D.J.'s Blog: Closing the journey with Gore
By D.J. Gregory, Special to PGATOUR.COM
Hello. My name is D.J. Gregory and I would like to welcome you to my journey. I am 30 years old and was born with cerebral palsy. Due to my disability, I walk with the aid of a cane. During the 2008 PGA TOUR season, I will be traveling for 45 weeks and attending 44 events on the schedule. Each week, I will choose one professional to follow and I will chronicle my experiences while walking the course with him during each round of competition. Along the way, I will also have the opportunity to speak with fans and volunteers.
This journey has been a lifelong dream of mine and this opportunity would not be possible without the generous support of the PGA TOUR, ACCUSPLIT, Southwest Airlines, Ashworth, FootJoy and tournament staff at each venue. I am excited to share my experiences with you and I hope you will check PGATOUR.com often and share in my year-long adventure.
| ESPN's E:60 feature on D.J. Gregory | |
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PGA TOUR CHARITIES: Donate to United Cerebral Palsy | Send D.J. an email | D.J.'s JOURNEY: The longest walk in golf
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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Welcome to the Children's Miracle Network Classic presented by Wal-Mart, the finale of the 2008 PGA TOUR season and the last event of my 44-tournament journey. The week began on Tuesday when I had the opportunity to go to the Magic Kingdom and ride a few rollercoasters, which was a lot of fun.
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During the tournament, I walked with Jason Gore, who became a father for the second time about five weeks ago when he and his wife Megan welcomed Olivia into the world. He said everything about the game of golf is a challenge, particularly the travel and being away from his growing family. He said the player-caddie relationship is like an on-course marriage. "You're the president of on-course operations," Jason said. "He's the vice president. I think it's very, very important to having a good relationship and getting on the same page."
Jason played the Nationwide Tour before he made it to the PGA TOUR, and he considers it time well spent. "I think the most important thing about playing golf professionally is learning how to be a professional golfer," Jason said. "The Nationwide Tour provides younger guys an opportunity to wake up in a different bed every week or eat at unfamiliar places or get used to unfamiliar grasses and different greens. Everything's different. It's not like you're stepping up to your home club and you know where the driving range is; you know where this putt breaks."
Jason earned an instant promotion to the PGA TOUR in 2005 after winning three times on the Nationwide Tour. Earlier that year, Jason had a memorable experience at the U.S. Open, where he played in the final group on Sunday.
"It was a rapid lesson in humility," said Jason, who finished 49th. "It was a great week -- it was an unbelievable week -- but I think it was the first week that I finally realized that I can play out here with these guys. It was a very rapid learning experience dealing with media, golf (and) after that week (I knew that) no matter what I faced, I was never going to face something as crazy as that on the golf course."
To cap off that memorable summer stretch, Jason won the 84 Lumber Classic.
With q-school on the horizon for many TOUR pros, I wanted Jason to talk about why it's so stressful. "It's once a year," he said, "and it means you're whole year. Q-school is brutal because it just matters technically so much, but really it's not. It's six rounds of golf; it's all the same. You go out and play golf and you count them up at the end."
Jason's biggest fear in life is failure. "You never want to look in the mirror and say I failed at doing something," he explained. "But then again, you don't want to look in the mirror and say I never gave it a shot. So, it's kind of a double-edged sword."
Charity is close to Jason's heart. He's hosting a tournament this year to raise money for a horse therapy ranch for autistic children. "I think it's very important," he said. "Guys out here don't realize how easy it is for us to touch someone's life or just change it for a moment. Just giving a little can mean so much to somebody."
Jason says the best part about playing professional golf is picking up the trophy. "When you accomplish that, just having that three or four minutes of being able to walk up and pick up the trophy and hold it over your head is the best part," he said.
If Jason weren't a pro golfer, his dream would be to be a rock star. "Really, I don't know," he said, laughing. "I have no idea, I'm pretty much unemployable. I have a degree from Pepperdine, but I'll find something to screw up along the line." Jason loves being a dad, though, and he enjoyed the parent-child tournament earlier in the week at Disney. "I played about two holes and he ran after wild turkeys," he said, laughing. Jason also enjoys playing the drums, guitar, and hanging out with buddies at home.
Since this was the final event of my 2008 journey, I asked Jason how it felt to be the final player chosen. "It's a dubious honor for you," he said. "Were you just looking for somebody? Thank you. I've been reading all of your stuff. I think it's awesome what you're doing. You're a great writer and I think it's fantastic."
The Children's Miracle Network Classic is contested over the Magnolia and Palm courses. The Magnolia course is the longer of the two courses by over 500 yards, but both courses were fairly easy to walk with flat terrain.
As I close the week at Walt Disney World, I would like to thank Jason for his kindness. I had many friends and family join me for the final event to witness the completion of a personal challenge and life-long dream. Special thanks to all of you for taking the time to join me in Florida and help make the final week a memorable experience. One final note -- please watch E:60 on ESPN on Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. ET to see a feature on my journey.
As I close my year on the PGA TOUR, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to the players and entire PGA TOUR staff for all of the support and encouragement. Thank you for making 2008 a memorable year!
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PALM COAST, Fla. -- Welcome to the 43rd event of the 2008 PGA TOUR season, the Ginn sur Mer Classic played on the Conservatory Course at Hammock Beach Resort.
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My week actually began on Tuesday at TPC Sawgrass where I spent the day with a crew that is producing a feature on me that will air on ESPN's E:60 on Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. ET. I played the 17th hole and, yes, the first shot was hit in the water just after 7:45 a.m. I proceeded to hit 11 more balls in the water, and then on shot No. 13, I hit to 15 feet from the hole and missed the putt by 6 inches.
Then I headed south to the Conservatory Course where I followed Troy Matteson at the penultimate event on TOUR this year. He started hitting balls in the backyard at the age of 7 when his dad bought an old set of Jack Nicklaus junior clubs.
Troy had a very successful career at Georgia Tech, winning the 2002 NCCA individual title earning All-America honors three times. Among his teammates were Matt Kuchar and Bryce Molder, so it was tough to crack the starting line-up.
"When I first got to Tech, I was a pretty decent high school player, and I had probably seven teammates who were really, really good," he said. "It just took me a half a year to make the team, so it was pretty exciting."
Troy said his greatest memory of 2008 was finishing second at the PODS Championship. "I had a chance to really screw it up coming down the stretch," he recalled. "On No. 16, I hit it in the woods, pitched out in the fairway, almost hit it in the water, missed the green and chipped in for par -- which really saved my bacon that week. That's probably one of my highlights of the year, just saving a good par, which made a big difference in money at the end of the week."
Troy said his biggest fear is failure. "I don't think you ever really overcome it," he said. "I think you get better at dealing with it, but out here in golf, a lot of times your job is guaranteed for a year or two at a time, and I think that creeps into everyone's mind."
Troy also spent some time on the Nationwide Tour. "The first year I struggled," he said. "I got my teeth kicked in a bunch. Sometimes, the competition is just as good out there as it is out here." The Nationwide Tour helped Troy get used to being on his own and traveling, too. "The events obviously aren't as big, (and) there aren't as many people, so you get eased into that environment a little bit," he explained. "For me it was excellent. I had a year where I struggled, and I had a year where I did really, really well.
"The 2005 year (when he won twice) will always stick with me as being a great year." Troy also experienced q-school, which he likened to a job interview. "If you play good, you really control your destiny," he said. "If you're not playing well, the best way to describe it is: It's just bleeding raw emotion for about two months. It's like going through a really stressful time in your life except you know this is more brought on by your own actions. You've decided to sign up, you've decided to do this and it's just a necessary evil in our business."
When I asked Troy who his hero was, he said the number of choices made it a tough question. "When I was a kid, there were a lot of guys out here," he explained. "Norman was a big guy that we all looked up to in golf. That was kind of who was world No. 1. Faldo was No. 1 for a little bit, but I think everybody wanted to be Greg Norman. Now I think all kids want to be Tiger."
One of the things Troy enjoys most are his pro-am days and the opportunity to meet new people. "You don't know who you're going to run into," he said. "You might play with a guy who's CEO of XYZ company. You might play with a guy who's just a local sponsor. You'd be surprised who you end up liking and just the people you meet."
Off of the course, Troy enjoys hunting, fishing and other outdoor activities. In fact, if he weren't a professional golfer, Troy would probably fish for a living. "That's probably what I would want to do, although I don't know if I'd be that good at it," he said. "Those guys are pretty good."
The Conservatory Course was a long walk but not too difficult. The players took shuttles from the 11th green to the 12th tee and again from the 18th green to the first tee. One interesting thing about this course is that on many occasions, you walk in waste areas, especially on the fourth hole where spectators were required to walk down the left side of the hole.
I would like to thank Troy Matteson and his wife Shauna for spending time with me last week. I would also like to send a special thank you to my friend Alyssa for hanging out in Florida, another great week on the PGA TOUR.
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SCOTTSDALE -- Welcome to the Fry's.com Open where I spent time with PGA TOUR veteran Olin Browne.
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Olin was one of Paul Azinger's assistant captains at the Ryder Cup last month. "I'm getting chills talking about it," he said. "The way Paul set up the team and brought everybody together and the job that the guys did playing, it was just the stars lined up and everybody played to the maximum of their ability." Olin said stars like Boo Weekley were born that week in Louisville, but the team atmosphere was particularly special. "We're all out here on our own, but to a part of a group like that where guys come together under that kind of intense scrutiny and pressure and rise to the occasion under that kind of stress was a benchmark experience for me, and I'll never forget it."
Olin first became interested in golf when he worked at a golf course on Cape Cod the summer after his freshman year in college. "I had a couple of lessons when I was a little guy, but really the first time I really started playing was that summer and I played every day," he said. Olin told me his biggest challenge is keeping his concentration. "I'll step over a shot and my brain will start pinging to something else, whatever it is I got to try and back off and start over again," he said. "I guess the more pressure you get under, the more you narrow your focus, the more focused you get or the less focused you get. That's always been kind of my struggle." So Olin relies on his caddy quite a bit. "If something isn't right, he can back you off," he explained. "If something is right, he can reinforce ... to the point where you get up there and make the best shot that you can ... so I think it's absolutely critical."
Olin loves to hang out with the "fam." Now that his children are older -- his son is in college now and his daughter is a senior in high school -- they don't travel with him as much as they did. His wife's job as an attorney keeps her busy, too. "The hardest thing about our jobs is we play 30 weeks a year, which means we have 22 weeks vacation, which is a pretty good job," he said. "People would kill for it, but it's 30 weeks intensive. So, I miss a lot of things. You have to have an understanding family and you have to make up for it when you're together." There was a time when Olin wasn't sure he was ready to be a husband and a parent, though. "I think that's something where you've got to have your priorities lined up and you got to have your wits about you," he said. "Parenting in this day and age is so complicated. Kids are presented with so many options and so many distractions and it's really hard in this day and age to get them to stay on a good path. There are so many temptations in life, and I think that if you think you have all of the answers to all of the questions, then you're a pretty arrogant person. So I think we do a lot of learning on the fly."
But as much as he misses his family, Olin enjoys the vagabond life of a professional golfer. "I'm not good at sitting still so if I had to go to the same office every day for 50 weeks a year, I'd probably pull my hair out," he said. "It's a great way to make a living. I'm outdoors all day long and I'm competing in something I love to do. I've got a great group of friends out here."
Olin grew up in Washington, D.C., and one of his idols was Washington Redskins quarterback Sonny Jurgensen. "I wore his number 9 whenever I played any sport," he said. "I just loved the way the guy played." Olin also said he was a huge fan of the Olympics when he was a kid and he loved the ski racers like Jan Ingemar Stenmark and Frans Klammer. "I had an uncle that was on the U.S. ski team, so I skied when I was a kid and I heard a lot of his stories," he said. "I was a huge winter sport fan."
One of my favorite questions to ask players is how they choose where to eat when they're in the road. Olin usually finds one place and sticks to it for the week -- like Corona's, the place in Florence, S.C., he used to frequent when he played the Nationwide Tour. "It had the best margarita you've ever had in your life and homemade tortillas and homemade quesadillas," Olin remembered. "My brother was caddying for me at the time, we'd go there four nights, five nights. What happens is you find two or three good restaurants and you tend to go back to them year after year." In Scottsdale, he returns to the same Italian and Chinese restaurants.
The Raptor course at Grayhawk is relatively flat. There are a few places on the course where you can watch multiple holes from one position. We had some warm temperatures last week, but low humidity and a breeze, so it was another chamber-of-commerce-weather week and another opportunity for me to work on my tan.
As I end the week in Arizona, I would like to thank Olin for the time he spent with me. See you next week in Florida at the Ginn Sur Mer Classic.
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LAS VEGAS -- Welcome to the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. This year all four rounds were contested at TPC Summerlin, where low scores were the order of the week. In fact, the 36-hole cut was 6 under which tied a PGA TOUR record for the lowest 36-hole cut in history.
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Last week I spent time with defending champion George McNeill who was introduced to the game of golf by his grandfather. "My earliest memories are going to the driving range (and) just hitting balls with (him)," he said. George's victory in Vegas last year meant he qualified for the winners-only Mercedes-Benz Championship which George said was one of the best memories of 2008. "That was a great way to start the year and they do a hell of a job," he said.
George had a minor scare toward the end of the summer when a cyst was removed from his throat. George said he's pretty much 100 percent now, but it was scary at first because doctors said it might be cancerous. "I'm sitting there going, well, I'm 32 years old, how does that happen?" he said. "Obviously, it does. It happens to a lot of people -- and a lot of people who are a lot younger then I am. It definitely opened my eyes and made me aware that there are people who suffer. I got through it easy. I was out of commission and couldn't play golf for about three weeks and that was real simple, but there's a lot of people who suffer and have to deal with a lot more then I do."
George played his college golf at Florida State, where he earned All-Atlantic Coast Conference and All-American honors. The competition in the ACC was fierce. "I look at the list of players who were at the other schools and I look at all of the All-Americans and most of them are out here on TOUR now," George said. "So I'm playing against them then and I'm playing against them now."
I asked George what it was like to come back and defend his first TOUR title. "Playing a practice round earlier this week, I remembered almost every shot like it was yesterday in the final round," he said. "I hit it here, I hit it here, I wish wouldn't have hit it there, but I did and stuff like that, it's been great. The people, the welcome back was generally good."
George says his biggest fear is not being successful at what he does. "I don't know if I necessarily overcame it yet, but I'm doing OK," he said. George said Bo Jackson -- "he was good at everything he did in all sports" -- and Cal Ripken Jr. are two of his idols. If he old had one round of golf left to play, George would include Cal in foursome and they would play at Turnberry in Scotland.
George had a long road before arriving on the PGA TOUR. He played the mini-tours and the Nationwide Tour before earning medalist honors at q-school in 2006. "(The) Nationwide (Tour) was great -- other then I played awful and didn't keep my card," he said. "The mini-tours (were) just a stepping stone to get where I am now. I never necessarily enjoyed it. I knew it was just part of it. I know there's a pecking order and you got to put in your time ... and the rewards will come." George says q-school is difficult because if you're not successful, Monday qualifying is your only option. "It's a once-a-year thing," he said. "If you play one bad round you could be done for the whole year. You don't have another chance until the following year."
George says the best thing about his job is that he's playing a game he loves but adds that the travel can wear you out. "It's not all the glamorous life," he said. "For some players, it's a little more glamorous. For guys who are kind of the bottom half of the field, we've got to fight the traffic, fight the commercial airlines, fight the hotels and everything else every week." When he's not playing golf, George enjoys outdoor activities like boating, fishing and hunting. If he wasn't a professional golfer he'd make his living doing something outdoors.
TPC Summerlin is a very fair walk with a few cutovers where holes go back and forth. The second hole, for example, goes down one side and then you walk directly to your right and back to find the third hole. Overall, this course was a nice break after walking the La Cantara course at the Valero Texas Open.
In addition to hosting the tournament last week, Justin Timberlake also performed a a concert with some of his friends on Friday. I would like thank my friends at Golf Digest for giving me the chance to attend the concert, which was a great show! I also would like to thank George and his wife Ryan for their kindness last week. I really had a memorable week on and off the course in Las Vegas.
See you next week from Scottsdale, Ariz., and the Frys.com Open!
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SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Welcome to our final stop in the Lone Star State during the 2008 PGA TOUR season where I spent time with PGA TOUR rookie and 2008 RBC Canadian Open champion Chez Reavie at the Valero Texas Open.
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Not surprisingly, Chez told me his greatest memory from 2008 was "knocking in that birdie putt on 18 in Canada to win." Chez said winning was awesome. "It's amazing how fast it all kind of happened. Just kind of play, keep making birdies and the next thing I know, I win a golf tournament. It was great."
Chez played his college golf at Arizona State University along with fellow TOUR player Jeff Quinney. "It really helped me build a lot as a player," he said. "I'd always dreamed about playing professional golf. Jeff Quinney won the U.S. Amateur when I was a freshman, so I got to see what kind of game it took to win one of the greatest tournaments out there. He definitely pushed me and helped me become a better golfer without him realizing what he was doing."
Chez said the greatest challenge he faces in the game of golf is playing against the best in the world each week. "Mentally, probably the toughest thing is just getting up everyday and just the grind of trying to play your best golf and you don't get away with much out here."
Since winning earlier this year Chez has qualified to play in some limited field events including the Masters and British Open, where he will make his debut across the pond. He's really looking forward to the opportunity. "When I played the Masters as an amateur, it was the ultimate motivation for me to get my game right and become a successful professional golfer," he said. "I would've never dreamed that it was going to happen this quick, but I'm looking forward to it. I can't wait to get back there and be back at that place, it's great."
Prior to joining the PGA TOUR this year, Chez spent time playing on the Nationwide Tour. "I had a blast," he said. "I was playing with a lot of friends I grew up with, played college golf with and we just got to go out there and hang out. ... We went to dinner all of the time and it was a lot of fun, I wouldn't trade it for anything." I asked Chez what was the biggest difference between the PGA TOUR and Nationwide Tour, and he laughed. "The money," he said. "The Nationwide Tour it was crucial for me because coming out of college I wasn't ready to play on the PGA TOUR. Some guys are, some guys aren't. I wasn't one of them, so I learned how to play as a professional. I learned how to play week-to-week-to-week, different places. I got comfortable with the environment. Then coming up here, there's a lot more people, the travel is a little bit easier, but you've got to deal with a lot more when you're actually playing in golf tournaments. My number one goal this year was to keep my card. Obviously I wanted to win; I was working as hard as I could to win, but number one priority was just to stay out here and just try and adapt to the different courses and luckily I've been able to do that."
I asked Chez what's the best part of playing professional golf as a career and the most difficult aspect of being a professional athlete. "The best part about it is that I'm still doing what I love," he said. "I grew up playing golf, I'm still playing the game -- only now I'm able to make a living doing it. ... The most challenging part is just challenging yourself to make it to another level to play against the best in the world. A lot of times you're uncomfortable doing it at first, you've got to just keep pushing yourself and realize that sometimes you're going to fail and sometimes you're not going to play your best, but you'll be more equipped to play well next time."
Last week the Valero Texas Open was played at the Resort Course at La Cantera which many warned me could be the toughest walk on the PGA TOUR. It is a very solid challenge with quite a few uphill and downhill situations. The players take a few shuttles on the course, one between the fourth green and fifth tee, another between the 18th green and first tee (if you start on the back) and finally back to the clubhouse from scoring. I think La Cantera is a great challenge to walk, but I will say that still the toughest course on TOUR to walk is the Plantation Course at Kapalua, home of the Mercedes-Benz Championship.
I would like to say a special thank you to Chez for spending time with me last week. Thanks to my friends Nelson, Kerri, and Alyssa for hanging out in San Antonio, too. I want to tell the kids in Mrs. Fuji's fifth grade class at Meadows Elementary School in Houston how much I enjoyed speaking to them.
See you next week in Las Vegas at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.
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VERONA, N.Y. -- After THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola I made a quick trip home to Savannah for only the fourth time all year. Then I went to New York for the Turning Stone Resort Championship, and it sure did feel like the Fall Series, or maybe even early winter. Temperatures were in the mid-40s to mid-50s all week with a steady wind and even some rain the first two days.
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I spent time with Woody Austin, who as a young child growing up in Tampa, Fla., was very good at many different sports -- including basketball, baseball, tennis and bowling. In fact, Woody didn't begin playing golf until the eighth grade. When he got to high school, though, Woody's mother wanted him to focus on one sport. "I was so small -- I was only 5-foot-3 and 90 pounds soaking wet -- so everybody was growing, everybody was just getting much better and bigger," he remembered. "Golf was fresh. I had only been playing for a couple years so I picked it up and I actually started playing pretty good when I really started putting full time into it." Still, when I asked Woody the greatest challenge he faces in the game of golf, he had a one-word response: "Me."
One of my favorite questions to ask the players is the importance of the player-caddie relationship. Woody doesn't see a separation between the two. "I think we're a team," he explained. "The relationship is important because I want it to be a buddy, I want it to be a friend. I want to go to battle with a friend, I don't want to go to battle with somebody that I can blame for my problems. I think that's a cop-out, a giant cop-out." Woody said that his idol is Jack Nicklaus. "Absolutely did it all, and not only golf part, but he did it all, he did it in an era where there was no private planes, there was no easy travel, and he did it with a family from the get go," Woody said. "So, he accomplished everything, he accomplished it all in an era of tough times and he did it the right way and you never heard problems from the man, you never heard about anything bad."
Woody was 31 when he got to the PGA TOUR after stints on the mini-tours and later, after a spending time in the business world, on the Nationwide Tour. "When I got out of school it was a lot of harder then it is now," he explained. "We didn't have the Nationwide Tour when I got out of college. So all you had were the mini-tours and they were expensive and they didn't pay. ... You would have to pay $300-$500 in entry fees for a two-day tournament and if you won, you'd win $1,000- $1,200, so you couldn't make any money. The hard part was trying to work, make the money to play the mini-tours and then be successful enough to keep going."
In 2007 Woody had the opportunity to represent the United States in The Presidents Cup. "(It was an) absolute blast," he said. "I think I showed I was having a lot of fun. I think that format suits my personality. I miss that confrontation, so to speak. I miss the one-on-one match-ups. In the match-play format, I like to think that if I'm playing with you at the exact same time and I'm looking over at you, I don't think I'm going to let you beat me. I don't care who you are."
I asked Woody how he thought he would do playing golf with equipment from 20 years ago. "I wish we could play at least half of the tournaments with old equipment," Woody said. "Then, these young guys would see how easy they've got it. If you took today and put in a rule where we'd have to play with 20-year-old equipment, I'd be top five in the world."
Off of the golf course Woody likes to play sports and loves to spend time with his family. "Right now I play soccer with my boys," he said. "It's got to be active. I'm not a gym guy. Put me on a basketball court running up and down; put me on a baseball field or soccer field. It's got to stimulate me otherwise I can't work out." I asked Woody what's the first thing he thinks of when someone mentions family. "Sacrifice all of the way down. My mom sacrificed for me. I feel like every good family relationship, everything is all about sacrifice."
Yardage-wise Atunyote Golf Club is a very long walk -- one of the longest courses the PGA TOUR has played in 2008 at 7,482 yards. However, I believe the walk is fairly easy because the course is extremely flat.
I want to thank Woody for his kindness last week. I would also like to thank my dad for joining me in upstate New York. See you next week in warmer San Antonio for the Valero Texas Open.
ATLANTA -- Welcome to the finale of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, THE TOUR Championship. However, last week was a busy one even before I arrived in Georgia. Normally I travel to the TOUR venue on Tuesday but last week was a little different. On Wednesday I flew from Orlando, Fla., to New York where I spoke to the GolfWorld National Sales Meeting. Immediately following my talk, I flew to Washington, D.C., where I attended the United Cerebral Palsy's annual gala that night. I was honored to be the first recipient of UCP's Expanding Horizons Award. I want to take a moment and thank the TOUR staff and players and Jim Nantz at CBS Sports for all of the kind words that were said in the video tribute that was shown at the gala, I truly appreciate it.
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I arrived in Atlanta on Thursday morning and spent the week with TOUR veteran Dudley Hart. Dudley's father was a club pro in the Rochester, N.Y., and Buffalo, N.Y., area. "So I kind of grew up on a golf course -- at least in the summer time," he said. "I would go to the golf course with my dad pretty much every morning at 6 o'clock and play golf, play tennis and swim. It was kind of like unsupervised day care." Dudley's earliest memory of the game is going to the 10th tee at Brookly, a golf course Rochester, trying to hit balls about 30 yards in the air and over a creek. "I used to take my dad's practice balls out there and hit them and he used to be pretty upset at me," said Dudley, who was 4 at the time.
Dudley began the 2008 season playing on a major medical exemption due to a family crisis last year. For the last half of 2007, Dudley put away his golf clubs to care for his wife, who was had been diagnosed with a nonsmoking tumor in her lung, and their triplets. I asked Dudley the first thing he thinks of when someone says the word: family. "The first thing to come to my mind is my three kids," he told me. "They're almost seven now and life hasn't been the same since they were born and it's all been for the better." Given his extended layoff in 2007, I asked Dudley what type of goals and expectations he had coming into this year. "You're a little more nervous than you probably would be starting the year because you haven't competed for seven-eight months by the time that January rolls around," he said. "I was fresh and I was probably more excited to be there." He played the Monday pro-am at the Sony Open in Hawaii, and he doubted anyone was as happy as he was to be there. "I was out of the house and I was back out with the guys and so that was exciting," he said.
The 2008 season has been a great year for Dudley, who made the 30-man field for THE TOUR Championship for the first time in his career. He doesn't have to think too far back to remember his best experience of the year. "I made a long putt on the last hole at (the) BMW (Championship) and at the time I thought I needed that to get into this event, so it was kind of looking at it as a pretty important putt," Dudley said. "t turned out I didn't necessarily need it, but at the time I did so to make that putt when I felt like I needed (it) to get here was pretty gratifying."
Off the course Dudley loves to spend tine with his family and admits he is a sports junkie. He has season tickets to both the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres. "My kids are getting older now," Dudley said. "My son's into hockey -- he's addicted to it -- so taking him to practices and games is a blast when I'm home. That's kind of my relaxing time." Dudley said his hero is his dad. "He's taught me everything I know not only about golf, but about life and he was an incredible influence on me," Dudley said. "He gave me so much and sacrificed so much for me when I was young so I could play golf. I owe him everything I have now." Dudley and his father are co-owners, along with TOUR veteran Jeff Sluman, of a course in Rochester, N.Y., called Lake Shore Golf Club. "I think being in golf, playing for a living and basically growing up in the game, it's nice to have something that's basically yours," Dudley said. "It's one of those golf courses where people that are playing there, their fathers and mothers have played there, their grandparents have played there. It's a community type golf course and it's fun to be involved with that."
Charity is also very important to Dudley, "Being in sports we are so pampered and so spoiled and we're in a position to be able to help so many other people that just donating some of your time can really raise a lot of money and it doesn't take a lot of work," Dudley said. "I do a lot of things at home with charity outings and I love to do as much as I can."
Dudley said the best part of playing golf professionally is being your own boss and living a dream. "We all kind of grew up dreaming about this (but) you never really know if it's going to come true or not until you get out here and you stay out here and have some success," he said. The hardest thing is the travel. "A lot of people think traveling it's so great," Dudley said. "You get to go see a new city and new places (but) pretty much when we're in a city, we see the golf course, a restaurant, and a hotel and that's about it, so it's not as glamorous as people think and being away from home is tough."
East Lake is an extremely fair walk. The first four holes are relatively easy and close together while the fifth hole has a decent hill. The ninth hole is a pretty good walk being a 600-yard par 5. On the back nine, there are a lot of back and forth holes so you are real close to the next fairway. Overall, it was a fair walk that did not make me overly tired. A crew from ESPN followed me around the course during the first two rounds as part of a feature they are working on about my journey that will air on the show E:60 on Tuesday Nov. 11.
I would like thank Dudley, his caddy David Nelson and his childhood friend, Rich Kreiger, for their kindness last week. Special thanks to my dad and my cousin Randy and his wife Jenn for joining me last week, too. Last week was the final event in the FedExCup and I would like to send a special thank you to the entire staff at FedEx for their support throughout the entire season. Last week was a truly memorable week on and off of the golf course.
See you next week from the Turning Stone Resort Championship.
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MADISON, Miss. - Welcome back to the PGA TOUR at the Viking Classic. After an off week, I decided I needed a little more exercise, so I walked nine holes of the pro-am with my friend Robert Gamez. That brought my total for the week to 81 holes.
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The rest of the week, I got to spend time with PGA TOUR and Champions Tour veteran Fred Funk. Fred first got interested in the game of golf at age 10 when he caddied for his dad and decided that it would be more fun to play than carry the bag. Prior to turning pro, Fred was the golf coach at University of Maryland. He actually thinks he would be a better coach now "because of the experiences I have had out here."
When choosing a caddie, Fred has always looked for someone he can relate to and someone who will say the right things at the right time. "It's kind of a personality match, it's very important to have a caddie that matches," he said. His wife Sharon was on the bag last week, which was neat. "I love when Sharon is on the bag," Fred told me. "She has a lot of fun, very energetic, very visual, tries to make me really focus in on what I'm doing, something I don't always do."
Off the course, Fred enjoys the time he spends with Sharon and their two children. He also likes snow skiing and water skiing, but he can't do either right now because of his knee. His idol is Jack Nicklaus. "I looked up to (him) as a golfer as a kid," Fred said. "Then I would have to say my parents and my brother I looked up to the most."
Fred is playing the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour this year, so I asked him some of the differences between the two. Strength and depth of field are two of the main ones he cited. "Out there, you have 15-20 guys you have to beat week in and week out, and out here you 144 or 156 guys you have to beat other than yourself," Fred said. He's also learned that splitting time between the two Tours can be counterproductive.
"To try and play both Tours, you've got to have no ego, no goals, nothing," Fred said. "You're just playing for fun. If you have any goals and high aspirations I don't think you can play both Tours, it dilutes your potential of doing anything in the FedExCup or doing anything in the (Charles) Schwab Cup. You've got to decide one or the other."
The Funks have added their name to a charity named Challenge America. The organization started as Challenge Aspen and was designed to take military personnel skiing. Challenge America has been expanded to focus in on all disabled people. "Not only the disabled themselves, but the family and what they have to do to deal with," Funk said. "The troops that come home and they're half of what they were, they don't have legs, or people with CP or people with MS, people with brain problems, autism.
"(We want to) give awareness more to the general public and grow awareness that these people are able-bodied; they're not disabled people. We've got to get rid of the label and if takes a generation or two generations, however long it takes, we've got to turn this whole thing around." Funk said the campaign is being launched at the Kennedy Center next June. "This is a big deal for us," Funk told me. "I mean, look at you, you're totally able bodied, strong mind, you can do anything and some people just don't look at it that way."
No matter how Fred is playing, he always seems to be having a good time, and he is a crowd favorite. "When I'm playing my best, I will interact with the crowd as far as acknowledging them," Fred said. "It's not so much talking to them and everything, but acknowledge them when they acknowledge you. They like that. They are not just out there like billboards being painted." Fred said that if he only had one round of golf left, he would play at Cypress Point with some of golf's legends: Sam Snead, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson.
Annandale Golf Club was a fairly easy walk and fairly flat. I did notice that the walk for spectators from the 17th green to the 18th tee is a lengthy journey. This was the first time all year that I had over 20,000 Accusplit Steps each of the four days. Unfortunately, Fred missed the cut by one shot, so over the weekend, I walked with my good friend Robert, as I had in the pro-am. Special thanks to both Fred and Sharon for their kindness last week.
See you next week from Atlanta and THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola.
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ST. LOUIS -- I spent last week at Bellerive Country Club for the BMW Championship, which is the third event of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. I walked with Ben Crane this week, and it was a special week.
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As I have learned throughout my journey, charity is very important to all of the PGA TOUR players. Ben and his wife Heather host a golf tournament each year to raise money for two charities. "One is for young boys who don't have fathers, who grew up in the ghetto of Fort Worth, and the other is for children who have been trafficked into the sex trade in Southeast Asia," he said. "With every dollar we make, the first part of that goes to what we feel like is a good charitable cause. We feel pretty passionate about giving."
As you can see, Ben is truly a great man, and last week at the BMW Championship, he proved it even more. On Thursday, Ben told me he wanted to do something extra special for me -- he wanted to donate 10 percent of his earnings last week to my favorite charity. I will be honest and tell you I didn't know how to respond.
Ben was introduced to the game by his grandfather when he was around 5 years old. "I got to hang out with him and go play a little bit, so that was kind of the beginning," he said. Now he has a family of his own, his favorite memory of this year is traveling with his wife and their 2-year-old daughter Cassidy. Their second child is due in about six weeks, so that's a big source of excitement. Not to mention, Ben has been completely healthy for the first time in about eight years.
Ben told me having perspective is the greatest challenge he faces in the game of golf. "Sometimes you get too focused on if you're having a great year or bad year, whatever, you just need sometimes a little perspective on it, and I think sometimes that's a little harder to see as a player."
His faith has helped him deal with his chronic back problems. "I just kind of turned it over to Him and just said: Whatever you want to do with me and with this golf gift thing, I'm OK with," Ben said. "When I finally got to that place was when I started to get better. So, that taught me a lot. I think I've really carried a theme of thankfulness through this year just to be out here and to be playing."
Ben said religion has had a huge impact in his life. "I definitely feel because I know the Lord, I've got a sense of who I am and that's something outside of this game," he said. "I think that's the most important thing, is that I know what God says about me, and it's pretty awesome." Not surprisingly, if he wasn't a professional golfer Ben told me he would probably be in the ministry. "I think I'd either be serving somewhere or ... trying to be involved in a cause greater than myself."
Ben said his biggest fear is failure. "Failure, I think, is something along the lines of not trying," he told me. "I don't think failure is not succeeding, I think it's not giving it all you got. So I think that's something I always remind myself is that my job is to give it all I got and then it's up to God to do whatever he is going to do with it."
Ben had a long road to reach the PGA TOUR. He didn't get his TOUR card the first time he went to qualifying school. He considered playing mini-tours, but then he decided to try to Monday qualify on the Nationwide Tour. He won the seventh event he qualified for, so suddenly he had stability and status. "That was probably the biggest step," Ben said. He played two years on the Nationwide Tour before earning his TOUR card, and he's already won two PGA TOUR events.
Last week got off to an interesting start with Thursday's first round being washed out due to over 3 inches of rain. Bellerive is a decent walk without many hills, and, in some cases, the holes intersect each other. The most challenging part last week was walking through the mud and wet terrain. We had to play catch-up after the rainout and had to walk 36 holes on Saturday. I will admit I was very tired. That said, I am proud to say that I completed all 36 holes on Saturday with no falls.
I was extremely excited to spend the week with Ben Crane, because he has always said hi and asked how I am doing whenever I've seen him this year. Special thanks to Ben and his wife Heather for a truly memorable week, I feel like I made some new friends last week. Ben's caddie Brett was great, too.
I would also like to thank my Dad for joining me in St. Louis, as well as the participants of the Sunshine Through Golf Foundation for joining me on my walk on the weekend. Next week is an off week on the PGA TOUR, so I will see you in two weeks from the Viking Classic in Jackson, Miss.
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NORTON, Mass. -- The Deutsche Bank Championship, the second event in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, is no ordinary week. This is the only tournament that has a scheduled Friday start and Monday finish due to the Labor Day holiday.
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Last week I spent some time with PGA TOUR rookie Martin Laird. Martin and I actually met in Memphis where we were in the same group that experienced the FedEx flight simulator during the week of the Stanford St. Jude Championship. Martin qualified for the Deutsche Bank Championship by virtue of his top-10 finishes in his three previous events.
Martin's earliest memory of golf is going to the golf course with his father. "As soon as I could walk, I was addicted, I guess," he said. Martin is originally from Scotland and came to the United States to play golf at Colorado State University. "It was a great experience," he said. "I had never been to the States before. I came over on a golf scholarship and loved it. Four years there, loved the state and it was a great college town."
Martin's favorite club in his bag right now is his putter. "I've been putting great the last month and that's the reason I'm here," he explained. Martin has played some great golf over the past month just to qualify for the Playoffs and while he doesn't admit to being superstitious, Martin says he and his caddy aren't tempting fate. "There's little things that me and my caddy haven't changed over the last month and we've been playing well, like the same yardage book holder, things like that," he said. With three top-10 finishes to qualify and advance in the Playoffs, I wondered what Martin's confidence level was. "Obviously my confidence is as high as it could be right now," Martin said. "The first couple of weeks when I was playing well I was pretty nervous, but last week that was kind of a big breakthrough for me that I felt comfortable the last round when I was playing well and I was in the top 10. I think that's something I can take forward to this week. Hopefully I'm there again and can handle the pressure."
Martin has worked very hard to get to the PGA TOUR including spending time playing on mini-tours and on the Nationwide Tour. "Experience on the Nationwide Tour was great," Martin said. "That helped me get out here on the PGA TOUR ultimately and it helped me get prepared for the PGA TOUR and it's a great learning Tour. I'm having a great year this year. Iit's been a lot of fun, even when I wasn't playing great it was fun"
As mentioned previously, last week was a different one on TOUR with the competition held Friday-Monday, I asked Martin what the change was like. "It's very different, I keep calling yesterday Thursday and today Wednesday, I don't know what day of the week it is right now," he said.
Martin's a rookie on TOUR and he told me the travel was the most difficult adjustment. "And not getting to see friends and family nearly as much," he added. "You kind of feel like you don't really have a home because you're on the road so much. The best part you know the competition and there's a great group of guys out here. I just love the competition that's why I play. You practice your whole life to try and be out here." He said maintaining confidence when you're not playing well is the biggest challenge. "That's what really killed me this year when I wasn't playing well," he said. "I had no confidence. Doing that and trying to get everything else organized to focus on your golf."
As for walking the course, the TPC Boston is an easier course to walk then I remember in my previous appearances at this event. This course plays to 7,415 yards which seems to be a long course, but I really feel like the walk around the course last week was a very comfortable one Besides the par 3s, there are two holes on the front nine, the short par-4 fourth, where you can actually see the entire hole from the middle of the fairway, and the par-4 sixth where you can see the entire hole from the tee box. On the back nine, if you walk halfway up the 12th fairway on the left, you can see all of the action on the 12th hole and then walk 30 yards right and be at the 13th fairway and green.
On Thursday afternoon I visited Massachusetts General Children's Hospital and spoke to some of the kids there. Hopefully I provide some inspiration and encouragement to them that if you have a dream, don't ever give up until you accomplish your dream. Also, on Saturday night I had the chance to visit Fenway Park and see the Boston Red Sox play the Chicago White Sox.
I would like to thank Martin and my friends Kelly Thompson and Neil Como for joining me last week. Thanks, too, to Kelly for a home-cooked meal on Thursday night. I would also like to send out one final thank you to Eric Baldwin, Brandon Roll and the entire staff at the Deutsche Championship.
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PARAMUS, N.J -- My week began with a trip from Greensboro, N.C., to South Hadley, Mass., where I played golf for only the fourth time this year at a charity event for the Holyoke Hospital at the Orchards Golf Club. My team -- Robert Gamez, Neil Como and Nelson Fujiwara -- had a for a truly memorable day of golf.
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On Tuesday I traveled to Paramus, N.J., for The Barclays, the first tournament in the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, where I followed Ken Duke. Ken was 10 years old when his father introduced to the game of golf. He played many sports growing up but decided to stick to golf because it was an individual game. Ken's greatest memory from this year is finishing second in Milwaukee. "I never had a chance to win like that and I was tied with two holes to go and had some good shots coming in," Ken said. "I didn't lose, I just got beat."
Ken says the everyday routine is the toughest challenge he faces "(The) travel, hotel, laundry, come play golf, practice, everything that goes with it," he said. When I asked Ken what his biggest fear was and how he overcame it, he gave a very candid answer. He was diagnosed with scoliosis when he was in seventh grade and had to wear a body cast, which he took on and off while he practiced. "(The) end of my ninth-grade year they told me I had to have surgery, and I didn't know what that meant," Ken said. "I felt like I was done playing sports, I was done with everything." In February 1985 he had surgery where doctors inserted a 16-inch Harrington rod in his back. "That's why I think I have appreciated where I am right now because I don't know how long I'm going to keep playing," Ken said. "I don't know how long my back will stay up. It's a touchy situation. It's tough, but I'm thankful I'm here."
Ken doesn't know if he has any superstitions or whether they are just habits, but he always starts the round with three tees in his pocket and he marks his ball with the same coin. He's an extremely down-to-earth person who truly appreciates where he is and how hard he has worked to get here. He looked up to Jack Nicklaus as a golfer, but Larry Bird was his idol growing up. "I've worked hard for what I have today (and it's the) same with him," Ken said. "He didn't have anything -- he had to help his family. (I've) just done a lot of studies on Larry and just how successful he was. Same deal here, growing up with not a lot and working hard to get there and reaching your goal." Ken's goal of reaching the PGA TOUR took a little longer than most. "It took me 10 years to get through qualifying school in '04 and I told my wife if I never made it back to the TOUR, I've been there once, I tried it, I've done it," he said. "The experience on the Nationwide Tour is a big stepping stone and after you get out here and get comfortable, it's fun, it's worth it." Ken understands that he is very fortunate to be where he is. "I think the best is just being able to compete with the best in the world and testing your game to see what it's all about and being around all of these great athletes," he said.
Ken's family travels with him quite a bit on TOUR and when he is home one of his favorite activities is spending time with his daughters. Ken also enjoys fishing, primarily for bass. He's proud of the 8-pound and 12-pound bass he's caught.
Walking Ridgewood Country Club is not to terribly difficult with the holes being relatively close together which means on some holes you don't have to start at the tee to see all of the action. The toughest hill to walk on this course would be on the par-3 eighth hole as you walk from the tee to the green.
I would like to thank Ken for spending time with me last week. At the end of the week, he told me that having me follow him was an inspiration, and that really meant a lot to me. "I knew you were out there pulling for me," Ken said. "So I was trying to do as good as I could do and I appreciate everything you do." I would also like to say a special thank you to my Mom for joining me in New Jersey last week. And to my good friend Jim Nantz and the entire golf crew at CBS Sports, I appreciate your continued support throughout the entire 2008 season. Thanks for featuring me in the end-of-the-year 2008 memories, too.
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GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Last week began in Detroit when I had the opportunity to meet with some representatives from the Greater Detroit affiliate of the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation. Then I went to Greensboro for the Wyndham Championship, which was my first-ever PGA TOUR event in 1990. The tournament returned to Sedgefield Country Club this year for the first time since 1976.
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I followed Davis Love III, who won the tournament in 1992 and 2006. Davis told me he feels comfortable in Greensboro because he played college golf at UNC and has spent a lot of time in the area. "I understand the grass and the courses," he said. "You get good fan support. When we played at Forest Oaks I had played there a whole bunch, so I knew the golf course real well. Now I have to transfer it over here to Sedgefield. It's kind of like a little bit of a homecoming."
Davis's earliest memory of golf is dragging a club around under the furniture when he was in diapers. His father was a club pro and instructor so "we grew up at the golf course." When he and his brother, Mark, wanted to find their father, they would start on the second hole where they lived and play around to No. 9. "That's always where Dad was," Love recalled. "As we got older and older we got more interested in it, we got to have our own goals. But in the beginning, it was just to be where Dad was." Davis played three years at UNC and loved the experience -- "just being a part of a great college and a great town and a great team, being able to watch basketball, football, and all of the great sports there."
Davis says the caddy-player relationship is like a marriage. "You have to both get along, you both have to do your share and you have to agree to disagree and be real positive on things," he explained. "If you have a really good caddy he can help you. If you have a pretty good caddy he can not hurt you. If you have a bad caddy he can really screw you up. I think that's the main thing is you you've got to have somebody that you enjoy being around and that you have fun with and that way you can play your best. You don't really have to have somebody that's going to make you a better player, you just have to have somebody that will let you be as good as you can be (and) you need a friend."
Off of the course Davis enjoys hunting, fishing and snowboarding. "Anything to get outside and do something athletic and outdoors oriented, I love all of it." He also likes riding his motorcycle. In fact he received a custom bike for his 40th birthday and was featured on an episode of "American Chopper." When I asked Davis if he had any superstitions he laughed and told me a story about the late golfwriter Bob Drum, who was doing a piece on the same thing for CBS. Davis said he didn't have any superstitions and Drum walked away "kind of mad," as Davis recalled. "He was interviewing somebody else and I went up and I said, 'Does only using white tees count?' He said, 'All right, you're superstitious," so he started rolling the camera. He said, 'All right, give me some more. I said, 'All right, I like 1963 or '64 pennies. He goes, man, you are superstitious. You think things that you do are habit like I don't like blue tees or I don't like pink tees and you start thinking about it. I have a lot of habits that I think have turned into superstitions."
Davis and his brother also have become involved in golf course design. When Davis started playing well, people came to him with design projects and he eventually formed his own company. "It was just something that my brother and I could do together and give something back to the game and create something of our own," Davis said. "It's a little bit different then playing or teaching and we really enjoy it. Plus we like the outdoors. We like the tractors. I think the most exciting part probably is when you see the land and you start getting an idea of what it's going to look like and get to start building it and then in the end when it comes time to play, it's pretty exciting to see it go from a piece of raw ground to all of a sudden a year later there's a golf course."
Like his friend Fred Couples, Davis says the best part of playing golf is the time inside the ropes. "To go out and compete and do what you love to do, it's fun," he said. "The hardest part is all of the whole rest of the day. The TOUR has gotten so big and so busy that you have to manage your time. You have to avoid the distractions and deal with the pressure. Really that time inside the ropes is so much fun, it makes the rest of it worth it."
Davis often travels in his RV. "The best thing about the bus is having your stuff," he said. "It's like having a small apartment that you get to take with you to every tournament, so you've got your pillow, your sheets, and your satellite card and your refrigerator and it just makes it feel a little bit more like home."
Even though Sedgefield Country Club plays short yardage-wise and to a par 70, it is still a good walk. There are a few holes on each side where you have to navigate some hills. This is a short course, but a very hilly piece of property.
I was able to see some friends last week I haven't seen for a very long time. Special thanks to Davis and my sister Ann for being my "caddy" last week, as well as to Brokie and Ann Lineweaver and Sara and Troy Hopkins for their hospitality. I also had the opportunity to see my brother Ken for the first time this year.
See you in New Jersey for the start of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.
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BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- Welcome to my adventure at the 90th PGA Championship, the season's final major at Oakland Hills Country Club where I followed PGA TOUR veteran Stewart Cink.
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Stewart resides in Duluth, Ga., at the TPC Sugarloaf, where coincidentally I lived for nine months during 2002 and 2003. Stewart's greatest memory from this year is winning the Travelers Championship. "I played some good tournaments," he said. "But to go as long as I did without winning and then finally get one, that was easily the best." Stewart stands sixth in the FedExCup standings so he has clear goals for the rest of the year. "I'd like to try to defend my spot or to move up because that's pretty hefty change they're handing out at the end of the year," he said.
Stewart's parents got him interested in playing golf. "They picked up golf when they got married because they wanted to do something outdoors and they wanted to do something that was back then relatively inexpensive," he explained. "Instead of paying for a babysitter they just took me to the course. I picked it up by watching them and some of my earliest memories literally are riding in the cart in a little booster seat. I would get out and go and find my dad's ball, and tell him if that was his or not."
As all of you know, I interview the player I am following each week and this one had a slightly different twist due to the participation of his wife, Lisa. She had some interesting things to say about the relationship between Stewart and his long-time caddy, Frank Williams. "I would venture to say that Frank, his caddy, is one of his best friends now," Lisa said. "Having that other personality on the course complement yours is extremely important. Frank is very even-keeled just like Stewart riding through the ups and downs so I think ... that's even more important than what club or yardage." Stewart added that it's important a caddy and a player know each other's tendencies. "During stressful situations like coming down the end of a tournament, (when) you know the tournament's on the line or making the cut, he can sense when I need something to slow down (or) maybe take an extra (club) because of adrenaline or something," Stewart said. "He knows that because he's been seeing me hit shots and do these things under pressure and not under pressure for 10 years. So, it's hugely important."
I asked Stewart how his preparation changes for a major like the PGA as compared to other TOUR events. "It doesn't change much because I try to approach every tournament like it's the most important tournament of the year and just try to be ready to play no matter what," Stewart said. "In fact, I'm not really one to go into tournaments real early and play a lot of practice rounds. I have a short attention span (so) I feel like if I'm there Sunday night or Monday and play and play and play, that by the end of the week I'm just ready to just head out."
Stewart's pre-round routine includes a workout in the fitness trailer. He says fitness has changed the game quite a bit. "First, Gary Player and then Greg Norman and now Tiger," Stewart explained. "Everybody has just become more conscious about not really their physique because that's more of an appearance, but more their strength, the health of their back and their knees and their shoulders, joints. Golf is just not a natural move for the body to make and it can cause so many injuries. If you keep yourself in good shape you're doing two things: You're stronger so you can play better and put your swing in a better position, (and) you're also preventing injuries. The way the purses are out here on TOUR now, you can extend your career by just a few years and be successful and that means quite a bit of extra paydays down the road. So you want to stay competitive as long as possible out here."
All the activities Stewart enjoys off of the course involve his family. "I like playing golf with my family," he said. "They all started playing golf recent