Reasons to smile
Ahead of the Byron Nelson tournament, Ken Duke is confident and Jordan Spieth is flattered,
When you’ve won once in 261 starts on the PGA Tour, you learn to look for moral victories.
Ken Duke found a bunch of them last weekend in The Players Championship.
The 47-year-old Palm City, Fla., resident became the weekend crowd favorite after he shot a 7-under 65 on the Stadium Course in difficult conditions in Saturday’s third round. The 10.6shot differential below the field average was the highest in The Players since 1983.
“I knew I did something special when Adam Scott and (Ian) Poulter and Rory (McIlroy) were giving me a hard time, like ‘What course did you play?’ ” Duke said. “You know what a great round it was.”
NBC analyst Johnny Miller called the 65 the round of the year, and it earned Duke an unlikely spot in Sunday’s penultimate pairing. How unlikely? After returning from a broken left wrist suffered last fall, Duke had just one top-50 finish (among five missed cuts) in nine starts this year.
Oh, yeah, he hadn’t played on the weekend in The Players since 2008.
Duke was 1-under through seven holes Sunday to move within two shots of Jason Day, but he bogeyed two of the next three holes and couldn’t make any key putts on the back nine.
Duke finished in a four-way tie for third place after a 72.
But The Players might have been as special for Duke as his lone PGA Tour victory in the 2013 Travelers Championship, where at 44 he became the second-oldest first-time winner on tour (Ed Dougherty was 47 when he won in 1995).
From the moment he stepped on the first tee, fans at TPC Sawgrass were bellowing “Duuuuuuuke” every chance they had Sunday. He soaked up every minute.
“It was electric,” Duke said. “It was tough to catch (Day). I gave a little run there early but hit a bad shot on 6 and didn’t give myself a chance for a birdie there. But it was a great week for me.”
The $504,000 paycheck was the third largest of his career, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. It moved Duke from 194th to 147th in the FedExCup standings.
Duke didn’t have much confidence when he met with his instructor, Bob Toski, for a putting lesson two weeks ago at Nick Price’s McArthur Club in Hobe Sound, Fla.
Duke and Toski have had an interesting relationship since they started working together in 2006. Duke stopped seeing him in 2009, then they reunited shortly before the Travelers triumph three years ago
McArthur’s greens are lightning fast, and Toski immediately noticed a change in Duke’s putting stroke.
“The rhythm was not forced,” Toski said Tuesday. “I said, ‘Why are you stroking it so well?’
“He said, ‘Because the greens are so fast, I’m trying to let the putter roll the ball.’ He was holding the putter lighter and letting the weight of the putter roll the ball.”
How did Duke shoot Saturday’s 65? By taking only 24 putts.
Duke has never lacked for grit. He was diagnosed with scoliosis in seventh grade and had to wear a back brace for 23 hours a day. Two years later, doctors performed surgery to insert a 16inch metal rod.
He has a plate in his left wrist because of an injury he suffered last fall while helping coach his daughter’s volleyball team. Throw in plantar fasciitis he has been dealing with, and his thirdplace finish becomes more remarkable.
“All the stuff I been through with all my foot and wrist problems, I’ll take it,” Duke said. “It’s really nice.”
Had Duke made one of his birdie putts on the last two holes, he would have earned an additional $420,000 and clinched his Tour card for next year.
“Ken told me he wished he would have finished second,” Toski said. “I told him, ‘So did I.’ He was probably thinking about the money instead of just making the putt.” What does Duke do from here? He does what most journey- men do — he hopped on a plane and headed for Dallas to play in this week’s AT&T Byron Nelson.
For a guy who grew up in Hope, Ark., Duke has precious more of that commodity — and a lot more fans.