Enter gladiators with the muscle
Gary Woodland was born in Kansas, in the city of Topeka, which translates from the original Siouan as ‘a good place to dig potatoes’.
It is a recommendation Woodland has long followed. ‘I come from Kansas — we’re steak and potato boys,’ he told Golf magazine. ‘I grew up on meat. The look of fish or shellfish, the smell of it, the texture, I can’t stand any of it. So I’ve never had it and I don’t ever plan on doing so.’
leaving aside the issue of where exactly he has been eating dinner on the California coast this last week — Monterey’s main drag isn’t called Fisherman’s Wharf for nothing — Woodland’s redblooded presence reflects a growing trend in american golf. oldfashioned Jocks. Guys who started off on basketball scholarships or playing baseball and switched, in their college years, to their second sport.
like a Mister Muscle, Justin rose set out at Pebble Beach yesterday, sandwiched between two prime hunks of american beef: Woodland and the man who, more than anyone, has made this bovine blueprint work: Brooks Koepka.
The man chasing a fifth major and his third straight US open is an influencer, the way arnold Palmer was, the way Tiger Woods was. The new generations are the sons of Tiger in many ways, picking up on his obsession with physical fitness and strength and driving it to new levels.
It used to be that the finesse, the softness, of golf was surrendered in the battle to bulk up. These days trainers are so specialised, their clients so aware, that bodies are tuned to perfection, in all the right areas. Johnny
Miller once said he became musclebound and lost his touch after chopping wood to build muscle. Koepka and Woodland can rip it one minute and then feather the ball with subtlety around the greens the next. and as, in Koepka’s case, it is bringing phenomenal results, this is becoming the route to follow.
Woodland’s background is basketball; Koepka’s baseball.
Koepka’s great uncle, dick Groat, was a legendary short stop with Pittsburgh Pirates, the national league’s most valuable player in 1960 and an all-star selection on eight occasions. his father pitched for his college, West Virginia Wesleyan, and passed that enthusiasm on to his son.
Koepka Jnr only took up golf when his involvement in contact sports was curtailed for a summer after fracturing his nose in a car accident. ‘If I could do it all again, I’d play baseball, 100 per cent,’ said the man currently regarded as the world’s greatest golfer. he spits like a baller, too.
Woodland got even closer to his alternate career path. he went to Washburn University in Kansas on a basketball scholarship but wasn’t good enough, and switched to golf at the University of Kansas a year later. KU, as it is known, is not the traditional grounding for professional golfers and it is no surprise that one of Woodland’s most prominent supporters is the university’s basketball coach Bill Self.
‘I first saw Gary when he played against us for Washburn,’ Self recalls. ‘I tell him he didn’t even make our scouting report.’
yet while america’s new breed may have entered golf on the rebound, they have brought with them the aesthetic of more aerobic and physically competitive sports.
rose, attempting to become the oldest US open winner this century, is a lean, fit, athlete, but his progress around these links, a triumph of touch and feel, of single- shot putting and astute bunker play, could not have been more different to his playing partner Woodland, and Koepka, in the chasing pack.
Theirs is big boys golf, right down to the sizable half dollar coin from 1984 that Woodland uses to mark his ball on the green. a present from his mum, apparently, from the year he was born. Many contemporaries use a modest lucky penny. Equally, Woodland elicited mild surprise yesterday by arriving at the course carrying his own bag.
It’s a Jock thing, a remnant of his basketball days. ‘The first time I played with him, we were at lawrence Country Club in Kansas,’ recalled coach Self. ‘I knew he was long and had heard all this stuff. I’d been told he had the most clubhead speed ever recorded. So we were playing no 1, which is 360 yards, all carry, uphill. he drove the green and made a 15-foot putt for two. I thought, “oh, my God”.’
Koepka’s power plays attract similar sentiments. yet Pebble Beach is one of the shorter championship courses these days and, while he started yesterday four shots off the lead, Koepka’s challenge demonstrates brain to match the brawn.
It is not just about his mighty striking. Koepka’s touch, and his temperament, are what has made him the whole package. The strongest mind, as well as the strongest body. Even under the pressure of chasing, he has two expressions. The first suggests that all is in hand, the second that even if it isn’t, he’s not going to sweat it. It belies the enormous level of focus and effort that has got him to here. KoEPKa
arrives for work at the course in what might be termed gymwear. he targets his events — the majors, most obviously — with a precision more common in team sports. Everything is geared towards that one big win, that crucial six-point game. The rest takes cares of itself. This is what allows his on course style to appear unfussy — see ball, hit ball, as the americans call it.
This influences, because it is not hard to copy. The next generation won’t always be able to make it work like Koepka, but they can follow his map. Get fit, get strong, get focused, grip it and rip it. he started round four with two birdies.
and yet, rose was in the middle of all this muscle, refusing to be bullied out of it, casually juggling the ball on his club head as he waited on the tee to start the day. on Saturday, Koepka did not have a single bogey on his card, Woodland’s brute force was bombing Pebble Beach’s stickingplaster sized greens, yet rose’s guile and cool head under pressure saw him through.
after 54 holes he was not in the top 60 for driving accuracy, or hitting greens in regulation — but he was the best putter at the tournament by some distance. yesterday, rose opened up with a birdie on the first — another single putt — tying Woodland for the lead instantly. and no big american beefcake was going to be kicking sand in his face. They may be the future; but the present was very much up for grabs.