Eaves tees off alongside Geoff Ogilvy and American Julian Suri at 6.19am on Sunday in the final round of the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship. It’s no given, but he is hoping that his next game of golf will be at City Golf Club in Toowoomba next Saturday for his birthday.

Because little wins mean so much right now.

Like the four-footer Eaves made to stay alive in the playoff at Monday qualifying for the PGA Championship at Wynnum Golf Club.

Or the 10-footer he made at the second playoff hole that meant, come Thursday, he would join the likes of Adam Scott, Min Woo Lee and Cameron Smith in contesting a golf tournament worth $2 million.

But this is not about money.

It’s about a golfer who had to care for his three children – including a newborn daughter named Josephine – when his wife Kimberly was diagnosed with lymphoma, just nine days after giving birth.

For Sam, a PGA Professional now living in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, golf quickly became an afterthought.

As specialists scrambled to uncover why Kimberly had unbearable back pain, couldn’t raise her right leg and could barely lift her left arm above shoulder height, Sam juggled his baby daughter and two boys aged 3 and 9.

Golf? Sam barely had time to tie his shoes.

“I couldn’t really function some mornings,” Sam shares.

“I’d just get out of bed and be like, I don’t even know how to cook breakfast or pack the kids’ lunch. I don’t know what to grab first. Do I grab them a sandwich or what are we having for breakfast?

“How do you deal with it? I don’t know, mate, because you don’t really know what’s ahead.

“You just deal with it in two-hour blocks at a time.

“What are we doing for the next two hours? I could not think more than a couple of hours ahead at a time.”

With support from family, Sam pushed through each day, taking a different kid on a daily excursion to the chemist to try and provide some relief for Kimberly in between bouts of chemotherapy.

Having come five weeks premature, ‘Josie’ didn’t leave hospital for two weeks. By that time, her mother was back in hospital for her first round of chemotherapy.

Sam hasn’t worked since but, eight weeks ago, when Kim’s final cycle had been completed, he planted a seed of playing in the Australian PGA Championship.

It’s one of the few tournaments he plays… and he plays them well.

When Jed Morgan won the 2021 championship in record fashion in January 2022, the Eaves family banked $11,490 courtesy of Sam’s tie for 17th.

Last year, as Cameron Smith was anointed the king of RQ, Sam finished tied for 18th to collect another $22,440.

Yes, making the cut mattered on Friday, but the yellow cap he played in on Yellow Day in support of Challenge suddenly meant more than the cheque he will collect on Sunday night.

In a year in which his brother and caddie this week, Andrew, had a Stage 3 melanoma successfully cut out of his left groin and the family cat was hit and killed by a car, a spot in the field at RQ gave something Sam and the entire Eaves family craves more than anything else right now: Hope.

“Six or eight weeks ago now, I said to Kim, ‘Hey, what do you reckon about pre-qualifying for the Australian PGA?’” Sam says.

“Do some practice, have a hit with the members at City Golf Club and hit some balls in the backyard in the net.

“Just have something to look forward to and have a bit of a purpose.

“I don’t really feel any butterflies or anything because I’m just here for fun.

“I don’t have to win money or do any of that. I am just a golf fan playing golf inside the ropes and I feel just so lucky to be here.

“It’s just pure enjoyment.”

Yet, as his dad savoured a rare moment of joy, Sam was reminded in a text from Kimberly what matters most right now.

“It was ‘Very nice finish there, my love. We’re all super proud, except for Campbell who just has the shits that you can’t answer your phone while playing.’

“Typical three-year-old.”