Fax to the Max

By John Hawkins
Photo By Peter Gregoire May 2003

Brad Faxon is the thinking man's tour pro, a 19-year veteran whose candor and insight are delivered without pretense or arrogance, a guy who has seen it all and is willing to talk about it. An eight-time tournament winner, twice a member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team and a two-time representative on the PGA Tour Policy Board, Faxon, 40, is known for owning one of the game's purest putting strokes. And though he admits he isn't the purest ball-striker on tour, his longevity seems to affirm the notion that golf is not a game of perfect.

A Rhode Islander and self-proclaimed traditionalist, Faxon defies classification as either company man or rebel. In a series of interviews at the start of the 2002 tour season, Faxon tackled an unusually broad range of subjects -- from his first round with Jack Nicklaus to the agony of missing a six-footer that could have clinched the 1995 Ryder Cup, from the problem with today's superstars to what $1 million in earnings really amounts to these days on tour.

Faxon remarried in 2000, and with his wife, Dory, recently welcomed the arrival of their first daughter, Charlotte. Being the father of four girls doesn't faze Faxon any more than a 50-footer for par or a New England winter. Whether on the balcony of his hotel room in Honolulu or in the basement of his home in Barrington, R.I., it turns out there wasn't a question Faxon couldn't handle.

Golf Digest: How does a player rank 150th on the PGA Tour in driving distance, 150th in accuracy, and stay out here long enough to make $10 million?

Brad Faxon: I don't pay much attention to the stats -- if I did, I'd be in big trouble. It also shows you that driving the ball isn't as important if you make up for it somewhere else.

OK, what do you know about putting that the rest of us don't?

I get that question more than any other. I remember sitting with John Cook one time. He says, "Wouldn't it be nice if you could bottle your secret and just sell it? You could retire off that."

It's hard to pick one thing, but when I putt my best, I feel like I don't care if I miss. People don't know what I mean, and it's hard to explain, but I just try to hit every putt as if I've just made a million in a row.

Have you been a good putter since you were a kid?

Rhode Island Country Club, where I grew up, is an old Donald Ross course with real small greens -- I never hit a lot of them, so I relied on my short game.

What's the problem you see most often among the average guy in pro-ams?

I don't claim to know everything about putting, but I do know I can help a guy who's struggling off the practice green more than I can on it. Most people just suffer from doubt. And too much advice. I got the luckiest break of my life in 1985. I missed the last five cuts of the year and finished 124th. If I'd finished 126th, there's no way I could have gone through Q school. I was hitting it so far off line in every direction. I was asking every person in the world to watch my swing. You talk about what happened to a guy like Seve Ballesteros or Ian Baker-Finch? I went through that. There was a period where I couldn't walk past a magazine stand without picking up Golf Digest and finding the newest thing to try out, what teacher I should go see, all that stuff.

True or false: Ball striking is overrated on the PGA Tour.

I would much rather be a great putter than a great ball-striker. You have to make putts. It has ruined a lot of guys' careers, because they thought putting wasn't as important as the rest of the game. Because I'm a good putter, I don't get as much credit for being a good player. The mentality is like, "Oh, you're lucky, you're a good putter." People don't respect you as much if you don't have a swing that looks like Steve Elkington's or a ball flight that looks like Davis Love's.

I will admit that when I don't have it, it can get pretty bad. If I could play from where Tiger drives the ball, I think I'd do pretty well. ... But I don't think that's going to happen.

You're in a three-year term on the Tour Policy Board. What has that been like?

It's an honor, because you're voted in by your peers, but it's a lot of work. There's the imposition on your time, especially when somebody has an issue to complain about.

Is it uncommon for players to approach you on the range with a complaint?

Does it happen? Absolutely. Most of the time a guy comes up while you're practicing and he's just finished. More often than not, it involves his exempt status, an injury thing, a medical thing. And it's never one of the top-10 players. Never. No way. Phil Mickelson never comes up and says, "I really think we'd benefit by moving the tees back."

One of the hot issues is player behavior. What's the tour doing to address it?

Fines have gone up, offenses are going to be penalized sooner and players are going to get hit a lot harder. And they should be.

What kind of conduct do you consider crossing the line? Is what Pat Perez did at Pebble Beach unacceptable?

The way he banged his club certainly crossed the line, and I'm sure when he watched that on tape he realized that didn't look good. Most of the incidents are from inexperienced players, not guys who've been out here a long time. We've got some repeat offenders, but most of the time, it's a first-timer, and he gets whacked enough to know better in the future. Now we've got a zero-tolerance policy -- any complaint from another player or a fan and it's an automatic fine.