Sands Of Time

It was written that Watts was the "feel-good story" of the 1998 Open, "the story of a golfing gypsy with a chance, at least, to make his way back home." He played the 1999 PGA Tour, winning $767,409 to finish 57th on the money list, while returning to Japan to play occasionally. But he had endured lower-back problems for a while, and early in 2000 he started having pain in his left hip, causing him to slip to 133rd on the money list. He underwent hip surgery in January 2001 and rehabbed for eight weeks before returning to the tour in the spring and going on a nice run to finish 112th and keep his card for 2002.

"But I wasn't feeling the same as before my left hip started hurting," Watts says. "Looking back, I hadn't realized that the rehab for my hip would be lifelong. There were some underlying things I didn't know about." He played sparingly in the U.S. and Japan through 2005, with relatively little success. Still, he persisted, entering qualifying school in fall 2005. There, however, he couldn't bend over to put a tee in the ground.

"Driving back to my home in Dallas," Watts remembers, "I said, 'I'm never playing again until I'm healthy enough to play.' "

Watts previously had talked with his long-time friend and PGA Tour colleague Paul Stankowski, who had taken a year off because of injuries. "I told Paul I was as down as I could be, and that I needed help," said Watts. Stankowski reminded Watts of that conversation. This time Watts listened to Stankowski, who led him to Troy Van Biezen, a former pro hockey player who had become a prominent chiropractor and specialist in Active Release Technique (ART), which breaks up scar tissue. Stankowski credits Van Biezen with saving his career.

Watts met Van Biezen in January 2006, "a big date for me," he says. Van Biezen arranged for Watts to call Wally Uihlein, the chairman and CEO of Titleist. Uihlein in turn arranged for Watts to go to the Titleist Performance Institute in Oceanside, Calif., to meet Greg Rose, TPI's co-founder and renowned chiropractor and athletic therapist. Van Biezen and Watts visited Rose in April 2006.

There Watts learned that he had been playing with a torn meniscus in his left knee for six years. He also had a herniated disk in his lower back. He was informed that his problems came from his dysfunctional left hip, which overworked the joints below the hip.

Rose and Van Biezen provided Watts with an exercise program that he follows religiously to this day. Van Biezen and Rose, along with Roland Denault, a muscle activation therapist, comprise Watts' therapy team. His program includes ART, muscle activation therapy, isometric and ballistic stretching, and resistance training. To ease the stress on his left hip at impact and through the ball, Watts learned to play with his left foot turned out 30 degrees at address. "If not for these three gentlemen, I wouldn't be able to play," Watts says of his team. "I'd be grilled, well-done, and cooked."

"The big thing with Brian in my opinion is that he was misdiagnosed," Van Biezen says. "Everybody jumps on disk herniation as the problem. I said I don't think so, that the problem stems from the left hip. If you lose mobility in the hip, the load goes into your lower spine. I measured Brian's internal hip rotation, and it was five degrees. The average tour pro rotates 35-40 degrees."

Watts played no competitive golf, and very little golf at all, while rehabbing the last couple of years. He started to play regularly this past spring, with friends, and in a cart. He then played alone while walking, with a caddie. "I forced myself not to play with my friends, and to go out as if I was playing my own mini-tournament," he recalls.

The wind was howling one day when Watts played. He pretended he was in a major, hitting every shot with purpose. "I still have a lot of work to do," he said after that round in early May, "but I'm upbeat about it." He had received an invitation to play the Mizuno Open last month, the tournament he won three times in his heyday. The top four players would qualify for the Open at Birkdale. Watts referred to the tournament as his qualifying round for the Open.

Watts opened with a 69 in the first round at the Yomiuri CC in Tokyo. But he shot 75 in the second round to miss the cut by a shot. Still, he is competing again. "I'm pulling for Brian. I'd love to walk down the fairways with him again," Stankowski says. Watts puts it this way: "It's been a struggle, but I have a chance now. That's all I can ask for."

A decade after nearly winning a major, he is effectively starting over. It is a start he embraces, a start he cherishes.