Sure, Jared du Toit is disappointed his pro golf dream didn’t come true, but it most certainly was not due to a lack of effort. Du Toit literally followed that dream all over the world for the better part of the last decade. The Kimberley native was recently thinking about all the places he had visited while chasing that little white ball.
“I think I played in about 30 different countries,” du Toit said in an interview with British Columbia Golf. “And I played in 35 of the 50 U.S. states and nine of the 10 provinces in Canada. I missed Newfoundland. It’s been a super weird, fun little ride.”
It’s a ride that du Toit, now 31, has decided to end. He recently relocated from Arizona to Calgary, where he hopes to put his marketing degree to work. And while he failed to reach his ultimate goal,—playing full-time on the PGA TOUR — du Toit is thankful for the many memories he has from his time toiling in golf’s minor leagues.
“I don’t think there are many 30-year-olds who have seen as much of the world as I have,” du Toit says. “That’s one of the things I am super grateful for.”
Du Toit played much of his pro golf on the Canadian, Asian and Latin American circuits and teed it up in some exotic locales. One in particular that stands out was a tournament in Guatemala.
“We were playing beside a very active volcano,” du Toit says. “I remember the house we were staying in would kind of vibrate every once in a while. So that was a super, cool experience.
“And my year (2024) playing the Asian Tour was eye-opening for me as well. I lived my first 29 years not really thinking about Asia and it was like, holy smokes, visiting places like Macau, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand was really something.”
Du Toit is proud of the success he did have as a pro. It seems like only yesterday that he was at home in Kimberley wondering if he’d even get an opportunity to play collegiate golf. “As a junior I had this ambition to play collegiate golf,” he says. “But I remember being 15 and 16 and not getting any emails from any colleges in North America.”
Jared du Toit Holds Up The BC Golf Junior Boys Championship Trophy In 2013
Du Toit convinced the University of Idaho to give him an opportunity to play for them. He played so well his first two years at Idaho that Arizona State University came calling. He transferred to ASU for his junior year and was a teammate of Jon Rahm’s for one season. He captained the ASU team in his senior season.
But the best thing about his ASU experience was meeting Raquel Olmos, a Spaniard who was playing on the ASU women’s team. The two are now engaged. “I had a great final couple of years at college and all of a sudden I got to that point where playing pro golf became a reality for me,” du Toit says. “So thinking back to when I was growing up in this little ski town, it’s been a pretty cool run and I am super thankful for it all.”
Du Toit was a longtime member of Canada’s national amateur and young pro squads and worked closely with head men’s coach Derek Ingram, who is sorry to see him step away from the game. “Obviously, I feel a little sad that Jared is not going to achieve his goal of being a PGA TOUR player,” Ingram said in an interview. “I really believed that he was going to be one. I have to say Jared can go out proud of the effort he made and what he has achieved.”
Du Toit’s career highlight came before he even turned pro. He tied for ninth at the 2016 Canadian Open as an amateur. The previous year, du Toit won the B.C. Amateur Championship by seven shots at Fairview Mountain Golf Course in Oliver.
That top-10 at the Canadian Open whet du Toit’s appetite for the pro career that was to come after he graduated from ASU in the spring of 2017.
Du Toit became a regular on the PGA Tour Canada and Latin America circuits. He played well, but not quite well enough to earn a full-time promotion to the Korn Ferry Tour. His biggest pro win came at the 2021 ATB Financial Classic in Calgary on the PGA Tour Canada circuit.
Holding The Bostock Trophy Following His BC Amateur Win In 2015
Du Toit’s best opportunity to move up the ranks came in 2024, when he earned full status on the Asian Tour. He held the third-round lead in his first event, the Malaysian Open, before finishing tied for seventh. It was a crazy year filled with travel. Lots of travel. Suddenly, du Toit was getting into some bigger events with bigger purses and understandably, he wanted to take advantage of every opportunity. There was one crazy stretch, in particular, that sticks out.
“At one point I went from Arizona to Malaysia, to Oman, to New Zealand, to Chile, to Hong Kong and then back home,” he says. That Chile stop was for a Korn Ferry Tour event that du Toit had drawn into as a conditional member. He played well there and earned status for the remainder of the season. He decided to concentrate on playing the Korn Ferry Tour but all that travel had taken a toll.
He was feeling physically and mentally drained and his game suffered. He failed to earn full Korn Ferry Tour status for the next year. “It was dumb looking back,” du Toit says of all the travel. “But it was the first time I was getting into good events and I was like, I gotta go. You just have to try and take advantage of it.”
That was the beginning of the end for du Toit. He continued to play through 2025 but decided it was time to move on. He thought he had found the perfect job to transition to a new career. Matt Thurmond, head coach at Arizona State, offered du Toit a job as assistant coach. The job was his. All he needed was a visa.
Du Toit did all the paperwork, jumped through all the hoops, but ultimately after waiting for several months, his application was rejected by the U.S. government earlier this fall. He then made the decision to return home and start looking for a job.
No one followed du Toit’s golf journey more closely than his parents, Mike and Alison. They occasionally travelled to watch Jared play and Mike caddied for his son on several occasions. But mainly, they were at home in Kimberley hitting the refresh button on their computer following Jared’s scores online.
“It’s been quite the ride supporting Jared and his golfing dreams,” Mike du Toit says. “There have been so many people and organizations that have supported him along the way. I believe Jared was so close to being able to burst into the golfing big leagues. But at some point, dreams unfortunately hit reality.
“I’ve been proud of the good decisions Jared made as a little kid and now this, being one of his biggest decisions, probably stings the most. He worked his tail off to give himself the best opportunity possible. I couldn’t be more proud of his work ethic, his mindset and his leadership abilities. Onward to the next chapter, Jared. You’ve got this.”
Just what that next chapter will be has not yet been determined. Du Toit hopes to get into the business world and is open to pretty much anything. He’s looking to devote the same energy he did to his golf career to this next chapter in his life.
“I’m just trying to enter the job force in some sort of business capacity,” he says. “I’m meeting up with anybody who will offer any kind of advice to me. Maybe sales, marketing, the insurance business. I don’t know.”
Ingram, his former coach, has no doubt du Toit will find success wherever he lands. “Jared has incredible habits and routines and I think that will make him very successful in both business and life,” Ingram says. “He has also got an incredibly positive attitude and work ethic. He is super smart and so much fun to be around. I just think as a co-worker and someone you work with on a team, he’d be absolutely one of the best team players ever. Funny, caring, smart, he has all these skills that would be so useful in life and he has them in spades.”
Besides landing a job and launching a new career, du Toit has one other big event in the not too distant future. He and Raquel are getting married on July 3 of next year. “That’s as long as the lady can handle a winter in Canada,” du Toit says with a laugh.
Golf will never be completely absent from du Toit’s life. He’s hoping any prospective new employer might offer the flexibility of allowing him to play in the occasional tournament. “I’d love to keep the competitive juices flowing and play in the odd tournament, like the Vancouver Open,” he says.
And of course he’ll pack his clubs when he visits Kimberley to see his parents. After all, that is where the dream started, on the fairways of Kimberley Golf Club. It’s been quite the ride, one filled with memories that will last a lifetime.
For Jared du Toit, the time has come to start making some new ones.