PENDRITH SETS HIS SIGHTS ON BRIGHTER FUTURE
Big-hitting Canadian making his mark against world's best players at U.S. Open
They say the best golfers can block out everything and focus 100 per cent on the next shot. But that's probably less helpful when the next shot is a day away.
Canada's Taylor Pendrith went to bed on Wednesday night with his mind stuck on just one thing.
On the eve of playing in his first major championship, nobody would blame the golfer from Richmond Hill, Ont. if his thoughts were on the potentially life-changing week ahead. Or if his mind was on his girlfriend Meg Beirnes, a nurse in Hamilton, who he hasn't seen in four months. Or if he was thinking about the bad luck that his breakthrough season on the Korn Ferry Tour has come in a year when no players from the developmental tour will be promoted to the PGA Tour.
But what kept the long-bombing 29-year-old up at night on the eve of the U.S. Open was just one swing, the 5- or 6-iron he was going to have to hit on the par-three 10th hole to start his week at Winged Foot.
“Yeah, I was thinking about that tee shot basically all night, which is probably not something you want to do,” Pendrith said on Friday after battling Winged Foot to a 5-over total through 36 holes. “I was definitely a little nervous on the first tee yesterday. I don't really like that hole and it was my first shot of the tournament, so if there were spectators here it probably would have been a little different. But I got through it.”
Pendrith made par on his opening hole of the championship and has done plenty more since. After shooting 71-74 over two days on the difficult course in Mamaroneck, N.Y., he'll be sticking around for the weekend. Late in his first round on Thursday, his weekend plans looked uncertain at best. He was 4-over par through 16 holes on the easiest scoring day Winged Foot has seen in a generation. But a birdie on the par-4 eighth hole gave him some life heading to his final hole of the day, the 566-yard par-5 ninth.
If there's anywhere Pendrith has an advantage over the field, it's with a driver in his hand.
“Everyone knows his length is a big advantage,” fellow Canadian Corey Conners said of Pendrith. “He hits the ball very far and I'm rather jealous of that aspect of his game, but he's really tightened up his wedge game and he's a great putter as well.”
Having grown up competing with one another as members of Golf Canada's national teams, Conners and Pendrith are great friends. In fact, when Pendrith isn't on the road at tournaments, he lives with Conners and his wife Malory at their house in Florida, and was best man at their wedding.
“He's been playing great on the Korn Ferry Tour and his game is amazing,” said Conners, from Listowel, Ont. “We play a lot of golf at home in Florida and we're a member of the same club. His game is awesome.”
In case anyone were to think Conners is biased about his good buddy's game, what happened at the par-5 ninth on Thursday should put those thoughts to rest.
Pendrith hit a 361-yard drive on the 566-yard hole, and then hit a six iron to 20 feet. From there, he rolled in the eagle putt to finish his first round at 1-over par, tied with his roomie for low Canadian on Day 1.
Players arrived Friday to a very different Winged Foot than they left on Thursday evening. The winds were up and greens that were welcoming golf balls in the opening round rejected them in Round 2. Pendrith managed to shoot even par on his front nine with two birdies and two bogeys, but was holding on for dear life on the back nine after beginning with four consecutive bogeys on hole Nos. 10-14. A birdie at the 15th and a closing bogey at 18th got him into the clubhouse at 4-over for the day.
After his round, Pendrith believed his 5-over total wouldn't be good enough to make the cut, but he didn't foresee the level of carnage that was ahead for the afternoon groups. He survived the cut by one shot, as did Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., who is also at 5-under after a 73.
Conners (7-over) and Mackenzie Hughes (8-under) of Dundas, Ont., who both shot 76 on Friday, did not advance to weekend play.
“Just competing with these guys out here, the best players in the world, it's just awesome, and I'm happy that I played fairly decent so far,” said Pendrith.
Pendrith has battled injuries for much of the past few years, the most recent being a shoulder injury that required cortisone shots.
“The COVID break actually really helped me,” Pendrith said after his round on Friday. “I didn't touch a club for nine weeks, and
I was able to rest it. I've been playing some really nice golf ever since the restart. Everything feels good.”
Since the restart, Pendrith has played some of the best golf of his life, finishing T3, 2, T2, T2 during an incredible four-tournament stretch on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Those finishes earned him a place in this U.S. Open field as a top-five player on the Korn Ferry rankings. This week is a nice bonus no doubt, but because of the PGA Tour's 91-day COVID-19 shutdown, the tour decided not to demote any players after the season that just ended, which meant that the top 25 players on the tour's feeder Korn Ferry Tour wouldn't be eligible for promotion.
But Pendrith is pain-free and closer than ever to seeing the bright future that many have expected from him. As interested as he is in seeing that future materialize, his shorter term goal might be just to see his girlfriend.
“I can't go back to Canada because of the quarantine, so it's been quite some time since we've seen each other,” Pendrith said. “But yeah, I think Canada has got it for the most part under control and there are zero cases at her hospital. She feels very safe working there.”
Pendrith has plenty to look forward to, but for now he's taking it one shot at a time, and that next shot will come on Saturday at the U.S. Open.
And it probably will keep him awake at
night.