Gordon making the most of opportunity at Travelers

CROMWELL, Conn. – They have been woven into the fabric of golf since the days of spoons and niblicks, these words about the swing. Heck, even Old Tom is purported to have said to Young Tom before their first round together: “Rhythm and tempo, son. Rhythm and tempo.”

Sound stuff, always. But should you endeavor to take on the challenge of professional golf, here is another piece of advice. Timing is everything.

For the latest proof, meet Will Gordon.

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The likelihood that you may not have heard of him is a tribute to bad timing.

The chance that you are possibly going to hear a lot about him is a testament to good timing.

Timing, you see, is like luck. It comes in two flavors – good and bad – and the trick is to roll with the bad and run with the good. Which returns us to Gordon who has thus far followed the blueprint beautifully here at the Travelers Championship.

When he backed up a first-round 4-under 66 with a sparkling 62 in Friday’s second round, Gordon sat atop the leaderboard at 12-under 128. One could suggest he’s halfway through authoring a dramatic story, but some true heavyweights were about to play afternoon rounds (Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau) and Gordon is golf savvy.

“I mean, half the field hasn’t played (today), so I’m not really worried about it,” said Gordon. “There’s a lot of golf left, so I could end up a couple of different places.”

Ah, the perfect segue into the good timing flavor. The place this week is TPC River Highlands and indirectly Gordon is here because of the pandemic, for had tournament cancellations never been made, he was going to get spots into the Valero Texas Open and Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. Had he not played well, who knows how things would have unfolded.

Perhaps Gordon might have gone back to play some events on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada, where he has status.

We’ll never know, because the insidious virus struck and the world turned upside down. In mid-March when the PGA TOUR canceled a flurry of tournaments, plus the entire Mackenzie Tour season, Gordon was at home in Davidson, North Carolina. Like so many other pro golfers with minimal status, he tried to assess his predicament.

Worse than the Mackenzie Tour being canceled and losing his spots into the Valero and Puntacana, Gordon could not count starts in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, which he’d earned with his play this PGA TOUR season, because that has been canceled, too. Gordon was a lock for those events that dole out PGA TOUR card after a 10th-place finish at The RSM Classic and top-25s at both the Farmers Insurance Open and Puerto Rico Open.

“My initial reaction was, ‘Just kind of roll with the punches and take it in stride,’” said Gordon. “Just try to make the most of any opportunity I do get.”

That opportunity arrived a few weeks ago when Nathan Grube, the tournament director, phoned to extend a sponsor’s invite and one could say that Gordon is in position to definite what “make the most” means, given that he’s made 15 birdies against just three bogeys.

But if you paint his sponsor’s exemption with the “good timing” brush, and certainly you should, it behooves you to study this man’s story and appreciate the sense of “bad timing” that followed him all of last summer. It was as unique a PGA TOUR year as we’ve ever seen, with a group of brilliant collegians getting plenty of spotlight and most of the exemptions.

Let the record show, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, and Matthew Wolff have proven that the hype and hoopla was well-deserved. Each has won on the PGA TOUR, each has proven to be immensely worthy of membership. No complaints from any lobby.

There was a wrinkle, though. Gordon, the 2019 SEC Player of the Year, was just a notch below. You could dispute how small the notch was, but William Kane is convinced of this: “He was the next-best in that class, but kind of flew under the radar. Most other years, he would have been a big name.”

Kane has credentials, having grown up with Webb Simpson and caddied for him on the PGA TOUR for a few years. Now associated with the College Golf Fellowship, Kane could be called a mentor or team chaplain at Vanderbilt. “He’s been a really good friend, so supportive and helpful,” said Gordon.

A year ago, when all the sponsor invites were going to Morikawa, Hovland, Wolff and Justin Suh, Gordon did what he does well. He rolled with the punches. He won the Mackenzie-Tour Qualifying Tournament and on the week of the Travelers Championship – where Hovland and Wolff made their pro debuts, and both Morikawa and Suh played – Gordon shot a course-record 60 to take the lead in the Lethbridge Paradise Canyon Open in Alberta.

In nine tournaments in Canada, Gordon missed just one cut and finished 21st on the money list. Not bad. Small progress. But Morikawa, Hovland and Wolff all earned their PGA TOUR cards in short time.

Bad timing? You can suggest that, but Gordon is immersed in polish and character, and never did he belabor what didn’t come his way.

“Golf is unique,” he reasoned. “You always have the chance to hit the re-start button.”

He did that late last fall with an opportunity to play the RSM Classic on Sea Island. Important as it was to close with a 66 to finish tied for 10th, the greater benefit was the good fortune he had to earn a third-round pairing with Simpson.

“Webb has been super nice to me,” said Gordon. “But it’s been important for me to see how he has perfected what he does – how he takes ownership of his game, ownership of his life and that has showed me how I need to grow.”

When the pandemic put pro golf tournaments on the sidelines and Gordon needed to stay in game shape, it was Simpson who reached out. Games were set up and when Harold Varner III took part in a few of them, “it was good to be around those guys – and with Webb winning last week, it just furthers my belief in myself that I can hang with those guys.”

The fact that he didn’t get the Travelers chance last year was bad timing. But when you have the dignity to roll with the punches, you can prove that good timing trumps bad timing.