Hard-grinding Leonard overcomes the elements

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Justin Leonard began the first round on Thursday then finished on Friday, but still managed to shoot a 68.

Apr. 3, 2009
By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent

HUMBLE, Texas -- It was barely time for lunch and Justin Leonard was done for the day.

As in grab a sandwich, hit a few balls on the range and find a way to kill an afternoon.

Someone suggested -- if he was bored -- he could help them out by doing the laundry and cleaning the house.

Leonard chuckled. "I'll pass.''

These are good times for the hard-grinding Texan, who has won a dozen times in his career. He's opened the year with three top-10s in his first seven events and he's playing his way to the Masters on a Redstone course where he's had some early-round success. Although he's settled for a pair of thirtysomething finishes the last two years at the Shell Houston Open, he's opened with 67 and 68.

And this year? He threw out an opening 68 -- eight windblown holes of it Thursday morning, the remaining 10 Friday morning under a bright, sunny day with no wind. It was good, at the time, for a share of the clubhouse lead.

"Yesterday was obviously very challenging, but it got to the point -- you know, I had two different balls move on the green,'' he said. "Fortunately I hadn't addressed them yet, so there wasn't any penalty. One of them rolled 10 feet, totally changed my putt.''

Then, he stepped to the 18th tee. "And looking at that hole with a 30-mile-an-hour left-to-right wind, have to start it out in the water just to find the fairway . . . ." he said. As luck would have it, they called play for the day before he teed off, so he picked up right there early Friday.

"It was very cold, but at least the wind was off to the right,'' Leonard said. "It made the hole play a lot easier. It kind of was blowing a little bit this morning during the first part of our round. In the last hour or so, it really kind of died down.''

A few hours later, Leonard was three shots off the midday lead held by Nicholas Thompson.

Leonard was in a slump a few years ago until he came to Redstone. The week before, he reunited with his long-time coach Randy Smith and good things started happening. The opening 67 got his attention and later in the year, he won his third Valero Texas Open and added a second Stanford St. Jude title last year. And, oh, he also played on the first winning U.S. Ryder Cup team since 1997 -- the year he sank an improbable 45 footer to punctuate the U.S. win at Brookline.

Leonard's career is synonymous with that iconic putt. In fact, that's all some think about. Yet Leonard, the 1997 British Open champ, has won nine times since then -- and come within an eyelash of winning a second Open and a PGA Championship -- and, with the comeback, is still a threat at majors. He had a pair of top-20s last year -- a T-16 at the Open Championship and a T20 at the Masters.

He heads into next week with his game rounding into form.

On Thursday, he birdied the 15th and 17th holes to get to 2-under before the wind suspension, then he jump-started Friday's play with a great save at the second. He hit it into the right front bunker.

"It flew into the flag and -- or hit the pin and, you know, went about 10 feet left of the hole and I made that putt,'' He said. "So kind of got away with somewhat of a poor shot there.''

He flipped a wedge to seven feet for a birdie at the fourth, then birdied the seventh for his 68.

With the delay, Leonard's side of the draw had the afternoon off, but they'll be back early Saturday for the start of their second rounds. Once those are finished, they'll make a cut and begin the third round.

"I feel like the last couple years -- actually, I was playing pretty well coming in,'' Leonard said. "The year before that I was as surprised as anybody that I played so well the first round, and now I feel like I'm playing more consistently week to week and day-to-day and, so, you know, it's a good start. I'm looking forward to building on it.''