The post They said his name with Tiger’s. Jack’s his friend. But Sunday could be his biggest day.   appeared first on Golf.

The post They said his name with Tiger’s. Jack’s his friend. But Sunday could be his biggest day.   appeared first on Golf.

Jack Nicklaus once told him to wait. And he will. 

And that’s kind of been a theme with Patrick Rodgers for a while: Waiting. Great things were expected from the 29-year-old ball flusher when he left Stanford in 2014. He had been the No. 1-ranked amateur. He had won 11 times with the Cardinal. Some dude named Tiger won the same amount. 

Then golf happened. Today, you can’t miss. Tomorrow, you can’t make. One day, you’re on top of the world. The next, you’ve lost your Tour card. Rodgers has been solid over the past eight years. But unspectacular. Three seconds. Two thirds. No wins. Last year, he had dipped all the way out of the FedEx Cup 125 and was needing a top 25 finish in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals to get back with the big boys. 

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How just missing out on his Tour card gave this pro a fresh perspective

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Rodgers finished 20th. And he’ll confirm that you maybe really don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone.       

“Yeah, getting back, getting my Tour card back from the Korn Ferry Finals, it was a great mental exercise,” he said Saturday. “It gave me definitely some added perspective and appreciation for being a PGA Tour player, and I think that really showed in the fall. I played with a lot of freedom, a lot of gratitude for being a PGA Tour player. 

“I didn’t really anticipate ever being in that position, but I was proud of the way that I managed it.”

Which brings us back to this week. Which brings us back to the Golden Bear. 

Along the way, Rodgers has developed a friendship with golf’s all-time major winner. In 2014, he won the Nicklaus Award, given annually to the best college player. Rodgers is also a member of the Bear’s Club in Florida, and every so often he sees the club’s founder. He’s done more than shake his hand a few times, though. Rodgers has Nicklaus’ ear. 

Sunday, he’ll have Nicklaus on his mind. Rodgers enters the final round of the Mexico Open three back of leader Jon Rahm. It’s a tall order, regardless of the potential breakthrough on the line. But not insurmountable. This week, Rodgers said he has prided himself on his patience, and he’ll need to be even more so to finally win. 

After all, Nicklaus once told Rodgers that he himself never tried to win. He just waited. 

“Honestly, there’s some advice that I’m going to try to use tomorrow,” Rodgers said. “It was really surprising to hear him say it, but he said he never tried to win a golf tournament. Obviously he got his fair share, [but] he just tried to do his part and manage what was under his control and trust it would fall his way in the end. 

“So I definitely need to listen to that advice as I take on this challenge tomorrow.”

Jack Nicklaus once told him to wait. And he will. 

“Like we all say, I don’t feel that far off,” Rodgers said. “I don’t feel like there’s any gaping holes in my game and really the exercise is to stay as patient and have a full bucket of confidence each and every week. So I’m trying to do my best to carry myself that way and fortunately have a great opportunity here tomorrow.”

The post They said his name with Tiger’s. Jack’s his friend. But Sunday could be his biggest day.   appeared first on Golf.

The post How just missing out on his Tour card gave this pro a fresh perspective appeared first on Golf.

The post How just missing out on his Tour card gave this pro a fresh perspective appeared first on Golf.

Patrick Rodgers’ 2022 season is off to a pretty good start. He finished 6th at the Fortinet Championship in September, and is one shot off the lead at the halfway point of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship after firing rounds of 68-64 (-10).

After narrowly missing out on the FedEx Cup playoffs in August (Rodgers finished 128th on the points list), Rodgers’ Tour card was in jeopardy for the first time in his career. He eventually regained his status by finishing in the top 50 in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, but in his post-round comments on Friday in Bermuda, Rodgers attributed his recent solid play to a humbling change in mindset.

“It was really difficult to go through, to be honest with you,” Rodgers said. “My mindset and I think the mindset of most players out here is that I got my card at 22 and I didn’t feel like I would ever be in that position. I felt like I had the game to not put myself there and it was maybe a little slice of humble pie, and more so just kind of managing stress on the golf course.

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“I’m definitely feeling like I’m able to breathe a breath of fresh air here as the new season started,” he continued. “I’m really grateful to be out here and I’m playing some stress-free golf, which is nice.”

Now that his job is secure for another year, Rodgers says he feels a sense of freedom.

“It’s been a heck of a summer,” he said. “It’s the first time I had to grind to keep my card after just missing the Playoffs. That was a really just difficult emotional battle. I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders since coming back. I don’t feel like there’s much that can stress me out on a golf course at the minute and I’m just really grateful to have opportunities to play.”

When a reporter pointed out that playing in a beautiful place like Bermuda is an easily-overlooked privilege, Rodgers agreed.

“I think to be quite honest with you there have been times where I’ve lost sight of how amazing it is to be on the PGA Tour,” he said. “The grind of this summer trying to fight to keep my card, I really had to kind of learn to understand what it meant to me. I’m carrying a lot more gratitude going forward, which is awesome.”

Rodgers, 29, has three career runner-up finishes, and is still seeking his maiden PGA Tour victory. Could this be the week? He’s currently one shot behind leader Taylor Pendrith.

The post How just missing out on his Tour card gave this pro a fresh perspective appeared first on Golf.

The post This is how one of the best putters on Tour gets dialed in on the greens appeared first on Golf.

The post This is how one of the best putters on Tour gets dialed in on the greens appeared first on Golf.

Practice rounds on the PGA Tour are different than what some fans might expect. Guys aren’t out there just trying to go low — they save that for Thursdays. During practice rounds, the goal is to get acquainted with the course in a way that’ll benefit them when the chips are down. They hit multiple balls, attempt to guess where hole locations will be and take notes — mental and otherwise — on everything about the track they’re preparing to tackle.

The prep work they put in on the greens is one of the most important aspects of this early week routine. Getting familiar with the intricacies of the greens will save players many strokes if they put in the required work. One of the best in the game at this prep work is Patrick Rodgers. Rodgers ranks 11th on Tour in SG: Putting, thanks in no small part to the routine he employs during practice rounds.

When Rodgers plays practice rounds, he doesn’t spend a lot of time on the technical nature of the greens or his stroke. His head isn’t buried in a greens book nor is he grinding over the mechanics of his stroke. Instead, his whole focus is on getting a feel for the greens and how they respond.

He simply makes long-flowing, one-handed practice strokes to smooth his change of direction and dial in his feel. He does this routine to a number of areas on the green so he gets an idea for how the ball will react when approaching any number of hole locations that the committee might throw at him.

It might not be uber technical like you might see from some other players, but the results speak for themselves. In addition to his SG: Putting place in the top 15, Rodgers also ranks inside the top 10 in three-putt avoidance. It just goes to show: feel is everything on the greens.

The post This is how one of the best putters on Tour gets dialed in on the greens appeared first on Golf.