Head game on point
Stegmaier crushes low expectations
CROMWELL, Conn. — Tour unknown Brett Stegmaier claimed the key to his success in yesterday’s opening round of the Travelers Championship was low expectations. That should have been easy to manage.
The native of Madison, Conn., who grew up attending the Travelers at TPC River Highlands and first dreamed of playing and winning on the PGA Tour 17 years ago when he witnessed Notah Begay make a 30-foot putt to take the trophy here in 2000, has struggled through a brutally disappointing stretch of golf. He has missed the cut in 13 of the 20 events he’s played this season, including eight of his past 10 and 12 of his past 15.
That might not be a nightmare if your goal was to one day play on tour, but it’s certainly not a good dream. Yet surprisingly, it led him to the Travelers with an attitude conducive to good work.
“This is my fourth time playing here, and I came in with really low expectations,” Stegmaier admitted after carding a 6-under-par 64 that tied Johnson Wagner for second place, 1 shot behind Jordan Spieth.
Stegmaier’s seven-birdie round ended with a thud when he bogeyed his final hole (the ninth), but when you’ve been cut more times than a backup long snapper, you take your victories when you can.
One would expect the key to such a surprise effort might be a hot putter or a well-controlled, booming driver. Not in Stegmaier’s case. Apparently it was a vacant mind. “I really wasn’t thinking too much, which is obviously the key that I’ve been working on a lot with my mental coach,’’ Stegmaier said. “Just taking the thinking out of it, doing the process really well, and once I get over it, just go.
“When I played poorly, it was pretty tough. I was pretty hard on myself and people around me probably. Probably wasn’t fair to them. . . . I feel a lot better off the golf course. It’s taken a little while for the results to show on the golf course, but obviously today is another step in the right direction.’’
He had the lead until Spieth registered eight birdies, including one on 18 that put the two-time major winner 1 shot ahead of Stegmaier and Wagner, who formed the golfing version of The Who. Troubling as it might be to lose the lead, when you’ve missed as many cuts as the 33-year-old Stegmaier, you don’t let even someone as proficient as Spieth spoil your moment.
After all, who says you’ll have another?
“To shoot a really low round is a big confidence boost,’’ Stegmaier said. “To be here now, it’s almost surreal just being on tour. I realize it’s not the greatest thing in the world because it’s still a job. You’ve still got to grind. There’s low points. But with the right perspective, to be here now talking to you guys is pretty cool.’’
Not even Spieth’s assault of birdie-happy River Highlands could detract from the kind of day Stegmaier dreamed about as a kid growing up 30 minutes down the road on the Connecticut shore. A golf prodigy as a boy, Stegmaier shot a course record-tying 63 at New Haven Country Club at the tender age of 16, and after winning a state championship in Madison transferred to Avon Old Farms, a prep school known for its athletic prowess.
That led to an All-America career at Florida then a slogging trek through golf’s low-paying satellite tours. He’d gone from missing the U.S. Open by 2 strokes as a high school junior to missing out on qualifying school year after year, which took its toll physical and mentally.
An injury to his left wrist led to two operations, and he briefly quit tournament golf to work as an assistant pro in a local golf shop in 2009. But selling golf shirts and recording tee times was not his dream. Of course, neither was stumbling around on mini tours, but he went back to it after a year layoff, and by 2012 he reached the Web.com Tour, golf’s version of Triple A.
Stegmaier was one step from the majors, literally and figuratively. But that step is a long one that for four years proved too big. Then, as suddenly as the arrival of yesterday’s 64, he made the top 10 in three straight events, finished 18th at the Web.com Tour Championship and found himself holding a PGA Tour card for 2016.
Although he didn’t win last year, he had three top-10 finishes, including a second at the Shriners Hospital for Children Open in Las Vegas that earned him a careerhigh $355,733. By year’s end, he’d made $1,086,714 and it seemed all the work and faith he had to muster in himself was paying off.
But golf is a cruel obsession, a two-faced heartbreaker that annually shatters the dreams of men like Stegmaier. So it has done this year
Nearly every outing has been dark clouds and quick departures, the latter surrounding him with so much of the former that he began consulting sports psychologist Paul Doolan three months ago. He was searching for a key to unlock the mysteries of winning golf.
“You see all the time guys who miss five cuts in a row and win,’’ Stegmaier said. “It doesn’t come out of nowhere. It’s such a fine line between playing well and playing poorly. It’s kind of weird.’’
Golf certainly is, so Stegmaier understands what yesterday’s 64 really means. It means nothing unless he can do something similar for three more days. That is how you win on the toughest tour in the world. You win by keeping your score, like your expectations, consistently low.
“Not going to overblow it,’’ he said. “It’s just one round. Long way to go. . . . I certainly didn’t expect to play poorly, but almost like I don’t care how I play. That’s hard to do because you always want to aim high, but expecting very little usually works out.”
For one perfect day in June, at least, it certainly did.