Jim Herman loved bowling as a youngster in Cincinnati but won't risk hurting his golf career now by bowling. (Barbasol Championship Photo)
Jim Herman is a three-time PGA Tour winner and admits he has been a “sports buff my whole life” who likes to shoot basketball. However, one other sport he really enjoys — or used to — is bowling. Herman, a Cincinnati native and 2019 Barbasol Championship winner, says he was always at a bowling alley with friends as a youth. He loved the Hoinke Classic, a bowling event he calls a “legend” in Cincinnati.
“I would do a lot of bowling,”Herman said. “We were really into bowling.”
He was good enough to average around 200 per game in a 12-week league. If you are a non-bowler, that’s good. Really good.
Herman doesn’t bowl do because he doesn’t want to jeopardize his golf career — he dropped bowling after an outing when he was still playing on the Web.com Tour that he won but then had a sore arm the next day. He’s exempt through the 2022-23 season after this recent win in the Wyndham Classic and has career winnings of almost $8 million.
“I don’t want to hurt my knee or arm but I do still enjoy bowling,” Herman said. “I don’t bowl very much but there will be plenty of time to bowl down the road after my golf career ends.
“But I was ahead of the thumbless bowling (trend) on tour now. I couldn’t curve the ball. I didn’t have the biggest forearms and I could curve the ball a lot better thumbless. It was a fun time bowling and I miss it at times but I really love what I do now, too.”
