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Real Grind: Former Deac finds 1st year as pro tough
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Published: August 24, 2009
Updated: 08/23/2009 11:45 pm
GREENSBORO - Webb Simpson admits to being a little worn down toward the end of his rookie season on the PGA Tour.
"I'm not used to playing this much golf," Simpson said after missing the cut Friday at the Wyndham Championship. "I do feel like I tried to pace myself well, but it hasn't always worked out that way."
While Simpson, a former All-America at Wake Forest, missed his 11th cut in 23 tournaments, at least he can look ahead to this week's first FedEx Cup playoff tournament. Because he's accumulated enough points and is inside the 125, he'll get a chance to keep his season going.
Simpson, who grew up and lives in Raleigh, said that playing in the Wyndham was a learning experience.
"It's my first year playing on Tour in front of a home crowd and it's hard, but I learned from it and hopefully I'll do better next year," Simpson said.
Simpson will need to play well at The Barclays to advance to the next playoff tournament where the top 70 players in the points move on.
He was expected to use his time wisely during the weekend to figure out what went wrong with his swing.
"I've got to figure out this weekend what's going on with the swing," Simpson said. "This game is unbelievable I can play this bad this week and turn around the next week and win. Hopefully, I can get something going into the playoffs."
Simpson said that there are some swing issues he hopes to get settled.
"Certain swing flaws and my body is changing, and I just have to keep it simple," Simpson said. "It's a fine line between keeping it simple and working on stuff."
Even though Simpson didn't qualify for any of the four majors, he went full bore into the season, playing in 23 tournaments. His best finish was early when he tied for fifth at the Bob Hope Classic.
Later in the year he went through an eight-tournament streak where he missed six cuts.
Sam Simpson, Webb's father, said he is proud of the way that his son didn't back down.
"I think at the beginning of the year, if he would have been offered what he's done, he would have taken it," Sam Simpson said. "He's enjoyed it a lot and the guys out here have been wonderful toward him and he's having fun."
Simpson should be in good shape to keep his tour card for next season, but might he have to play in some tournaments in the fall.
When Simpson does return for this second season on Tour, he'll be married. Simpson and his fiancée, actress Dowd Keith, have a Jan. 2 wedding planned in Charlotte. They met at Wake Forest and have been dating for a little more than five years.
"Yeah, she's doing a lot of the planning but she's doing a great job," Simpson said about the wedding.
Simpson says that it's been tough spending time away from his fiancée this season.
"It will be nice to travel together and see each other more next year," Simpson said.
Simpson said that one of the challenges this year was pacing himself through a long season.
"It's been a grind," Simpson said. "I've played in so many tournaments and I've just learned a lot and I think next season will be a lot easier."
As for the playoffs, Simpson said he's confident enough to make a good showing.
"You want to think at the beginning of the season you can play good enough to get to the playoffs," Simpson said. "I'm hoping that my game will perform and I'll rise to the occasion."
Giving to the First Tee
As the executive director of the First Tee of the Triad, Anne Marie Goslak pounds on the doors of corporate America looking for donations. So it was a bit of a surprise when a high-school senior had an idea.
Brad Brown, a senior at Reynolds High School who is on the golf team, needed to work on an Eagle Scout project and he has made First Tee the beneficiary. Brown will deliver more than 250 clubs, 200 golf balls and about 10 golf bags along with about $500 to First Tee sometime this week.
"Here's a kid that came forward and we didn't know him at all, and he wasn't associated with the First Tee in any way," Goslak said. "He came up with a plan and we tried to point him in the right direction, and that was it."
Brown said that through mostly donations from others he received plenty of clubs, but some of them needed to be re-gripped. He used the money from a fundraiser he held to get the clubs re-gripped, but he had plenty of cash left over to give to First Tee.
"It didn't cost as much for the supplies to get a few of the clubs re-gripped," Brown said.
Brown said that he was glad to be able to get that many donations.
"I think the First Tee is happy about it," Brown said. "My original plan was to give about 100 clubs or so, but that kind of changed as it got going."
Around the green
Bermuda Run's Brodie Baker, 70, won his second straight National Association of Lefthanded Golfers tournament. Baker won the senior division for the second straight year. He shot 75-78-73-71 to win by two shots in Taylor, Mich. In the third round he was 10 shots back but made up ground. "It's kind of nice to win it again," he said. "I wasn't even sure I was going to play because I was having some medical issues, but I made it up there to Michigan.'' ...
One of the state's most prolific amateur champions, Charlotte's Patty Moore, and Terry Florence of Charleston, S.C., were inducted into the Carolinas Golf Hall of Fame last week in Pinehurst. Moore was the first senior player to win both the regular and senior divisions of the North Carolina Women's Amateur in 2000, and she repeated the feat in 2003. Florence was inducted into the South Carolina Golf Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Carolinas PGA Hall of Fame in 2008. As a player during the past 40 years, Florence won more than 20 championships. ...
Coach Jerry Haas of the Wake Forest men's golf team said he is excited about the hiring of Dan Walters as his assistant. Walters was a two-time All-America at Rollins College and had 16 top-15 finishes in 21 tournaments to go along with three wins in college. "I couldn't be more excited to join Wake Forest," Walters said. "There is a lot of great stuff going on, not only with the team but with the building of a new golf facility. This is a great opportunity for me, and I am excited to get started." Walters spent a lot of time at the Wyndham Championship keeping an eye on Justin Thomas, a 16-year-old from Kentucky who made the cut.
■ John Dell can be reached at 727-4081 or at jdell@wsjournal.com.
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