Hearn has learned from loss
Brantford golfer optimistic about chances this week
ROCHESTER, N.Y. David Hearn maintains he hasn’t spent much time thinking about the PGA Tour title that got away less than a month ago.
However, that doesn’t mean Hearn hasn’t learned from his five-playoff-hole loss to American teen Jordan Spieth in the John Deere Classic at Silvis, Ill.
“That experience I had was great, and I know, the next time I’m in that situation, I don’t think I would do much different,” the 34-year-old pro from Brantford, Ont., said Tuesday. “I did a lot of really good things. It just didn’t go my way at the end.
“I know the next time, it will go differently.”
Asked if that could happen as early as this week on one of golf’s grandest stages — the PGA Championship — Hearn didn’t even blink before responding confidently.
“Absolutely,” he said before starting a practice round at Oak Hill Country Club. “It’s possible for me to win.
“I have all the tools that will allow me to do it. Now, getting out there (for the first round on) Thursday ... who knows what will happen? But I’m going to prepare every way that I can to be there on Sunday.
“If I play the best I can play, then I know I’ll have a chance.”
That’s pretty brave talk for someone who only became the second Canadian entrant in this week’s field of 156 golfers — Graham Delaet of Weyburn, Sask., is the other — after Australian pro Brendan Jones withdrew last week.
However, it’s also not totally out there, either. After all, Hearn did well to put himself into position as first alternate, thanks in part to both the tie for second in Illinois and also to a 47-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole at Glen Abbey that allowed him to survive the cut following the second round of the RBC Canadian Open — the last opportunity to qualify for the PGA Championship based on accumulated ranking points.
Asked if that single stroke might represent an omen, Hearn smiled a bit and said he wasn’t sure, “but we’ll see by the end of the week if it really was or not. But it was a fun moment to make that putt.
“I certainly hope to not have too many 47-footers to make the cut from here on out.”
Hearn didn’t qualify for last weekend’s World Golf Championship event at Akron, Ohio, and he passed up the Reno-Tahoe Open held the same weekend. He was looking ahead not just to the PGA Championship, but also to the PGA Tour’s upcoming FedEx Cup playoffs and even to the fall tournaments that mark the beginning of the new 2013-14 schedule.
Before last week’s break, Hearn had played in 11 of the previous 13 tournaments.
“I think rest is a great idea right now,” he said.
Having already participated in three U.S. Opens during his career, Hearn isn’t a complete novice when it comes to major championships, but he hasn’t yet played a round in competition at Oak Hill, where the club website contains a boast that only 10 golfers have ever been under par in five previous stroke-play major championships contested on these grounds.
Three of them were surprise winner Shaun Micheel (4-under 276) and Chad Campbell (278), both of the U.S., and South African Tim Clark (279), who led the pack in the most recent PGA Championship played here in 2003.
“Coming into the tournament like this, the course is set up tough,” said Hearn. “It’s set up a lot like the U.S. Open would be, so my attitude is a patient attitude. My focus, when Thursday comes around, is (hitting) a lot of fairways, a lot of greens, not to take too many chances and to really pace myself through the tournament. It doesn’t take away from the fact that I love the golf course.
“I played here in Rochester many times over the years and I’m excited to be here for this event.”