GOLF’S BEST RIDE THE ROLLER-COASTER
Fans treated to highs and lows of PGA play during wild Travelers Championship
TORONTO Find me a more fickle game on earth than golf.
Every golfer, no matter their skill level, has seen their game disappear overnight.
You know the drill. You’re playing great, you’re feeling great, and then POOF! It’s gone. That’s when we hackers say something like: “That’s why I don’t do this for a living.”
But imagine you did do it for a living. Imagine going to work every day having no clue if you will succeed. You’re an accountant, it’s tax season, you sit down at your desk feeling great about your brain, you pull out your trusty calculator and then POOF! You forget how to do whatever it is accountants do.
Welcome to the world of professional golf.
Last week at the Travelers Championship, we saw it all.
Brendon Todd was leading after 54 holes and going for his third (third!) win of the PGA Tour season. Two years ago he was ranked 2,006th in the world and had made the cut just four times in three years. His ride back to the top of the game has been well documented, but a little tiny version of his story happens every week, every round on the PGA Tour.
Eddie Pepperell once described tournament golf as a competition to see who has the fewest “gremlins” on their back, and that it’s all about shaking them off before they grow.
After Canadian Mackenzie Hughes shot a 10-under-par 60 in his an opening round on Thursday, I reminded him (as nicely as possible) that four days earlier at the RBC Heritage, he shot a closing 78. I asked him if that’s what makes golf so great, or so stupid. “Both,” he replied.
That’s what makes golf the most relatable pro sport. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing relatable physically or skilfully between them and us, but what we have in common is the insanity of golf. And that can be felt at any level. It’s the only pro sport where virtually every single fan in attendance also plays the sport, which brings with it a shared level of anguish and amazement that other sports don’t have.
Except, lucky for us, we don’t do it for living.
“Yeah, it’s pretty frustrating,” Hughes said. “I actually felt pretty good on Sunday at Harbour Town and was playing well over there, as well, and yeah, just for whatever reason, it’s one of those days where you’re kind of shovelling s--t uphill and nothing is going right. But yeah, I don’t really know what to put a finger on. It’s just one of those things that golf does sometimes.”
But what was the difference between Sunday’s 78 and Thursday’s 60?
That’s the golden ticket. That’s where the secret to golf hides.
“No difference really,” Hughes said. “Just 18 shots.”
BRYSON IS ALL-IN
One man who is as determined as anyone to find the secret of golf is Bryson Dechambeau.
He also needs to be near the top of the list for players who the game could eventually swallow up whole as he heads down golf’s endless rabbit holes. But that won’t happen today, because Dechambeau seems to be onto something with his transformation from mad scientist to the great golf ball whacker.
With top 10 finishes in all three events in the PGA Tour restart, Dechambeau has moved to No. 10 in the world rankings. His amazing distance off the tee should only become more of an advantage as the year goes on and the players get away from tight, shotmaker’s courses like they have seen two of the past three weeks. The scientist in Bryson is still there as he hopes his distance gains will take some of the troubling variables out of the game and increase his odds of winning.
“But what I have to do is imagine that I’m like the casino and just keep playing,” he said.
But don’t for a second think he’s looking to be a sucker.
“I’m trying to be the house,” he said. “I’m definitely trying to be the house.”