Stephen J. Flesch (born May 23, 1967) is an American professional golfer who currently plays on the

PGA Tour Champions PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior PGA Tour and the Champions Tour) is a men's professional senior golf tour, administered as a branch of the PGA Tour. History and format The Senior PGA Championship, founded in 1937, was for many year ...

. He was a four-time winner on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also ...

, and worked briefly as a TV golf analyst for

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

and

Golf Channel Golf Channel (also verbally referred to as simply Golf) is an American sports television network owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Founded in Birmingham, Alabama, it is currently based out of NBC S ...

before joining the PGA Tour Champions.

Early life

Flesch was born in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...

, and attended

Covington Catholic High School Covington Catholic High School (abbreviated CCH or CovCath) is a private, Roman Catholic, high school for boys in Park Hills, Kentucky, United States. It was founded in 1925 by Bishop Francis William Howard and Brother George Sauer, and is part ...

Park Hills, Kentucky Park Hills is a home rule-class city in Kenton County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 3,162 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. Much of the city was listed on the National Register of Historic P ...

. After graduation, he played golf at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

and turned professional in 1990.

Professional career

Flesch finished in the top ten on the Asia Golf Circuit Order of Merit in 1993, 1994 and 1996. He won the 1997

NIKE Tour Championship The Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance is the year-end golf tournament of the Korn Ferry Tour. It has been played at a variety of courses; starting in 2019 it will be played at Victoria National Golf Club in Newburgh ...

to earn a

card for the following season, only the second left-hander to win on what is now the

Korn Ferry Tour The Korn Ferry Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either not yet reached the PGA Tour, or who have done so but then failed to win enough FedEx Cup points to stay at that level. T ...

. His first win on the PGA Tour was the 2003 HP Classic of New Orleans, but is probably best known for his come-from-behind victory at the 2004

Bank of America Colonial The Colonial National Invitation, titled for sponsorship reasons as the Charles Schwab Challenge since 2019, is a professional golf tournament in Texas on the PGA Tour, played annually in May in Fort Worth at Colonial Country Club, which organiz ...

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...

. He has been featured in the top 50 of the

Official World Golf Rankings The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986. The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolli ...

, reaching a career high of 22nd in 2004. Entering the

2008 Masters Tournament The 2008 Masters Tournament was the 72nd Masters Tournament, held April 10–13 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Trevor Immelman won his first major title, three strokes ahead of runner-up Tiger Woods, a four-time champion. Imme ...

, Flesch was ranked number 107 in the world rankings. After three rounds, he was in third place at eight-under, three strokes behind leader and eventual champion

Trevor Immelman Trevor John Immelman (born 16 December 1979) is a South African professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour, European Tour and Sunshine Tour. He won his sole major championship at the 2008 Masters Tournament. Early years Immelman was bor ...

. Playing in the penultimate pairing on breezy Sunday, Flesch posted a 78 to finish six strokes back, tied for fifth. This strong showing in a major tournament strengthened his world ranking by 28 slots, improving it to number 79. Flesch last played a full season in 2011, then missed the cut in the 12 events he played during the 2012 season. In 2015, he finished T7 at the

Barracuda Championship A barracuda, or cuda for short, is a large, predatory, ray-finned fish known for its fearsome appearance and ferocious behaviour. The barracuda is a saltwater fish of the genus ''Sphyraena'', the only genus in the family Sphyraenidae, which ...

, his first top ten in four years. In 2015, Flesch became an analyst for

. He also worked as an analyst for

before returning to competition on the

in 2017.

Professional wins (11)

PGA Tour wins (4)

PGA Tour playoff record (1–0)

Nike Tour wins (1)

Asia Golf Circuit wins (1)

Other wins (2)

*1991 Kentucky Open *1993 Kentucky Open

PGA Tour Champions wins (3)

PGA Tour Champions playoff record (1–1)

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied

Summary

*Most consecutive cuts made – 11 (2004 Masters – 2008 Masters) *Longest streak of top-10s – 2 (2008 PGA – 2009 Masters)

Results in The Players Championship

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

Results in World Golf Championships

¹Cancelled due to 9/11
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = Tied
NT = No tournament

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Flesch, Steve American male golfers Kentucky Wildcats men's golfers PGA Tour golfers PGA Tour Champions golfers Golf writers and broadcasters Korn Ferry Tour graduates Left-handed golfers Golfers from Ohio Covington Catholic High School alumni Sportspeople from Cincinnati 1967 births Living people