BRADENTON, Fla. – This is a lousy time to play badly.
It’s not just this season that the season is in full swing, with the two World Golf Championships (including this week), the Players’ Championship and the Masters all in full swing. into seven weeks.
But in this COVID-19 era on the PGA Tour.
Approaching the anniversary of the Closure of the Tour, the restrictions on players have not been lifted. Yes, more people are allowed on premises, other important ones among them, but players still largely follow the same protocols and patterns: hotel, course, hotel. Repeat. That takes a lot of time for himself who is not already having fun on the course.
It’s a very challenging time for someone like Matthew Wolff, who should be 21 years old at college age. After all, after being fired last year, he is still an individual NCAA champion. But the charge is starting to emerge, as he entered Thursday at the WGC-Workday Tournament with an opening 83 – despite four birdies. Asked by a PGA Tour media officer if he was talking to this reporter about his day, Wolff barely recognized the request, entering the clubhouse. His trusted husband, Nick Heinen, had no answers. “I wish I knew,” said Heinen as he left the scoring area.
Consortium WGC-Working Day Competition: full-field scores | Full coverage
Wolff was a publication in 2019 and a major standout in 2020 but this year this has been a difficult affair. In his last seven starts he didn’t break the top 35. Last month, at the Farmers Insurance Championship, he pulled out after the first round of 78. It didn’t seem like who injured the swing his hand, but was shown on camera hitting his club into the turf in harassment.
If Wolff is still dealing with the positive effects of that injury, it wasn’t clear Thursday. He did not seem to prefer his hand on any swing, or shake it off in discomfort. There was plenty of misfortune, as he made four bogs, two doubles, three three-pointers and a quad in the worst round of his career, and the worst score of this stellar WGC with two. Last week’s place will still feature him $ 32,000 and free points at the world level, which is a small consolation for the 19th-ranked player in the world.
As one of the most vibrant and powerful players on Tour, Wolff barely uttered more than a few words during his opening round at Concession. At times he was so upset that he withdrew from his group, throwing into the bushes. On the fifth hole, he hit the green, head down, and his playing partner, Shane Lowry, had to stop moving. On the sixth greener, Wolff used his mind by throwing and accidentally hit the ball.
“Of course, you’ll never want to see that,” said Victor Perez, who fired 69 next to Wolff. “It’s sad that the group has rhythm. Apparently he was just struggling off the tee, which is on this course, to be deceived, if you don’t really feel your swing, it becomes very difficult. ”
So how can Wolff’s age explode someone’s steam?
It’s not easy, not in those times.
Visits to bars and restaurants are discouraged. Gyms, too. It cannot regenerate in the presence of wife and children. Renowned swing coach George Gankas, who has been like Wolff’s father, has a busy teaching page at his club in California and doesn’t travel to many events. Oftentimes just Wolff and Heinen, no spread.
After turning pro, Wolff, who grew up in Southern California but went to school at Oklahoma State, found a place for himself on the other side of the country, in Jupiter, Florida. The move made sense, and not just because of the lack of state income tax – it could play all year round and be surrounded by elite competition, always able to find a game. But he is also 3,000 miles away from his closest friends, and soon found it difficult to balance work and life. Not surprisingly, he bought a new house in Oklahoma, about half an hour from where he went to school in Stillwater. There, he can stay sharp but also be a child of college age, although he is very wealthy and famous with numerous sponsorship deals.
“Being back there, being around all my friends, it helps me settle down a bit,” Wolff said last fall. “Florida, it’s awful, but there aren’t a lot of people my age down there. I have golfing friends, but I like to come home and I follow great sports and I like to be around people. Being in Oklahoma will allow me to get back to my roots and enjoy my time off the course. “
Much has been made of how calm and relaxed Wolff appeared at the U.S. Open in September, when he was just the second major professional champion firing Saturday 65 and leading a two-shot lead into the playoffs. last round. Walking to the first tee that Sunday at Winged Foot, he was chatting lively on his phone. Not for family. Not for a lover. Not to Gankas. But for one of his buddies. What was so important, just minutes before you set off in the toughest test at golf? The early scores from that day ‘s NFL games.
“That’s it,” Heinen startled.
At the time, everything was fine. Wolff would not win the U.S. Open but finished second to Bryson DeChambeau. In his next start, in Las Vegas, Wolff lost in a playoff. His game hasn’t been at the same level for the past four months, and his happy-away look has faded as well.
When I asked Shari Wolff last fall what her son is still learning, on a very public stage on Tour, she said: “Not to get down on himself when he’s not well. He is very happy when he is doing really well and smiling and having a good time. But if the boards turn, all his idea and all the game tanks will turn with him.
“If he can learn – and it’s very difficult to do – when he’s feeling a little bit of it he can still say, But I’m happy. I am happy to be out here. I love what I do. Yeah, this contest didn’t turn out the way I wanted, but I have a lot more. He is working on that. ”
Unfortunately, the remoteness of the Tour doesn’t make that inner battle any easier.