Confidence coming back to Driscoll after strong D.C. finish  PGATOUR.com Correspondent The relief in James Driscoll's voice was clearly audible, even over the cellular telephone hook-up.  James Driscoll finished second in the 2000 U.S. Amateur. (WireImage)
A caller had mentioned to Driscoll that he had just finished off a thanks-I-needed-that tournament at the Nationwide Tour's Melwood Prince George's County Open where he strung together four heaven-sent rounds that were a reminder that he actually can play a little professional golf. His response was as telling as the sound of his voice. "I've needed that for about a year now,'' said Driscoll, who pushed champion Paul Claxton to the limit in Sunday's final round. "It has been a while since I've played four solid rounds. It's nice to walk off the golf course with some confidence and good spirit.'' Second place, the supposed spot where no one remembers your name, never felt so good to Driscoll, 29, who will gladly accept the anonymity as long as it comes with the good-vibe momentum and a nice runner-up check the one-stroke defeat provided. That's certainly palatable when you've been lost in golf's woods for more than a year as Driscoll, the 2000 United States Amateur runner-up to Jeff Quinney, has. When you were buried in 130th position on the 2007 Nationwide Tour money list as Driscoll was when he teed it up last Thursday. When you've gone sideways, fighting a swing change after confidence and short game had badly eroded to dangerously low levels. "I just didn't feel like myself on the golf course,'' said Driscoll, 29. Put the VCR in reverse, taking it back to just prior to the midway point of the 2005 PGA TOUR season to understand where Driscoll, a Brookline, Mass., native, is coming from. Driscoll, a rookie coming off a successful Nationwide Tour season, was a four-foot birdie putt away from breaking through in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. But he missed and Tim Petrovic drained a 20-foot birdie putt to force overtime. A sloppy bogey on the first playoff hole, the par-5 18th at TPC Louisiana, dashed Driscoll's hopes. The consolation prize was a check for $594,000. It pushed his earnings to $726,672, more than enough to maintain his playing privileges in 2006. But Driscoll failed to capitalize, making just six cuts in his final 15 events and never finishing better than a tie for 21st. "I'm not sure what happened,'' he said. But he did theorize that he might have become complacent after banking that fat check. "I think I played decent, but I never really got anything out of it,'' he said. The nightmare that was 2006 followed, when inconsistent play drove Driscoll to distraction and a search for a better swing. He described his start as a "wild roller coaster.'' He started with 67 at The Sony Open in Hawaii, but muddied the water with a final-round 79. The real nadir came in Phoenix after a moving-day 66 pushed him inside the top 10 with 18 holes to play. A final-round 75 was the advent of a troubling free fall. "That was the most frustrated I've ever been walking off a golf course,'' recalled Driscoll, who was aware he wasn't hitting enough greens in regulation to be competitive on golf's highest level. "Golf's a tough game and you bang your head against the wall sometimes. But that was different. I decided I had to make some changes.'' End result? Driscoll overdid it in his search for the right moves. He wanted to tighten up a long and loose swing, but in its tightening it became a little too short and a little too fast, robbing him of his tempo and timing. "I kept fiddling and I got lost,'' he said. Next thing Driscoll knew, he was in the ICU. Always proficient with the putter and the short game, those became disaster areas, too. And that says nothing about how low his confidence dipped. He worked hard, attempting to climb out of the black hole. But the downward spiral continued through the season, one in which he made 11 of 29 cuts and did not finish higher than a tie for 27th. His total take for the season was $219,000, more than 50 percent less than he made in New Orleans in '05. He also bombed out in the finals of the PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament, finishing 81st, hence his station in professional life on the Nationwide Tour. Thing is, Driscoll has never stopped working and he is slowly but surely gaining a better understanding of his swing, believing the parameters between a good one and a bad one are growing smaller. "It makes so much more sense now,'' he said. The new swing is holding up now, leading to solid ball striking. The final piece of the puzzle remained Driscoll's putter. But things took a turn for the better last Monday when Driscoll picked up a Rife putter on the practice green. "My alignment had gotten out of whack,'' said Driscoll, who fell into the habit of having his putter face open at address. "I knew I needed a change and something with a line on it that could get me set up correctly. I didn't have a prayer the way I was putting.'' Suddenly Driscoll began seeing the rejuvenating sight of the ball tumbling into the hole. He didn't capitalize on all his chances, but he putted well enough to shoot 17-under for four days, a total he had not sniffed in a long, long time. And now he heads into the rich LaSalle Bank Open with a lot more confidence, a serviceable putter and more than $60,000 in official Nationwide Tour earnings in his account as he stands 27th on the money ladder, just two rungs away from the top 25 and that invitation to re-join the PGA TOUR. "Success breeds confidence,'' he said, talking like a man who to be reckoned with over the last half of the '07 season. |
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