Hearn takes a break from tour
Time at home in order following PGA playoff loss
If he had won the PGA Tour playoff on Sunday, David Hearn would now be in Scotland.
Instead he’s in Brantford, Ont., resting after an emotion-packed finish to the John Deere Classic and preparing to gear up for the RBC Canadian Open.
Losing the five-hole John Deere playoff to Jordan Spieth cost the Hearn a spot in the British Open, but the resulting tie for second place with Zach Johnson gave the 34-year-old Brantford native a boost to 63rd on the tour money list, 46th on the points list for the tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs and 133rd in the world golf rankings.
“It would have been a great opportunity,” Hearn said of the British Open during a teleconference on Tuesday. “But getting a week off isn’t the worst thing in the world for me.”
Hearn has played tournaments in 11 of the past 12 weeks and hadn’t planned to travel to Scotland. He had more than one opportunity to win Sunday’s playoff against Spieth and Johnson at the tournament in Silvis, Ill., but didn’t, most notably when he missed a birdie putt of slightly less than five feet on the fourth extra hole.
He allowed that he had previously thought about the perks that would come with winning on the PGA Tour — primarily, in this case, a British Open spot plus an invitation to the 2014 Masters, but “that wasn’t what I was thinking about when I was over the putts,” he said.
Reaction to Sunday’s result has been overwhelmingly upbeat.
“I have had a lot of great comments,” Hearn said. “Everything seems to be very positive from everyone that I have talked to.”
Besides taking this week off before heading to Glen Abbey Golf Course in Oakville, Ont., for what will be his 11th Canadian Open appearance, Hearn may slightly alter his schedule in the final weeks of the PGA Tour season.
He has a decent shot at qualifying for the PGA Championship in Rochester on Aug. 8-11, which, if it happens, means he would skip the season-ending Wyndham Championship a week later at Greensboro, N.C.
The four-event FedEx Cup playoffs start Aug. 22, with the top 125 players on the points list qualifying for The Barclays at Jersey City, N.J., on Aug. 22-25.
The fields will be reduced week by week, with only the top 30 playing in the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Sept. 19-22.
Winning in Illinois would have boosted Hearn’s standing on the list, but he expressed confidence that his overall play would still give him a shot to get that far.
“I felt like I played well enough (to win Sunday), and it just didn’t go my way at the end,” he said. “I think everyone realizes it’s just not that easy a thing to do, to win on the PGA Tour.”
Hearn is one of just five fulltime members of the PGA Tour this season, one of the others being Brad Fritsch of Manotick.
Fritsch, who is 137th on the money list and 126th in FedEx Cup points, is playing this week in the Sanderson Farms Championship at Madison, Miss., and he is expected to fly to Toronto on either late Sunday or early Monday.