Players find time to relax in busy seven-week stretch

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Mark Wilson, who won earlier this season on TOUR, says spending time with his son helps him forget about golf.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- Davis Love III is a big fan of NASCAR. He's even gotten behind the wheel of a stock car and driven it around the Charlotte Motor Speedway at what to many of us would seem like warp speed.

This summer, though, Love is learning first-hand what those drivers endure -- mentally, as well as physically -- as they criss-cross the United States for 36 weeks a year.

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NASCAR is not like golf where top players rarely play more than three weeks at a time. Every race at every track is a big one, and a driver simply can't afford to get left behind -- literally as well as figuratively.

That's not unlike what's been happening on the PGA TOUR since the U.S. Open in June -- and particularly during the stretch that began with the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational earlier this month and includes the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.

The tournament in Akron was the first in a seven-week stretch where nearly all the top players will likely play at least six times. And some, like Love and recent U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover, could be playing seven straight events.

"It is a long way through," Love acknowledged. "Now we see what the race car drivers do week after week after week when there's no break. It's tough.

"But, you know, it's like a football team. It's the end of the year. (You've) got to keep pushing."

The push right now is the Playoffs which feature a progressive cut from 125 at this week's Barclays to 100, 70 and 30. FedExCup points have been quintupled in the Playoffs and there will be a reseed -- as well as a much-needed week off -- prior to THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola.

Hence, the sense of urgency that has 124 of the eligible 125 players in New Jersey this week to open the Playoffs at Liberty National. A year ago, 10 eligible players skipped The Barclays, including world No. 1 Tiger Woods.

The lone player missing is Paul Casey, who is ranked No. 18 in the FedExCup and No. 3 in the world, and he has a good excuse. He is nursing a rib injury but hopes to rejoin the TOUR at the Deutsche Bank Championship next week.

With so many high-profile events to be played in such a relatively short period of time over the next five weeks, the pros will need to pace themselves. Building in a day off here and there will be important.

Glover, for example, was able to get home to Greenville, S.C., after the PGA was over. He took Monday and most of Tuesday off, then drove to Greensboro where he played in the Wyndham Championship. He took Monday off prior to The Barclays, as well.

"If you can afford to do it, (are) playing well and (can) just take a half day or few hours where you usually be beating balls ... something like that, just trying to build in some time for some down time and just taking it easy," Glover said.

The Deutsche Bank Championship doesn't start until Friday, Sept. 4 and finishes on the following Monday. So that gives the TOUR pros a cushion early next week where they might be able to sneak home for a day or so -- or at least go to a movie or shop or read a good book.

At the same time, though, the BMW Championship becomes a short week. At least the tournament returns to Cog Hill, a course with which the TOUR pros are intimately familiar, for this year's renewal.

Like Glover, Mark Wilson also hopes to play six in a row. He has never made the field for THE TOUR Championship so that's a big goal. The BMW Championship will be a home game, too, since he lives in Chicago and plays out of Cog Hill.

"I pace myself by going home in between some events ... and definitely not wearing myself out with too much practice," Wilson said.

He wanted to be sure to get in a practice round on Tuesday at Liberty National since the Tom Kite-Bob Cupp creation has never hosted any TOUR event. Wilson has family in the Boston area, so he may spend time with them and head to TPC Boston on Wednesday. Then he can't wait to get home to Chicago.

The former UNC golfer, who won the Ben Hogan Award as the nation's top collegian in 1996, may have the ultimate way to get away from the game, though. His wife and young son, Lane, joined him at The Barclays this week.

"I don't think about (golf) when I'm playing with my son and all that kind of stuff and going through the routine of the bath and read some books before we go to bed," Wilson said, smiling.

"It can be exhausting at the end of a long day, you want to grab a shower and go to bed but the little guy doesn't understand that. It's probably a good thing. It's spending a little quality time with them. Gets your mind away from golf."