Pressure is off following Hadwin’s win at Valspar
ERIN, Wis. — Winning changes everything. This is especially true on the PGA Tour where a victory gives you a two-year exemption and can take the weight of the world off a player trying to survive on the world’s best golf tour.
Adam Hadwin is playing in the U.S. Open at Erin Hills this week and talked to Postmedia about how his world has changed since winning the Valspar Championship in March.
“I think you have to re-evaluate things,” Hadwin said. “Securing a job for the next year was taken care of pretty quickly. I’ve got a job now for two more years, anyways. President’s Cup snuck in there. Tour Championship becomes a legitimate reality. Not to say that I didn’t think that I could make the Tour Championship, but certainly playing well early puts it more into the forefront.”
The first three months of 2017 saw Hadwin earn a win and two more top-10s, including a sixth at the prestigious Arnold Palmer Invitational. But winning on tour also raised expectations, especially his own.
“Only these last three, four weeks is when I felt the game’s gotten a little bit harder, but I think more than anything just probably adding a little pressure to myself,” Hadwin said. “Which is understandable, coming off of playing so well. Just trying to get back to the basics, and trying to get back to the attitude and the way I felt going into events before the win.”
Hadwin’s U.S. Open will begin at 10:47 a.m. local time on Thursday, alongside Emiliano Grillo and Cheng-Tsung Pan.
— Jon McCarthy