The TOUR Insider: Is it finally time for Quigley, Baird?
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Brett Quigley knows to expect the call.
His uncle, Dana, an 11-time winner on the Champions Tour, will be on the other end of the line. He's calling to give his nephew yet another pep talk.
"He's on me every week telling me I should win," Quigley says, laughing Tuesday afternoon as the shadows began to lengthen at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge. "And I tell him, 'I don't want the tax problems.'"
Quigley has given Uncle Dana and the rest of his family considerable cause for optimism of late, though. He made his 342nd PGA TOUR start last week and finished second -- which came on the heels of another runner-up the previous Sunday in Puerto Rico.
Quigley now has four second-place finishes, 32 top-10s and just under $10 million in earnings. He's at the forefront of the conversation -- along with Briny Baird and Tim Clark -- as the best player on TOUR who is still looking for that elusive first win.
"Certainly it's something that we've all wanted to do our entire lives and have been working towards that," Quigley said. "I think in the past for me it's been getting ahead of myself and thinking about the end result instead of focusing on what I need to do to get it done.
"I think in the last couple of weeks I've kind of changed my focus and played pretty well and had some chances. ... I think the last two weeks I've done a pretty nice job."
Baird has played in 283 TOUR events, posted three seconds and earned a comfortable $9.9 million. Clark -- now famous as the Tiger-slayer after beating him in the second round in Tucson -- has earned more than $12 million in 179 starts without a victory.
Knowing you can win, and actually doing it, though, are as different as a Phil Mickelson flop shot and the clunker some 36-handicapper hits that goes sailing over the green.
"I need to figure out a way to show up all four days and get the job done," Baird said. "... I don't think there is anyone on TOUR who would say Briny Baird isn't good enough to win a golf tournament. But I have to get more consistent and I have to have more confidence in my game going into Sunday."
"I think I've proven I've got some decent physical skills," Quigley agreed. "I just have to keep putting myself in that position and have an opportunity to do it."
Quigley admits that there was a bit of a learning curve early in his career. The former U.S. Amateur champ spent one year on the Nationwide Tour and then graduated to the big leagues where he faced a star-studded cast of characters week-in and week-out.
"You come out and you're playing against guys I grew up idolizing -- Greg Norman, Nick Price, Davis Love, Fred Couples -- and then to have to compete against them to earn a living I think was a little intimidating at first," Quigley said, estimating about 90-95 percent of TOUR players have a similar crisis of confidence.
"After a year or two, though I realized that when I play well, I can compete with anyone."
Those well-wishes of family, friends and fans are crucial to a player's support system. At the same time, though, those words of encouragement can weigh heavy on the psyche -- as can the best-player-never-to-have-won tag.
The trick is to turn that confidence in your favor.
"I think I used expectations to hurt me for a while, I'd say, because people tell me I should win or I haven't won and I'm good enough to win," Quigley said. "I think I used that more as a negative instead of a positive, putting more pressure on myself to win."
"Talking to you about being close to winning is better than talking to you about why I lost my card or why I went a year without a top-10," Baird said in a phone conversation on Tuesday. "The grass can always be greener or it could be worse. You have to keep telling yourself that."
As Baird sees it, maintaining consistency over 72 holes is the key. It could be Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday, but he needs to keep the average round from getting away from him and dropping him back into the pack.
"I have to avoid the days when I shoot 73 or 74 and I should have shot 70 so I'd still be in it rather than seven or eight shots behind," Baird said.
| 3 | Tiger Woods' victories at Bay Hill |
| 2 | Other multiple winners at Bay Hill (Tom Kite and Loren Roberts) |
| 62 | Course record held by Andy Bean (1981) and Greg Norman (1984) |
Baird says he doesn't dwell on the fact that he's still looking for that elusive first win. He doesn't go to sleep obsessing on what he has to do to make it happen. The MVP of his high school team even joked that bring more of a soccer mentality to the course.
"I've been on TOUR for 10 years and winning a golf tournament is still definitely on the forefront of my mind," Baird said. "I will figure it out. I will hit the right shots at the right time -- sooner rather than later."
And Quigley, more than most, knows how quickly things can turn around. He only made two cuts and $28,000 in five starts on the West Coast. Now he's ranked 19th on the FedExCup standings and has earned just under $1 million in his last three starts.
'It's funny," said Quigley, who hasn't made a bogey on the back nine on either of the last two Sundays. "We were talking about it the other day. I said I feel like I'm doing a lot of things well and have nothing to show for it. Then all of a sudden, three weeks later, I've got a lot of things to show for it.
"I don't feel any different. I'm not doing anything differently. I'm not thinking differently. I'm just playing and the results are catching up to my game."
HE GETS IT NOW, AND HE GOT IT THEN
When someone asked Rocco Mediate about PGA TOUR players being asked to go the extra mile with sponsors given the current economic climate, he didn't mince words.
"The fact that we had to even say that makes me nauseous, how's that?" Mediate said. "It should be known already. I don't care who you are, how young you are, how old you are. We have to tell people how to be to the sponsors who are putting up a bazillion dollars for us to play golf, think about that for a second, and we've got to train guys to be better with them? It's ridiculous."
Mediate continued on that vein for several minutes, and it got me thinking. Mediate had won the PGA TOUR event in Greensboro, where I used to work as a sportswriter, twice in a 10-year span.
His first victory there came in 1993 as Mediate beat Steve Elkington with a birdie on the fourth playoff hole at Forest Oaks. Mediate was unable to defend his title, though, because he had a ruptured disk in what was, at the time, a chronically bad back.
Mediate was so sorry that he couldn't defend he asked me if the Greensboro News & Record would run a letter that he wrote to the fans. Of course, I told him we would. He got "it" even back then, and he's the perfect example for players to follow now.
IF THIS WAS TALLADEGA, SHE'D BE 100 LAPS DOWN
Boo Weekley couldn't believe it. He was pulling out of the parking lot at the Transitions Championship last week when he saw a older woman sitting by a car with a flat tire.
"I can't believe that somebody didn't just stop by and help her," Weekley said. "That really disappointed me.'
So he stopped and offered his assistance. The woman, who had been sitting there for 45 minutes, thanked Weekley but said a repair service was on its way. Of course, she'd called about 10 minutes ago and they told her the wait would be about an hour.
"I said, nah, I can change it in about 10 or 15 max," Weekley said. "It's been a while since I changed one, but I know I can get it done. So I changed it and put all her stuff back in and she was on her merry way."
Did she realize who he was? Not exactly, but she did tell Weekley her husband was a golf fan.
"So I said, I got something for you," Weekley said with a grin. "I went over there and signed a glove and I just wadded it up and said, just hand this to him when you get home and tell him this is the person that changed your tire."
NOTES FROM ALL OVER
• Luke Donald's second wine, a Chardonnay made from grapes grown in the Carneros region of California, has just been released. The Chardonnay, created in association with the Terlato Wine Group, joins his Claret-style red blend that was released last year.
For this wine, Donald was inspired by the white Burgundies of France and he once again played an active role in the creation of the wine, as he did with the Claret. Donald will participate in a wine-tasting and silent auction at The Tasting Room Wine Café on Tuesday, March 31 in Houston to benefit local charities supported by the Shell Houston Open.
• Hunter Mahan is an alum of the American Junior Golf Association, so this was a no-brainer. He's teaming up with Under Armour, Inc., to host the Under Armour/Hunter Mahan Championship at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas. The event will feature 72 of the top juniors -- boys and girls -- aged 12-18.
"I am thrilled to partner with a tournament known for its high standard of athletic performance," Mahan said. "I have great memories from my years in the AJGA and I want to help provide today's young golfers with the opportunity to achieve their dreams."
• Tom Lehman will serve as the honorary chairman for this year's Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open, which will be played Aug. 3-9 at Crestview Country Club.
He won the inaugural event in 1990, beating Greg Whisman by one stroke. The tournament is one of four original events remaining on the Nationwide Tour. "Over the course of the 20 years we are celebrating, Tom Lehman has been one of the best examples of what the Nationwide Tour is all about," said Nationwide Tour president Bill Calfee.
"He arrived on the Tour in 1990 full of promise and talent and very shortly thereafter began achieving big results. Once he played his way onto the PGA TOUR, it didn't take long for him to become one of the TOUR's genuine stars, both on and off the golf course.
LAST WORD
"Well, I'm old, I'm not that old."
-- Arnold Palmer, who turns 80 in September, when asked whether he remembered what it was like to be 17 like Japan's Ryo Ishikawa
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