’s played on every level of professional golf known to man, failing to get through PGA Tour Qualifying School seven times along the way.
In addition to the 105 PGA Tour events he’d played before Houston, he played 118 events on the Web.com Tour and won once, in 2010. Before that, he toiled on various mini-tours, competing for less money than a lot of guys play for in their weekend club matches.
So it was perfectly understandable that when it was over Sunday, Herman had a difficult time containing his emotions during a greenside TV interview, muttering through tears: “Never thought this was possible.”
Those outside of his own family who know Herman best — beginning with Donald Trump and his Bedminster head pro Mickie Gallagher — always believed, even when Herman did not.
Herman served as the assistant pro at Trump Bedminster from 2006-2007 after Gallagher recommended him to Trump.
Herman lines up his putt on the 18th hole.Getty Images“What are you doing folding shirts and giving lessons here at my club? I’ve played with PGA Tour players, and you’re just as good as them,” Trump told Herman the first time he played with him in 2006.
“That was a little shot in the arm for me,” Herman said.
So was the financial backing he got from the current leader in the clubhouse for the Republican presidential nomination, support which helped propel his pro career toward what transpired Sunday in Houston.
Gallagher told The Post that Trump called him about an hour before Herman was to tee off Sunday to wish him luck.
“Mr. Trump told me he played with Jim last Saturday at Trump International [in West Palm Beach, Fla.], and Jim shot 64, so he was not surprised to see him in the position he was in [Sunday],” Gallagher said.
The Republican front-runner, an avid tweeter, also gave Herman a shout out after the win.
Herman positioned himself for the win when he holed out a birdie chip from the left side of the par-3 16th green to take the outright lead over Stenson at 15-under par and never looked back. It was the signature moment of an already incredible week for Herman.
If he had not already been thinking the week was headed for a magical ending, he had to be thinking that as he walked on air to the 17th tee.
“When you have the lead with two holes to go — they are two hard holes — you start wondering, ‘What if?’ ” Herman said.
Herman followed the chip-in on 16 with a piped 313-yard drive that split the fairway on 17, which he parred. And after an interminable wait to tee off on No. 18, Herman pounded a 316-yard drive into the middle of the fairway, which has a lake on the left and bunkers on the right. It was his longest tee shot of the week.
Adrenaline, anyone?
Herman had 172 yards to the hole on 18 and hit it to the middle of the green and two-putted to secure the most important win of his life.
“I knew I belonged out here,” Herman said. “But to call yourself a PGA Tour winner is pretty special.”
