DETROIT – Nick Watney said he was relieved when he discovered there was a flaw in his golf swing.
Go ahead, read that sentence again. Yes, he was relieved.
The day after missing his 12th straight cut on the PGA Tour at last week’s 3M Open, Watney flew to Las Vegas to see swing coach Butch Harmon. The legendary instructor spotted the problem almost immediately. Watney, who likes to draw the ball, had opened up the clubface at the top. That forced him to use his hands more aggressively to try to square the clubface. It is not a recipe for consistency.
After a weekend in Vegas, Watney feels like a new man. Or his old self. Or at least a golfer he recognizes. “The ball goes where it’s supposed to go most of the time,” he said with a big smile Friday afternoon at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, where he hoped he wouldn’t have to catch a flight home over the weekend. week.
Building on a five-under 67 in the opening, Watney hit a par-72 on Friday at Detroit Golf Club, and with a five-under 139 he made his first cut since finishing T-66 at The Players in mid-March.
Despite recent struggles, Watney sits at 116th in the FedEx Cup standings, largely thanks to a T-2 in October at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Stopping the free fall (he was 43rd in the standings after the Players) will no doubt help him stay in the top 125 when he finishes the regular season at next week’s Wyndham Championship.
Watney, 41, said he was relieved by Harmon’s diagnosis because at least there was something he could work on. “If nothing had been wrong and I was just playing poorly, that would have been a little bit frustrating for me,” he explained. “But you go to Butch and he’s like, ‘Oh wow, this is pretty bad,’ and you’re like, ‘OK, good. Let’s fix it.’ I mean, where do you go from there if everything looks good?
He thought about flying back to California for a day or two after his initial session with Harmon, but his wife Amber convinced him to go straight to Michigan. “She has been great. I guess she knew what I needed,” Watney said.
Had he putted decently on Friday, Watney could have moved up the rankings, but he missed more than two shots on the greens. The plus side is that he ranks ninth on the 36-hole cross-course in shots earned/off the tee, compared to 197th on the season tour in that category, and is in the top third of the field in SG/approaching the green.
“I’m not very good at doing anything different, so it’s obviously up to me to do a better job of figuring these things out. I mean, 17 years here, and I should handle it better,” she said. “I work on stuff at home and then I go out to the next event and it’s been the same thing, and that gets pretty frustrating.”
Watney, ranked No. 431 in the world, has won the PGA Tour five times, but his last win came in 2012. He’s had his ups and downs since then, but looks poised to make the playoffs for the first time since 2018. 19: a welcome development as he plays this season by using his one-time exemption for being in the top 50 in career earnings.
However, all I could think about on Friday was getting a chance to go out again on Saturday. Change is good.
“My game was pretty good at the beginning of the year, and then I got a little bummed out, and a little bummed out can turn into a big thing,” he said. “I think it’s good that it’s all behind me and now I’m looking forward, and I want to see if I can make a few more putts and move up the rankings.”
Yeah, that’s better than getting on another plane.