Throughout the year, Shaw golf stars Graham DeLaet and Adam Hadwin will check in and present insights from the PGA Tour.
Coming down the stretch at the Crowne Plaza Invitational on Sunday, I was nervous. And it was a good kind of nervous—the kind you get when you’re in the hunt at a golf tournament on the back nine. The kind of nervousness that hits you when you need to make birdies and you can’t afford to make bogeys, which always makes for an interesting round of golf. You want to fire at some pins, but you know if you miss you’ll have a tough up and down.
That’s the kind of week I had, and it ended in my best finish for the year, a tie for fifth, two shots off the winner.
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There’s lots to take away from the week. I did everything pretty well, and though I missed a couple of putts, I also made some long ones to make up for it. My success over the week has changed my mindset and changes my perspective going into the next few tournaments.
I certainly didn’t feel this positive going into the tournament. I’d missed four cuts in a row, and the worst part of it is that I felt good going into each of those tournaments. Coming off the missed cut in Charlotte, where we played the Wells Fargo Championship, I just wanted to have a little more fun on the course. I’ve hit it well, and chipped well—I felt my game was in good shape. I felt close to breaking out, but there was a mental hurdle to get over. I just wanted to have some more fun and treat it like the dream job it is.
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I think I’ve been putting too much pressure on myself and trying too hard to make things happen over the last few weeks. I’ve always expected a lot of myself, but maybe I put too high of expectations on myself. It felt eerily similar to 2013 on the Web.com Tour when I’d feel good going into a tournament and there would be one putt that didn’t go in each week and I’d miss the cut or a drive that would cost me a couple of strokes.
That was similar to the last four weeks; it isn’t that nothing went right—it is just that I couldn’t get any momentum going. That was what happened in Charlotte last week. This week I was able to turn the corner on it. I never hit a bad drive that cost me and I hit the putts to keep the momentum going.
This week was different, right from the first round. And by Sunday, I found myself in the mix, tied for 10th, but within a couple of shots of the lead. I wasn’t alone—a lot of players were near the lead and you knew every shot would matter and it would come down to the end.
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I figured going down the 15th hole at 9-under that I needed two or three birdies to have a shot at winning. Unfortunately, I didn’t hit great iron shots on 16 or 17, though I did make an unbelievable up and down on 16. It might be one of the best I’ve ever made. I hit it in the bunker and it rolled up against the back lip and there was a six-inch lip in the bunker. I couldn’t stand in the bunker and managed to get it to 40 feet and canned the putt. It was the sort of putt that never went in during tournaments the last couple of weeks.
When you’re feeling good it is the kind of putt you make every so often.
The birdie I made on 18 was really important for me. I don’t know if the TV cameras caught it, but I was pretty pumped when it went in. I knew where I stood and knew there were a lot of guys at 9-under and realized what 10-under could mean in terms of FedEx Cup points. Making that putt pretty much guaranteed a Top 10 in the tournament. And to be able to hole that putt when I really needed it really validated my approach for the week.
The way I felt coming out of this tournament is completely different than how I felt only a week ago and it shows the huge difference an attitude can make. That I’ve pulled my way out of this mid-season slump, and didn’t wait until the end of the year, shows that I’ve matured emotionally and that I can stop, figure things out and really move forward.
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