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Make way for Russell Henley, golf's newest star

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 02:56:00 GMT

Russell Henley's dream foursome, if we are to take him at his word, would include Kid Rock, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters and Andres Gonzales, a PGA Tour player who bills himself as "half man, half amazing."

(Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images

More likely, his was a cheeky response (what, no Nicklaus, Palmer and Woods?), but one that hints at a tour rookie for whom convention is to be bucked. Hinting at that as well and in a more emphatic manner is that he won the first full-field event of the PGA Tour season, the Sony Open in Hawaii on Sunday in his first start as a member of the tour.

Gone, apparently, are the days when tour rookies audacious enough to appear on a leaderboard, with a few notable exceptions, would still respect the game enough to finish fifth or worse. Among the exceptions were Tiger and Rory. Henley is identifiable neither by his first name, nor his last. Yet.

Henley, 23, played Waialae Country Club in Honolulu last week as though he were enjoying casual rounds with friends at home, posting scores of 63, 63, 67 and 63 and winning three ways and all presses, or 1,008,000 PGA Tour dollars.

Henley's performance was either a warning shot of his impending stardom or a sign of changing times, maybe both. Rookies today, the best among them, at any rate, seem to arrive on tour in possession of advanced degrees in competitive golf and wholly unafraid to impose their will on a golf establishment powerless to stop it.

Their growing pains are behind them, endured in college or on lesser tours, and they arrive ready to succeed and disinclined to fail, even when circumstances suggest that that is the more likely option, as it would be in contention on Sunday afternoon. Instead, Henley birdied his final five holes.

"He might be a star right out of the blocks," Golf Channel's Johnny Miller said after Henley holed yet another putt, a nine-footer to save par on the 12th hole. "His game right now, there might be just a handful of guys playing better in the whole world than he is."

Henley, 23, was likely to move into the top 50 in the World Ranking with this victory, his third in his last four stars, his other two coming near the end of the Web.com Tour season last year. He also won a Web.com Tour event as an amateur the year before, and in 2010, he and Scott Langley were low amateurs in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, tying for 16th.

Related: A beginner's guide to golf

So maybe we should not be surprised with this tour rookie standing out in his debut as a member, but there was another right there with him. Langley, 23, a friend and playing partner in each of the four rounds at Waialae, shot a 62 in his debut as a tour member, the best round of the week, and hung near the lead into the back nine on Sunday.

A year ago, they were playing in a Hooters Tour event together, Henley missing the cut and Langley making it on the number. "We are on the range, trying to help each other find it," Langley recalled.

On Thursday, they were walking toward the 16th green at Waialae together. "You could see the ocean behind it, PGA Tour signs everywhere," Langley said. "We looked at each other and realized this is pretty cool."

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Pat Perez, mellow? He's trying and it's working

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 02:12:00 GMT

By Dave Shedloski

HONOLULU - Pat Perez is now a happy golfer. No, not because he fired a second-round 63 Friday in the Sony Open in Hawaii, though that's a pretty good reason.

He's happy because he wants to be. It is his choice. He is in the process of becoming a changed man, which isn't easy when you play golf for a living.

Golf will make you crazy.

Golf will make you weep.

Mostly, golf will make you angry.

Of course, there's a range of anger simmering beneath the seemingly composed faÃ§ade of every player, from low boil to cosmic meltdown.

Perez is from the Tommy Bolt and Tom Weiskopf school of Vesuvian extirpation. Or at least he used to be. He has bought into the power of positive thinking, and he's positive that his golf will be better because of it.

With the help of Chandler, Ariz., psychologist Chris Dorris, who bills himself on his website as a "mental toughness trainer and personal transformation coach," Perez is seeking to conjure his inner Yanni. Two rounds into 2013, the 12-year PGA Tour veteran is a picture of equanimity as he stands at 9-under 131, five behind rookie Russell Henley.

Of course, it helps that he's hitting it well, the result of six weeks of intense work on his game.

"I'm just trying to look at things in a positive way. Not a fake positive, but just not getting down, not getting negative," said Perez, who is coming off an uneventful season that included just one top-10 finish. "I'll tell you, it's hard. For me it's real hard because I've done it my whole life. To try to catch myself going down the other way is hard, but I've done at least for two days."

Dorris, who has worked with Champions Tour player Michael Allen, is trying to train Perez to take that positive attitude from the practice range to the first tee to the final green. Apparently, however, there is no magic formula. It's simply choosing to listen to the angel on your shoulder and not the demon on the other one.

"You change your thoughts immediately," Perez, 36, of Scottsdale, Ariz., said. "You find yourself thinking negatively and you just immediately change your thinking. 'Let's get this up and down, lets make this 40-footer, let's hit a good driver here.' You force yourself into an immediate change of thought. That's always been hard for me."

Perez, whose lone tour win came at the 2009 Bob Hope Classic, decided to go the behavioral self-improvement route after a bit of off-season introspection. "I thought it was all kind of hoax. But I always knew I needed to do something eventually, but I didn't want to admit it," he said.

"I figured that's just me, that's the way I am," Perez added. "But I started going over it two months ago and I asked myself, 'What don't you do well? Why do the same guys do so well?' You go over their rounds and the way they look at things and their positivity. Like Dustin Johnson. Nothing fazes that guy. Now I have a totally different mindset. I wish I'd have done it a long time ago."

Perez admits that his patience hasn't yet been truly tested this week. He expected to play well, and he has. Already he has equaled his low round from last season. But adversity is a staple in golf. Perez feels confident he can stare it down.

"There will be a moment when something is going to go astray, and it will be a real challenge for me to stay in that positive frame of mind," Perez said. "I'm actually looking forward to that opportunity when it comes."

Right, leave the eruptions to the volcanoes.

(Getty Images photo)

Charles Howell III still seeking answers

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:15:00 GMT

By Dave Shedloski

HONOLULU - You can't pose this question to just anyone: "Why aren't you better?"

Oh, you can ask it more delicately than that. But that's the dead-center heart of however you craft it. You can only ask this of a professional - and you use that word as the utmost compliment for all it denotes - for a professional will stand up to it, and he will answer it with the kind of mature equanimity that you expect, otherwise you wouldn't bother.

Charles Howell III is a professional, and he has conducted himself in such a manner since he decided 14 years ago to begin playing golf for a living. He loves the game, and he has been a very good golfer, winning twice on the PGA Tour, earning more than $1 million each season, playing for the U.S. twice in the Presidents Cup, reaching the Tour Championship five times.

He is fit, clean-cut, soft-spoken and hits the ball hard.

But as good as Charles Howell is, you keep waiting for more. So you have to ask, when will more arrive? It's a hard question, but the answer is even harder, because golf conspires so readily with uncertainty.

"It's not an easy game. In fact, I'm still learning it," Howell, 33, said Thursday at Waialae CC after an opening 66 in the Sony Open in Hawaii. It's a promising start for a guy who still has promise and needs to find a way to unleash the fullness of it.

Charles Howell was supposed to be good. He grew up in Augusta, Ga., home of the Masters Tournament. He has played golf enthusiastically since he was 10. He took instruction early on from one of the game's most acclaimed teachers, David Leadbetter. He became an All-American and NCAA individual champion at Oklahoma State University.

It bears repeating that Howell has been a good PGA Tour player. But there's another gear in there somewhere. He knows it, too.

"I need to quit trying as hard when I get into certain positions," Howell said after a pause to rummage through introspection. "I try to force it too much. I guess that comes from having expectations for myself.

"My goals are high, but I think they should be," he added. "It's not as if I sit back and say, if I don't win 25 golf tournaments am I going to be miserable? No, I'm not. But I am aware that it's time for me to start doing some of the things that I think I should be doing, yeah."

The Sony Open is perhaps a microcosm of his career. Five times he's finished in the top five, including runner-up last year to Johnson Wagner.

On Tuesday, Howell played a practice round with fellow Oklahoma State product Morgan Hoffmann, who, Howell said, "I think just turned 12.

"It's eye-opening that I'm going to be 34 in June, and this is my 14th season, and that's just hard for me to believe," he added. "I still I think I'm that young guy, and I'm not."

To Howell's credit, he still approaches the game like a young guy. He is not above seeking input from new sources. He began working with instructor Gary Gilchrist last August. He's picked the brain of Grant Waite while playing at Isleworth CC in Orlando, and at the Shark Shootout in December he was probing Greg Norman about his fitness and practice routines when he was No. 1 in the world.

Desire is not lacking. Neither is talent.

"I think everyone has to find his own key to getting to another level, whatever level that is," Matt Kuchar said. "For me it was finding an instructor I was comfortable with and just learning to play. We all know Charles is a great player. He has a great golf swing. When he finds a way to kick it into another gear, he'll win a bunch more."

Howell believes Gilchrist, who he labels, "a coach more than an instructor," can make a difference. "He has helped me to simplify things. I'm spending more time on things that matter to me, which means a lot of work on my short game, a lot of work on 100 yards and in. He has just helped me simplify everything."

Simple helps, especially with two young children scurrying about the house. Kids tend to change your perspective on time. Competing against twenty-something hot shots, a fraternity to which you no longer belong, can have you looking at your watch more frequently.

But so what? Promise might have an expiration date, but there's no uniform stamp. Where is Charles Howell along that arc where promise gets fulfilled? He's out there, working, intent on getting better - not because you ask, but because it's what he continues to ask of himself.

"I still love the game of golf and playing in golf tournaments," he said. "I'm still learning this game, and I think that as I keep applying these things I'm learning I'm going to rise to another level. I intend to be a student of the game for a long time and I enjoy the process of learning it, so in that regard, I am that young guy yet."

(Getty Images photo)

Villegas still not playing golf in Hawaii

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:14:00 GMT

HONOLULU -- Camilo Villegas was rolling putts on the carpet in the lockerroom at Waialae CC Wednesday morning, aiming at one of the legs of a bench and consistently finding the target. His spirits were good despite the pounding rain outside that canceled the pro-am for the Sony Open in Hawaii and further cut into his preparation for his "first" tournament of the year.

"I'm definitely ready to go out and play some golf," he said with a smile, "and at this rate who knows when that will happen."

Villegas was in Maui last week for the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, but played only one round before being disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard. He stayed at Kapalua Resort another two days before making his way here for the Sony Open, but heavy rains all morning shut down all golf at Waialae CC. The forecast for the next few days isn't much better.

Villegas admitted that he was frustrated not playing the weekend at Kapalua's Plantation Course. He spent his time at the beach and chomping at the bit. "I was laying in the sun, it's a beautiful day at the beach, and all I could think was, 'this sucks.' I wanted to play. I was ready. So, yeah, I don't like to see this weather. But what can you do?"

He kept hitting putts on the carpet in the lockerroom. It was the only golf available.

-- Dave Shedloski

Singh kicking around the idea of winning again

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:01:00 GMT

HONOLULU -- Kicking a soccer ball against a wall has Vijay Singh excited about the 2011 season.

Singh, 47, again starts his season at the Sony Open in Hawaii, but unlike the last two years, he's more hopeful about his ability to add to his record of 34 PGA Tour titles. The reason is that his right knee, which he had surgically repaired in early 2009, is not causing him any pain.

"I'm still getting a little swelling, but it doesn't hurt me," Singh said Tuesday at Waialae CC, where he won in 2005. "It's feeling pretty good. I'm pretty optimistic about this year."

Singh hasn't won since the 2008 DeutscheBank Championship that sewed up the FedExCup title. In fact, he's only had five top-10 finishes combined the last two years. But he believes the worst is behind him. Since the BMW Championship Singh has played just one event, the Children's Miracle Network Classic in Orlando. The rest did him wonders. And when he incorporated an exacting soccer training drill into his fitness regimen -- kicking and chasing after a soccer ball -- and felt few adverse effects, his confidence began to return.

"With no pain in my knee I can do a lot more," Singh said. "I am eager to get going. I'm feeling more like myself again."

-- Dave Shedloski

Sony Open: 50 years separate oldest, youngest players

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:10:00 GMT

One has been playing senior tournaments for 17 years, the other conceivably could still be playing junior events, yet they'll be playing the same PGA Tour event, the Sony Open in Hawaii, this week.

Nearly 50 years separate them. David Saka, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Hawaii, won the Sony Open amateur qualifier, while Dave Eichelberger, 67, a Champions Tour veteran, won the PGA Aloha Section Stroke Play Championship to qualify.

Ann Miller has their story in the Honolulu Star Advertiser this morning.

This line from the story, pertaining to Saka while he was still in high school, was especially amusing: "The 5-foot-4 130-pounder quit the game for eight months to try football." Maybe not the best idea, at 5-4 and 130 pounds, to quit golf in favor of football, though the attempt to do so is admirable.

Not surprisingly, an injury brought him back to golf.

-- John Strege

Goydos: This round would help the handicap

John Strege — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:41:00 GMT

On the eve of the Sony Open in Hawaii, Paul Goydos, a past champion, was lamenting his form. "Been playing poorly," he said. "I am back to scratch. I had a bad winter. I think...

He is still (and forever after, apparently) Aquaman

John Strege — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:44:00 GMT

HONOLULU -- It's been more than two years and another Presidents Cup has been played since he earned the moniker, but Woody Austin just can't separate himself from his hard-earned nickname, "Aquaman." So, U.S. captain...