Category Archives for "Articles: Playing Tournament Golf"

Ten Days in August

By J | Articles: Playing Tournament Golf

It was déjà vu all over again. Wednesday afternoon, on the driving range, at the PGA Championship, searching for a swing that would hit the ball within 10 yards of where I was aiming while traveling at least 260 yards in the air. And when hadn’t I been looking for that? No time I could remember: only now it was, once again, paramount that I find it, and quickly.   It is one thing to play a 6900 yard golf course with 35 yard wide fairways flanked by light to moderate rough, fair sized greens that were somewhat receptive to…

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Searching for Something Positive

By Wayne | Articles: Playing Tournament Golf

[Premium] I took my time. I took a practice stroke. From 14 inches I make 100 out of 100 putts- maybe 1000 out of 1000. But I missed. Seventeenth hole, national television, standing one under through 52 holes and in good position in the top 10 in the PGA Professional National Championship at the Crosswater Club in Sunriver, Oregon, the same course on which I won the same tournament in 2001.

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More Tales from the Tour

By Wayne | Articles: Playing Tournament Golf

Golf is an overwhelming game. The quickest way to find this out is to qualify for a PGA Tour event, play the course for the first time on Sunday, then spend the next three days trying to perfect all the shots that will be needed come Thursday when the first round commences. Among these shots are included long, straight drives, precise irons, deft chipping and pitching, and, of course, good putting. This list sounds as though it came straight out of one of the major golf magazines. You know, the 10 page spreads on “How to Break 90” that provide…

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Why “Those Guys” are on Tour and The Rest of Us Aren’t (Although That May Not be Such a Bad Thing)

By Wayne | Articles: Playing Tournament Golf

74 – 74–148. Miss cut. While a lot of interesting things happened at that year’s Kemper Open, that’s the bottom line: 148, six over par, miss cut. I may have been the low PGA Club Professional, but I got beat by about 120 guys. “So, I guess you’re disappointed with your play”, friends, students, and members say. And while in years past that statement would have been very true, I now have a much clearer understanding of what it takes to be good enough to compete successfully at golf’s highest level, the PGA Tour. And having arrived at that understanding,…

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Massacre at Oak Hill

By Wayne | Articles: Playing Tournament Golf

It had been almost 5 years since I last played in a major championship, the 2003 PGA at Oak Hill in Rochester, NY, where I shot a first round 79 before withdrawing due to the death of my wife’s mother on that Thursday night. The course was the hardest I’d ever played: 6 to 8 inch rough everywhere on the course, narrow fairways, firm, fast greens, and over 7100 yards playing to a par of 70, the length an illusion as there are 3 par 4’s that play between 320 and 370 yards.

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Down The Stretch

By Wayne | Articles: Playing Tournament Golf

It has been said by many great golfers that their main goal in any tournament is to get into contention going into the back nine of the final round. I would certainly agree with that, for that is where you see what you are made of, where you test yourself and all of the things you have been practicing not only for that week, or month, or year, but for your whole life.

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Dreaming of the Highest Level (part 2)

By Wayne | Articles: Playing Tournament Golf

It is a wonderful thing for a non-exempt player to earn a berth in a PGA Tour event. It could easily be the most exciting week of that player’s life up to that point. It is no wonder that very few of the players who make a Monday qualifier ever make the cut in the actual tournament, for it is a bit overwhelming if you’ve never been there before. Some take the lack of success of Monday qualifiers as evidence that they do not deserve to be in the field, but trust me when I say that you have to…

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