Bowden hopes to match new teacher with new attitude

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Ask Craig Bowden about his 2008 season on the Nationwide Tour, and the veteran becomes brutally honest.

"It has been tough, just horrible for me, '' he said of his year of playing frustratingly. "I've been talking to my wife (Bobbi) and my sports psychologist (Deborah Graham) about it. I'm trying to get some positive feedback.''

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Craig Bowden hopes his new teacher will amp up his game.

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Xerox Classic scores
Bowden's scorecard

No doubt Bobbie Bowden and Graham have provided valuable support, but they can't hit shots for Bowden. And it turns out he has been striking far too many, especially on Thursdays, which makes for trunk slamming on Fridays, something else Bowden has been doing with frightening regularity.

"I usually make about 75 to 80 percent of the cuts out here,'' said Bowden, 40, who has played nine seasons on the Nationwide Tour and five on the PGA TOUR. "What have I made this year, six?''

Actually, it's just five -- the main reason Bowden finds himself buried in the 83rd position on the all-important money list. It could be worse, though. Two of Bowden's cuts made have resulted in top-10s, the last way back in May.

Bowden finally found positive in the best place possible Thursday, on the Donald Ross-designed Irondequoit Country Club golf course in the first round of the Xerox Classic. Positive added up to a 4-under 66, a spiffy number that left Bowden in a solid position on the leaderboard.

The 66 was only Bowden's second sub-70 start this year. Afterward, he approached it as if it were the first round of the rest of his life.

"I've had a little passage in my life,'' he said. "I look at this as the beginning of the second half of my career. The first half wasn't bad. But I'm hoping the second half will be even better.''

The passage began when Bowden missed the cut in the Cox Classic presented by Chevrolet on July 31. Disgusted, he returned home to Bloomington, Ind., and went to his club -- Bloomington Country Club -- the next day to search for his game on the range. He found a new teacher instead.

As luck would have it Denny Dennis, Bloomington's head professional, was on the range, too. The two pros began talking golf. Less than 30 minutes later, Dennis was the instructor and Bowden was the pupil.

"I was really spinning my wheels,'' he said. "I needed to find some more distance and fast.''

Bowden's parting with Bruce Symons was amicable. Bowden called Symons, whom he worked with for 17 years, a "great guy.''

"I have the utmost admiration for hi,m'' he said. "I just needed a change.''

Dennis altered Bowden's takeaway, putting the club in a totally different position. It made sense.

"I implemented it immediately,'' he said. "And the ball started going farther.''

Bowden, 150th in driving distance this season with a 272-yard average, estimates he picked up 10-15 valuable yards off the tee. He also is 3/4ths of a club longer with his irons. As a result, he returned to the Tour this week brimming with confidence for the first time in a long time. And it showed in his score, one he completed with a deft up-and-down from 70 yards on the 478-yard, par-4 18th -- after a 91-minute weather delay.

"I just had a mental breakdown on the tee,'' said Bowden, who noticed rain clouds overhead and heard the rumble of thunder as he went through his pre-shot routine. "I kept waiting to hear the horn and I thought I'd get the club halfway back and it would go, 'Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.' It should have gone off. I couldn't have hit it any worse.''

Another kind of distance also factored into Bowden's wretched start. It was the distance between him and his family. Bobbi gave birth to the couple's second child, a girl named Kirin, three months ago. With the baby on the way and their son Quinley headed for pre-K, the Bowdens decided the best place for them was in Bloomington. So Bowden sold the motor they had traveled in since 2002 and set out on the road alone.

"It was a big adjustment,'' he said. "That was our second home. We enjoyed the travel as a family. It was a big part of our lives.''

A return to Irondequoit -- at 6,720 yards the shortest track on the Nationwide Tour -- also bolstered Bowden's spirits. He knows it's not a bomber's paradise, just like the majority of the other seven courses remaining on the regular-season schedule.

"I actually get to play golf, and that's right up my alley,'' he said. "You've got to shape shots here, and the greens are tough. If we played on courses like this all season, the cream would rise to the top. There are tough holes, and there are scoring holes. And you have to hit every club in your bag.''

Bowden responded to a course that put him in his comfort zone, and he walked off the 18th green with a smile on his face and a spring in his step.

"I told my caddy during the delay that even if I didn't get it up and down on 18, I had still played a good round of golf,'' he said. "This gives me the feeling I can play golf again. I'm a lot more at peace with myself.''

And if that's not positive, what is?