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January 2013 Table of Contents

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Swing Sequence: Tommy Gainey

Analysis by Randy Smith — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Tommy Guns: In an era when homemade swings seem to be making a comeback, the way Gainey hits the ball might be the most unorthodox of all. Swing analysis by Randy Smith.

Rosaforte: Gainey a true rags-to-riches story

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 23:52:00 GMT

By Tim Rosaforte

Tommy Gainey Sr.--the original Tommy "Two Gloves" Gainey--had to excuse himself and step outside. There was so much noise inside Bishopville CC in South Carolina on Sunday night that he couldn't hear. Up on a TV screen, his son, Tommy Jr., had just won the McGladrey Classic with a final-round 60 to beat three potential Hall of Famers: Davis Love III, Jim Furyk and David Toms. It was an open bar.

"I'm telling you right now I'm the proudest papa in the world," Gainey said. "Tommy is such a good boy and for somebody to come from a small town like Bishopville, be a little unorthodox, never went to college and win on the PGA Tour? How hard do you think that is?"

Photo by Getty Images

When he was a boy, Tommy and his brother Allen would come to Bishopville CC in their bare feet and hit shag balls while their father played in his two gloves. Working in the factories as a material planner for 41 years, Mr. Gainey didn't have enough money to buy his sons two sets of clubs, so they shared.

"I knew the talent Tommy had," his dad said. "He had a special talent ever since he started playing. What I'm so proud of, even though this year hasn't been great to him, is that somehow or another, he can find a 60 inside him last day of a tournament. That is just remarkable."

What's remarkable is that Gainey started the day seven strokes back, or that he shot the lowest score on the PGA Tour in 2012, or that four years ago, at the Children's Miracle Network Classic, he shot a final-round 64 to finish solo second. It was his best finish on the PGA Tour until Sunday on St. Simons Island, Ga., but he didn't earn enough money to keep his card. The man that beat him that day was Davis Love III.

That was the Tommy Gainey that Tommy Gainey saw on the mini-tours, or on the Golf Channel's Big Break, when he learned to play in front of the cameras.

"It's tough being a daddy to start with," Gainey Sr. said. "But buddy to have a boy 37 years old out there, never been taught anything about golf, and he beats some of the world's best players, I feel so doggone good it almost hurts."

What hurts so good is that this won't change Tommy "Two Gloves" Gainey. During the two-and-a-half-hour wait between when Gainey posted his 60 and Furyk, Tommy Sr. and Tommy Jr. talked on the phone. When Toms hit a drive, Tommy Jr. could hear Tommy Sr. rooting it into a fairway bunker.

"He said, 'Dad, you can't pull against these guys," Gainey Sr. said. "I said, 'Tommy, those three guys they have everything, they're Hall of Famers."

When it was over, Tommy Sr. headed back to his house in Bishopville so his wife, Judy, could punch the clock for the graveyard shift at the wood plant. He took early retirement when he was 57 but now, at 65, he does consulting work for A.O. Smith, the factory where Tommy Jr. worked as a teenager wrapping insulation around water heaters for $8.25 an hour.

That was on the mind of Tommy Sr., and in the conversation with his son on the range at Sea Island Resort, as he hits balls waiting to see what Toms, Love and Furyk would do.

"I told him he better hurry up and get home," Gainey Sr. said. "You've got a $2,000 bar bill at the club."

Tim Rosaforte is a Golf World senior writer and Golf Channel's Tour Insider.

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Furyk: 'Another swing he would like to have back'

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 22:34:00 GMT

By John Strege

A good swing need not be identified by its beauty, as the winner of the McGladrey Classic demonstrated on Sunday. Tommy Gainey has an unsightly motion they don't teach at golf school.

"Everything about his golf swing is different," Golf Channel's Brandel Chamblee said.

All the same, it features the hallmark of any good swing: Its ability to replicate itself with the consistency of a copy machine.

Photo by Getty Images

Jim Furyk has one of those, too, an eyesore of a swing, homemade, but effective enough to have assembled a Hall of Fame career, at least by induction standards that have been re-defined by Fred Couples' 15 victories, one major.

Furyk's numbers are 16 and one, a record achieved by his clubhead inexplicably following an identical circuitous route through to impact, "kind of like going from Philadelphia to New York by the way of Pittsburgh," the late Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray wrote.

The problem now is that it gets lost en route to New York, at least late in the game, as it did again on Sunday. Furyk again had a chance to win, trailing by a stroke with three holes to play on the Seaside Course at Sea Island, Ga. He played them in one-over par and missed the green left off the tee at 17 and right from the fairway at 18.

"Another swing in 2012 that he would like to have back," Chamblee said after his errant delivery at 17.

The year can't end soon enough for Furyk, who has not experienced another like it in a PGA Tour career that spans 19 years. He once won tournaments in six straight years and nine of 10, but 2012 has produced only a series of disappointments that are at odds with his renown as a ruthless competitor. A recap shows four 54-hole leads (or a share of the lead, as was the case at the McGladrey) squandered on Sunday this year, including one at the U.S. Open.

Then there was the Ryder Cup debacle, when he was one-up on Sergio Garcia with two to play in Sunday singles, finished with consecutive bogeys and lost.

There is an upside to his year. It's almost over. Then there's this: Though 42, he has retained the ability to compete with the best players in the world (his eight top 10s ranked him tied for sixth on the PGA Tour.

The issue is beating them.

A swing that inexplicably made him a star has inexplicably begun to desert him when he has needed it most.

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My Shot: Tommy Gainey

Tommy Gainey with Max Adler — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 04:00:00 GMT

From $9 an hour to $20,000 a hole, Tommy Gainey on the karma of jumping from 'the Big Break' to the PGA Tour and going face to face with Fred Couples, Bill Murray...and an iguana.

Big Break Ireland: Julien's Journal

Julien Trudeau — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Contestant Julien Trudeau gives a behind-the-scenes look of each episode as they air on Golf Channel.

Peeking Behind the Curtain

Chris Millard — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 04:00:00 GMT

The reality of Golf Channel's Big Break franchise is it's a massive production with spy-grade secrecy -- and an enduring format that you either love or hate

PGA Tour: Fantasy Fix: Shell Houston Open

Alex Myers — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:00:00 GMT

We discuss players looking ahead to the Masters, call out a well-known colleague and take an in-depth look at the other tournament going on in Houston this week.

PGA Tour: Waste Management Phoenix Open: Wilson Wins In Playoff

AP — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 18:20:00 GMT

Mark Wilson birdied the second playoff hole against Jason Dufner to claim his second title of the season

Monday Qualifier: Wilson Just Warming Up

John Strege — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 05:00:00 GMT

With win in Phoenix, Mark Wilson is the hottest player on the PGA Tour.