Having survived a rather sloppy visit to the 14th hole at Timuquana Country Club (yes, Donald Ross’ vintage greens designs tend to open the door to chip shots that run from one side to the other, then back again), Brett Quigley knew there was still work to do.

He had to hear a few words from his uncle, Dana.

“I called him on the way home (from Jacksonville, Fla., to Jupiter),” said Brett Quigley. He had overcome the double-bogey at the par-3 14th to win the Furyk & Friends tournament on the PGA Tour Champions, but when you are part of arguably the most golf-mad family on the planet, you can’t escape the scrutiny.

“First thing he says to me is, ‘Why do you make things so difficult?’ I laughed and told him I was now at two wins and I was coming to catch his total of 11 (PGA Tour Champions wins). He told me, ‘Not a chance you’re going to catch me.’ ”

Brett Quigley laughed because this is the golf banter he lives for, the back-and-forth with people he loves about a game they cherish. “When you grow up in this family, the banter never ends.”

True enough, but for a lengthy period of time, the banter was less frequent given a set of circumstances that still mystifies Brett Quigley. His 13th season on the PGA Tour had resulted in a robust ’09 performance – he was runner-up three times, including back-to-back in Puerto Rico and the Transitions Championship, and earned $1.4m – but a year later, Quigley spent nearly every tournament weekend wondering why his leg hurt him so much.

“I was in so much pain and in hindsight, maybe I shouldn’t have kept playing, because I lost my card,” said Quigley. “It is the wonder of this game that we love – but it went from so good, so rewarding, to so punishing and deflating.”

In 2011 at the age of 42, Quigley missed the cut in seven of 11 tournaments “and it was pretty much over for me.”

Bad enough to be without his livelihood, what made it worse is the mystery of why. “I went to all the greatest places (hospitals and doctors) but no one could tell me what the pain was,” said Quigley. “It was undiagnosable, if that’s a word.”

It is and it fits Quigley’s situation.

What also weaves itself into his story is the intersection of fates that would disrupt the Quigley family’s world in 2011. Not only was Brett forced to the sidelines, so, too, did Dana at age 64 decide to scale way back on his successful PGA Tour Champions career. But it was in December of that year when the world stood still. Devon Quigley, 27 – Dana’s son and PGA Tour Champions caddie, and Brett’s cousin – suffered severe brain trauma in an accident not far from his home in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Suddenly, Brett’s curious leg pain issue and Dana’s “retirement” didn’t matter. This was all about Devon, who was as passionate about golf as his father, his cousin Brett, and his uncle Paul, Brett’s father and an icon on the Rhode Island amateur golf circuit.

A former member of the golf team at the University of Rhode Island, Devon Quigley spent months in Florida hospitals. But beyond the wonder of medical knowhow what saved him was the love of an incredibly close family, spearheaded by Charlotte Quigley, Devon’s mother and Dana’s first wife.

Adamant that she never was going to leave her son to someone else’s care, Charlotte Quigley has had Devon with her in their Rhode Island home since 2012. Dana visits frequently, as does Brett during summer months when he’s in Rhode Island.

As he does annually, around Thanksgiving Dana will fly to Rhode Island, then drive Devon to Florida so they can spend a few months engulfed in the game they love. Though he’s without the power to speak, Devon surely can listen, understand, and react. And this year, there is beautiful fodder in which to involve Devon, courtesy of Brett’s win at the Furyk & Friends Championship.

Dana Quigley has always talked of his brief PGA Tour career being curtailed by his drinking and that becoming sober was crucial to the mulligan he got in the form of the PGA Tour Champions. (He had 11 wins and earned $14.9m.)

Noting that, then recognizing that his nephew Brett never won in 388 PGA Tour tournaments but has now triumphed twice on the PGA Tour Champions, Dana Quigley often talks to Devon about these careers that seem so similar.

Yes, golf unites this family but sometimes it is unyielding faith that galvanizes them and so Dana Quigley’s banter will soften and morph into the love he has for his son.

“I cry for him but sometimes I realize that somehow the Lord has given enough peace to him that he believes he will be healed,” said Dana. “Devon has brought us all so close to Jesus.”

Never in those years following his mysterious leg ailment did Brett Quigley feel sorry for himself. He just couldn’t, not with what happened to Devon. But when he turned 50 in August of 2019 he concedes that he was naïve about advancing to the PGA Tour Champions.

“For me, having watched Dana do it, he made it look so easy. But I realized I didn’t have any status and that I had to work at it.”

Just as Brett Quigley never did find out where the leg pain came from and how it left, he never asked how exactly his number was called for the Morocco Champions to start the 2020 season. “Enough guys off the career money list decided not to go, I guess. I never asked. I only know that it was my winning lottery ticket.”

Brett Quigley shot 69-66-66 and won in Morocco in his PGA Tour Champions debut. He was blown away by the way his colleagues greeted him and he’s totally in awe of the second chance with which he’s been blessed. He was 26th in the Schwab Cup in 2020-21, 23rd a year ago and after his Furyk & Friends win he is presently 11th.

Miles from where he was when the leg pain started in 2010, Brett Quigley is where his uncle felt he always belonged.

“I’ve always told people that he’s one of the five best players I’ve ever played with,” said Dana. “No one hits it better. His hands are so good they should be registered. But he finally is getting a little relaxed out there. He looks like he’s having fun doing something he loves.”

Remarkable, how these Quigley lads have found a little something in their golf game later in life. “I told Devon that maybe us Quigleys are slow learners,” said Dana.

Or maybe they just hang onto their faith longer than most.