Heffernan just starting to feel comfortable again
Calgarian resorts to swing change
Wes Heffernan knows exactly what Tiger Woods is going through.
By no matter of coincidence, the 35-year-old Canadian Tour player from Calgary decided to change his swing just about the same time as Woods and only now, after more than a year of learning how to play the game all over, is it starting to feel comfortable.
“Some of the old stuff creeps back in but it’s getting to the point where it’s starting to become my swing instead of something that’s foreign to me,” said the Canadian Tour’s No. 2 money winner in 2008. “Pretty soon I think I won’t have to think about it as much on the course.
“I have a feeling it’s going to be one of those things where I’ll just start playing well or I’ll win and just go on a run. It kind of feels like back in 2008 again so I’m excited to start playing.”
Heffernan joined the playfor-pay fraternity a year after winning the 1999 Alberta Amateur and finishing second at the Canadian Amateur. He played the Telus Edmonton Open in 2000 and went full time in 2001.
The six-foot-one slender swinger steadily built his pro resume in Canada, hitting the pinnacle in 2008 when he scooped $96,154 in official money to finish second on the Order of Merit. But his earnings began a downward spiral, sinking to $38,000 in ’09, $24,000 in ’10 and just $13,000 last year.
He did, for the first time in two appearances, make the cut and a nice cheque for a share of 71st place at the U.S. Open last year. And he won a fourth Alberta Open in five tries.
All the while, however, he was never able to win his card at the nationwide or pga tour levels even though most observers felt he had all the tools to get there. Clearly something needed to be fixed so, for the first time in his career, he went to a professional swing coach. He hooked up with notable PGA Tour swing guru Dennis Sheehy at the end of the 2010 campaign.
“I’ve never actually had good mechanics,” said Heffernan, who joined with Mike Weir in 2007 to represent Canada at the World Cup. “I’ve just kind of swung how my body let me and now through training and much better movement in my body with these changes, I’ll be able to swing with good mechanics.
“I think before I just played completely on feel. Now I think when I step up to the next level, the changes will be better under pressure. I’ve done well on the Canadian Tour but I’ve never been great at the next level and that’s what I want to be. I have to get there first but it’s nice to prepare yourself.”
While everything in his game has been changed, the primary focus targeted his short game.
“Last year I saw glimmers of good play but it just wasn’t consistent, which made it even more frustrating,” he said. “I kind of started off badly this year, too, but I’ve been hitting it pretty well lately. I just wasn’t putting well and then the last tournament i finished sixth and probably should have won.
“Now it’s been five weeks off but I have a pretty solid schedule starting next week.”
Heffernan played three gateway Tour and three National Pro Tour events this past winter in the U.S. He made one cut on each tour, the sixth place finish coming in his last NPT start. He’s returning this week to play two more NPT events in Nebraska and Kansas and hitting a U.S. Open qualifier in California before returning for the start of the Canadian Tour.
In the meantime he’s been running around his home course of Silver Springs when he’s not hitting practice balls and putting up some gaudy numbers again. A couple of 63s, a couple of 64s in his last seven trips.
“It’s only Silver Springs, but it’s the kind of golf that gets you a little motivated,” he said. “The good things is I’ve been putting really well.”
With a belly putter, no less.
Add a confident putting stroke to a growing confidence in that new swing and the lightly-sponsored Heffernan has high expectations this year.
“I think these swing changes are finally starting to take effect to where I can just go out and play,” he said. “I want to get back to where I was in 2008, playing well every week, get back to being the best player on that tour again.”