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Sunday June 22 was a truly crazy day. I had been in Myrtle Beach since I drove down from DC Thursday afternoon, and had played a nice practice round on Friday at the Grande Dunes course. Saturday morning was the Sponsor Pro-Am, and I teed it up at 8:15 feeling OK, but a little dicey after the warm-up. The last 3 months had been off and on with what I thought were hip problems, as the pain that I felt in the mornings was located in the right hip and glute area, and at one point it got bad enough to convince me to see an orthopedic and get an MRI. The results showed that it was not my hip, and since the problem receded for the most part I left it alone, happy not to be facing some sort of degenerative hip disease issue. As the round progressed I had to grind as hard as I could to make a decent swing, and each time I did I could really feel it coming through impact, which of course was slowing my club head speed and causing some erratic iron shots. The course was really long and hard, and I could tell that I needed to be 100% to have a chance to play it well. I was nowhere near 100% by the time the round was over, so I left out the planned practice and went back to the room. I attended the Champions Dinner at 6 (a wonderful event and a privilege to be able to be a part of) and got to bed early, hoping the extra rest would help. My plan was to get up early to test it out, so that if I couldn’t go I could let the tournament know right away so they could find an alternate.
Meanwhile, Rick (website secret guru) and I had a good time watching the golf, and had a nice surprise when Kevin Streelman, with whom I had just spent the weekend, had shot a 64 and moved up the leaderboard considerably. It is always stressful to work with a good player who is competing, and this being our first face to face work I was fairly nervous about his performance. Luckily it was going well, and with Lenny (Mattiace) having finally made a cut on the Web.Com I was at least happy with how my guys were doing. (Ben Silverman was also having a good tournament in Canada).
Sunday morning came and I knew I was in trouble. I had trouble sleeping, with each toss and turn causing pain in my leg all the way down to my foot, and I got up early to go out to hit a few. I didn’t tee off until 2:35, but I got to the range at 10 and found that I couldn’t even hit a full wedge without flinching. There was no way I could play, so I found an official and withdrew. I was incredibly disappointed to say the least, as I had been playing better as of late and had worked myself into the best physical condition I had been in for almost 20 years. Alas, it doesn’t matter how lean and fit you are if the nerves in your back don’t cooperate, so that was that. It was back to the room to hang out and watch TV.
There was a World Cup soccer game and some early coverage of the golf on, so after lunch we settled in with the rest of the double IPA’s I had brought down and watched the golf. Kevin got off to a bad start, 2 over after 7, and was definitely out of contention. He birdied 8 to get back in the game, and then birdied 12 and 13 to inch up onto the leaderboard. He birdied 14, and then finally got on TV with another birdie putt on 15. You all know the rest, as he birdied out and won the event, and needless to say Rick and I were having a grand old time watching. It was almost surreal that everything would fall in place like that, but he was making history and it was very cool to watch. We knew that this could be a turning point in many ways, but the important thing was that I had helped a guy who came to me for just that purpose, and it felt good to have been a part of his success. I think it will be a lot of fun down the road, as I believe that Kevin has what it takes to be more than just a good player with a couple of wins. This guy has real game.
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