Later, gators: Sucher leads while big names exit

CROMWELL — On a rainy Friday when Zack Sucher put himself atop the Travelers leaderboard and Jordan Spieth and Phil Mickelson found themselves buried below the cut line, the fun-loving, bearded Alabaman had an admission.

The part in his PGA Tour bio about performing in a Backstreet Boys cover band?

“I don’t know if that’s true,” Sucher said. “That might be more of a dream. I don’t know how it got in there.”

So the stuff about wrestling an alligator is a fib, too?

“I have done that, actually,” Sucher said. “I’m a southern Alabama guy. All of the swamp stuff is good.”

Sucher played in the 2017 Travelers, shot a 74 and 69 in the first two rounds. Remember when the earth shook under the enormous sound after Spieth sank his legendary bunker shot to win that tournament? Sucher was already gone, missed the cut. The hard truth is he wouldn’t return to the PGA Tour until this

May at the Wells Fargo Championship, and the 2019 Travelers stands as only his fourth event since surgery on his left leg dented his golf career.

It was Spieth’s turn to go home early in 2019. It was Mickelson’s and Tony Finau’s turn. The Travelers attracted 16 of the world’s 29 top-ranked players, and 13 of them made the Friday cut. Spieth, who essentially ruined his week with a triple-bogey eight on the par-5 13th on Thursday, would have needed a terrific second round to keep playing through the weekend. He didn’t get it.

Forget the train tracks. Mickelson, who scored back-to-back titles at TPC River Highlands in 2001 and 2002, followed his 3-under first round with a train wreck. Only Anirban Lahiri had a worse score Friday than Mickelson’s 76. At one point he was seven over after eight holes.

“My front nine threw me for a loop,” Mickelson said.

And right out of the tournament.

With conditions ripe for scoring the final two days, half the field still could win this thing. The skies finally have cleared. Sadly, for the monster galleries, Jordan and Lefty won’t be there in the sunshine. The good news for his legion of fans? Mickelson, who hadn’t played Travelers since 2003, plans to return sooner rather than later.

“I think so,” Mickelson said. “I really like the course. Given the way the schedule is, with it being difficult for me to play the weeks before majors, there’s a good chance I’ll start playing the weeks after.”

While it would be a biblical stretch to say the last shall be first and the first last this week at the Travelers, it is not hyperbole to say the No. 505-ranked player in the world is first and looking to have some fun during his first finalgroup pairing of his PGA Tour career. All those flop shots over the couch and dents in his apartment walls practicing with his college roommate? Worth it.

On the 13th hole where Spieth buckled a day earlier, Sucher, who started at 10, chipped in his third shot from 16 yards off the green for an eagle. He followed with 8-foot birdies on 15 and 16 and a 14-foot birdie on 17. His one bogey would come on the fourth hole, but he rebounded to birdie the par-5 sixth.

Second round: 65. First round: 64. The 11-under leaves him with a twostroke lead on Chez Reavie and Keegan Bradley. And if we may be allowed to quote the Backstreet Boys on behalf of Mr. Sucher, “I Want It That Way.”

“I came in feeling pretty good about my golf game,” Sucher said. “I drove it great yesterday. Very easy, stress-free round. Today wasn’t quite as easy off the tee, but I putted really well.”

Before he headed off to golf at UAB and worked his way through the Hooters and Web.com tours, Sucher was an all-state basketball player at St. Paul’s Episcopal in Mobile. If he was a foot taller, he said, he may be hooping for a living. He loves the game. He doesn’t love what basketball did to his legs.

“I pretty much knew I messed everything up in my ankle,” Sucher said, “but it was starting to come up the whole left side. My knee was giving me all kinds of trouble. I had a torn tendon in there and cartilage damage.

“It was from all the stress from repeatedly swinging and not being able to turn on the ankle.”

After he missed the 2017

Travelers cut, Sucher played in a pro-am. There, fellow golfer John Peterson talked about medical extensions granted by the PGA Tour.

“I said, ‘I’ve got all kinds of problems,’ ” Sucher said. “(Peterson) told me I’m an idiot for playing. I had never thought about it.”

Sucher examined how long he could stay out and went ahead with surgery in 2017 to fix two ligaments and a tendon in his ankle. For 13 months, he wasn’t able to hit a golf shot. Sure, it was nice to be home with the family, but he missed the game badly. The first three, four months, everything hurt. The past four, five months have been painfree. He credits his therapist and trainer back home in Birmingham.

“I feel awesome now,” Sucher, 32, said. “I feel 100 percent.”

Spieth’s and Mickelson’s commitments to the Travelers drew plenty of attention. Sucher? Not so much. Actually, not at all. Sucher, who has never finished higher than 35th on the PGA Tour and has six guaranteed events this year, had signed up for both the Travelers and Korn Ferry Tour events this week. He had to sweat out withdrawals and changes in category eligibility.

“It was close,” Sucher said. “I was three out last Friday morning and one out Friday night.”

He was in the final group Thursday and his minus-6 seemed to pop up out of nowhere, like a gator out of the water, at the end of the day. By Friday afternoon, here he was atop the leaderboard while Mickelson and Spieth were packing their bags. Amazing.

Mickelson said he had keyed in on some parts of his game and thought his performances in the U.S. Open and Travelers would have been much better. After Thursday’s round, in fact, he figured he’d be in contention here. His tee shot hit the cart path on his first hole, the 10th, caromed out of bounds and he finished with a double bogey.

“I never righted the ship,” Mickelson said. “I don’t feel nearly as bad as a couple of months ago. My ball-striking game is much closer. It’s a disappointing day for me. A fluke nine holes.”

Spieth refused interviews Thursday and when he did talk Friday he wasn’t interested in talking about flukes. He was in a darker place. Spieth had three majors wins at the age of 23, 14 titles worldwide. Those win totals haven’t moved since the 2017 British Open. The miraculous Travelers bunker shot? Starting to feel like a thousand years ago.

Spieth did reel off a third, eighth and seventh at the PGA, Schwab and Memorial. That momentum crashed with a 65th at the U.S. Open and a missed cut. He is 172nd on tour in greens in regulation, 197th in driving accuracy. Yeah, it’s getting old for him.

“I just didn’t play well,” Spieth said. “No parts of my game really were where I wanted it to be. I’m going to try to get away from the game for a little reset. Take some time off, not sure how much yet (before the British Open).

“I feel like my putting is good and the last two weeks I had a monumental amount of lip-outs. My iron and wedge play are way below my normal standard. The things I’ve been working on are so drastic that it’s just really difficult to try and play through it.”

Maybe Spieth ought to try wrestling alligators. Might improve his driving accuracy. Would definitely give him something else to talk about.