Why not Webb Simpson?
PGA Tour and golf fans looking for a young player to boost the game could do worse.
Simpson, 26, has the look of a rising star. He recorded his first PGA Tour victory last month at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro. He posted victory No. 2 on Monday, winning the Deutsche Bank Championship near Boston, and is now No. 1 on the FedEx Cup points list, with a chance to win the year-end prize of $10 million.
Simpson defeated Chez Reavie on the second playoff hole for his latest victory, a win that put him into contention for the PGA Tour's player-of-the-year award and locked up his spot on the Presidents Cup team.
"It was great to get into position like that and win," Simpson said by telephone Tuesday from his home in Charlotte. "It was just two weeks ago that I won the Wyndham, then had a top 10 at the Barclays, so to be able to make the putts down the stretch like that and win was very satisfying."
Simpson, a Raleigh native and 2008 Wake Forest graduate, gave the Wyndham a good story line — native son gets first PGA Tour win in his home state.
Who knew he was just getting started?
Simpson has had quite a year. He ended last season fighting just to keep his PGA Tour card and was ranked No. 213 in the world. He's now ranked No. 14 and in position for a $10 million payday.
He and his wife, Dowd, also a Wake Forest graduate, had their first child, James, in February.
Simpson is planning for the future with his family and considering his charity interests.
In only his third full season on the PGA Tour, he hasn't yet started any foundations but said that he and his wife have discussed it.
"Dowd and I have talked a little about that, but we haven't decided on anything of that nature," Simpson said. "It's something we'll pray about and then see what comes up down the road, but it's definitely on the horizon. We both went to Wake Forest and love that place, but we'll figure it out down the road."
Simpson's latest victory was worth $1.44 million, giving him more than $5.3 million in winnings this season and making him the leading money winner on tour. He has $7.5 million in career winnings, the same amount Curtis Strange, also a former Wake Forest star, won during his career.
"The joy I get from what I do is not in the money, it's getting in the playoffs, just making big putts when I need to," Simpson said after his win.
One thing that helped Simpson become a better golfer was a switch to a belly putter during his freshman year at Wake Forest in 2004. He struggled in his first semester, but while playing with his father, Sam, at their home course (the Country Club of North Carolina in Pinehurst), Simpson toyed around with it and started making putts.
"I tried the belly putter honestly as a joke," he said. "I thought in my head, I'll never use this thing."
Kyle Reifers, then a Wake Forest junior, gave Simpson a hard time about the putter at the start of the spring semester. Simpson said the ribbing stopped after his teammates watched him making putts.
"(Reifers) was kind of making fun of me," Simpson said, "But he saw me putt with it, and then he switched, and then he won his first college tournament a couple weeks later.
"There are a lot of guys switching, and it's kind of cool to see. I love it and I don't see ever switching back."
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement