Hart found focus amid family medical crisis
After another extended stay at home during the offseason helping to care for his 7-year-old triplets, Dudley Hart is back to work this week at the FBR Open, his first tournament of the 2009 season.
This time, however, there is some money in the bank, and far less angst, as the pressure to make good at every tournament is not nearly what it was a year ago.
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In 2008, Dudley Hart made a career-best $2.2 million on the PGA Tour.
The 18-year PGA Tour veteran began last season after having sat out for more than seven months to stay at home while his wife, Suzanne, was dealing with a cancer scare. She had a tumor on her lung -- not smoking-related -- and needed surgery to remove two thirds of it.
That meant Dudley had to go home to care for the couple's triplets, Abigail, Rachel and Ryan, who were then 5. He left the Wachovia Championship and didn't play the rest of 2007. Tests showed that the tumor was benign, although some cancer cells were present, and Hart got a healthy dose of perspective while tending to his kids in Buffalo, N.Y.
"You have a lot of thoughts because you've got a lot of time not competing," said Hart, 40. "Negative thoughts. Initially the last thing on my mind was my career and golf. We went through a period of time where before we got the tumor out and the tests back, almost a three-week process, where it was pretty scary. God forbid if my wife was worse off or if it spread. I was worrying about her health, her family, what could happen to our kids.
"When the results came back from that … it could have been a lot worse. And then you think that you're not playing."
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Still, Hart had made just under $300,000 in 11 events in 2007. There was no guarantee he would be able to make nearly a half-million dollars after having been away so long.
"I had to make the most of every start," Hart said. "In a way, I think it helped me. When your back is up against the wall sometimes, it may make you bear down a little bit harder and make sure when you are playing you're ready to go. I couldn't just go out there and tee it up, but had to make sure I made the most of every opportunity."
Hart did.
After missing the cut at the FBR Open, he tied for third at AT&T Pebble Beach, tied for 15th at the Honda Classic, tied for 12th at the Zurich Classic and then tied for seventh at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship. That put him over $500,000 for the year.
And then at the Wachovia, where he first had to leave the tour, Hart notched a tie for fifth and was on his way to the best financial season of his career.
With two career PGA Tour victories to his credit, Hart was unable to win in 2008, but he had six top-10 finishes, including second at the BMW Championship and 10th at the Tour Championship. By finishing among the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings, Hart has a Masters invitation secured.
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"Taking all the time off, it's not as much physical sometimes as mental," Hart said. "Being able to get your mind where you need to be and get to the level you need to -- I had some questions about that.
"But I've played for a long time. I had been out for a while. I trusted that if I worked hard and got my game back in shape, I could compete and play well. Obviously there was some level of doubt. But you try to stay as positive as you can."
DOUBLE DIPPING
The number of players who have taken up full or affiliate European Tour membership continues to grow, enhanced last week by Brandt Snedeker, who decided the Race to Dubai is worth the sacrifice.
"The Americans for so long have been uneasy to travel the world, but now with this Race to Dubai, it just makes sense to come over and compete," Snedeker said last week in Qatar, where he missed the cut.
For a player like Snedeker or Boo Weekley, both of whom took up affiliate membership, there is not much downside. That form of membership does not require a player to compete in the minimum 12 European events, but rather eight to 10. And seven of those will be taken care of by the four major championships and three U.S.-based World Golf Championship events.
However, should those players finish among the top 60 money winners in Europe and qualify to compete in the season-ending Dubai World Championship (where a $10 million bonus is at stake), they would be required to take up membership next year.
No big deal, really. Weekley has talked about playing the Scottish Open. If he were to play two events instead of one in the Desert Swing and add a couple after the FedEx Cup portion of the PGA Tour schedule, he would meet the requirement.
While the Race to Dubai should not have a big impact on PGA Tour events, sometimes stateside tournaments will take a hit. Already, there are some interesting trends -- although they will skew the other way many, many times throughout the year.
When Zach Johnson won the Sony Open, he received fewer world ranking points than Paul Casey did for winning the Abu Dhabi Championship on the same day. Last week, the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic had just five of the top 50 in the world, while Qatar had 18 of the top 50, including three in the top 10. The highest-ranked player in the Hope field was No. 16 Steve Stricker.
A LOOK AT THIS WEEK'S VENUE
The FBR Open dates to 1932, when it was first known as the Arizona Open before later becoming the Phoenix Open. It has been played at the TPC Scottsdale since 1987, when Paul Azinger posted his first career PGA Tour victory. And the venue has evolved into one of the hottest spots on tours, a spectator-friendly place that has turned into one big party.
The 7,216-yard, par-71 layout designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish is not particularly difficult (it did not rank among the top half on tour in 2008) but still manages to offer plenty of challenges, especially if the weather turns chilly or windy in the desert setting.
The most difficult hole on the course is typically the 11th, a 469-yard par-4 that last year played to an average of 4.169.
Of course, no mention of the tournament can be made without referencing the par-3 16th, where some 20,000 fans will likely surround the hole and let their feelings be known, good and bad, unlike anywhere else in golf.
Bob Harig covers golf for ESPN.com. He can be reached at BobHarig@gmail.com.
BIRDIES AND BOGEYS
Birdies:
1. Pat Perez -- It is hard to say what was more impressive, Perez's going 33 under par over five rounds at the Bob Hope or his managing to keep his cool for that long.
2. Catriona Matthew -- The victory at the HSBC LPGA Brazil Cup was against a field of just 15 players, required only 36 holes and is considered unofficial, but when you're five months pregnant, there is no reason to qualify any win.
3. Gary Player -- At age 73, Player bettered his age during all three rounds of the Champions Tour's season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship, shooting 70-71-71. Player has now beat his age 12 times, while matching it 12 times.
Bogeys:
1. Steve Stricker -- We're actually giving him a triple and a quad. That's what Stricker made in the final round at the Hope as he went from a fourth-round 62 to a fifth-round 77.
2. Boo Weekley -- We love that he wants to expand his horizons, but Boo went all the way from Hawaii to Qatar only to miss the cut.
3. Brad Faxon, Troy Kelly and Peter Tomasulo -- They were the only players who failed to break par for 72 holes before the cut to the final round was made at the birdie-friendly Hope.
DID YOU NOTICE?
Unlike most events, the obsessive mentioning of the title sponsor was all but gone from the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. In fact, "Chrysler" was dropped from most references to the event. The longtime sponsor didn't have cars showcased throughout the venue. No executives were there to be interviewed or help in the trophy presentation.
There are likely several reasons for this. Chrysler officials have a lot more to worry about these days than a golf tournament. And perhaps they figured it would look bad to be splurging at a high-end golf resort when the company has been the beneficiary of millions in federal bailout dollars. It will be interesting to see how other corporate sponsors in a similar financial predicament will respond throughout the year.
NOTABLES
• The already-raucous par-3 16th at the TPC Scottsdale is likely to be more so, now that the entire hole has been enclosed, allowing for some 20,000 spectators to watch the spectacle -- or become part of it.
• It just seems odd that the European Ryder Cup team captain would be announced someplace other than Europe -- as was the case this week when Colin Montgomerie was named to the post in Dubai.
• So far, 10 players have competed in all three PGA Tour events: Brian Gay, D.J. Trahan, Ryuji Imada, Richard S. Johnson, Cameron Beckman, Chez Reavie, Johnson Wagner, Steve Lowery, Will MacKenzie and Daniel Chopra. Only Johnson is skipping the FBR Open, meaning nine players will have teed it up in all four tournaments.
• Ernie Els is playing for the fourth straight week, but his schedule has gone from the two tournaments in Hawaii to two tournaments in the Middle East. After playing in the Commercialbank Qatar Masters, Els has made the short hop to the Dubai Desert Classic -- where he has won three times and never finished worse than eighth in 11 appearances.
• Phil Mickelson, whose 2009 season begins at the FBR Open, is typically a fast starter. Four times he's won his season-opening event, and he's never missed the cut in his career in his first start of the year. He's also been good at the FBR, winning it twice, losing in a playoff last year and posting nine top-10 finishes.
BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC PICKS
Horse for the Course: J.B. Holmes. Three appearances, two victories, a scoring average around the TPC Scottsdale of 67.92.
Birdie Buster: Phil Mickelson. He's won twice in Scottsdale, lost in a playoff last year, and is traditionally a fast starter.
Super Sleeper: Webb Simpson. The Wake Forest grad is off to a great start in his rookie year, having posted consecutive top-10 finishes.
Winner: Geoff Ogilvy. The TPC Scottsdale has not been Ogilvy's greatest venue -- no top-10s in seven appearances -- but this is a virtual home game for the Aussie, who makes his American base in Scottsdale and is off to a strong start this year with a win at Kapalua.
CATCHING UP WITH LAST YEAR'S CHAMP
J.B. Holmes is not off to a great start this year, tying for 29th in the 33-player Mercedes-Benz Championship, then missing the cut at the Sony Open. But Holmes loves the TPC Scottsdale, where both of his PGA Tour victories occurred, in 2006 and 2008. Last year, Holmes defeated Mickelson in a sudden-death playoff after a mammoth drive on the first playoff hole set up a birdie.
Holmes, however, parlayed that win into only limited success. He did not have another top-5 finish the rest of the year and posted just three top-10s total. He did lead heading into the final round of the PGA Championship, where a final-round 81 knocked him back to 29th. Holmes was, however, a captain's pick for the U.S. Ryder Cup team and played a big role in the U.S. victory.
Among his goals is to improve his short game. "Wedges, putting … you can't get too good at that," Holmes said. "There's nobody in the world that's so good they don't need to practice on that."
QUOTABLE
"I was sitting in the living room watching TV. At first I didn't understand the English, but I caught the words 'invite you' and 'Masters.' It was a pleasant surprise. I just hung up with a blank look on my face."
-- Ryo Ishikawa, 17, to Japanese reporters about his reaction to learning he had received a special invitation to the Masters.