Secrets of golf

Wax’s best finish so far this season was a T30 at the weather-shortened Pacific Rubiales Bogota Open.Apr. 18, 2011
By Danny Wax, Nationwide Tour rookie

Editor’s note: Each week during the season a different Nationwide Tour player will check in with a quick blog about how their season is going and what life is like out on the road with the Nationwide Tour. This week’s player blog is from Danny Wax, who is in his rookie season on Tour after picking up his card at Qualifying School. He played his college golf at the University of Denver. Travis Hampshire wrote last week’s blog. Read it here.

This week at the Fresh Express Classic didn’t go as excepted — I missed the cut — but I still had a great time.

TPC Stonebrae wasn’t like the other courses we’ve played so far on the Nationwide Tour. It had very slopping fairways and extreme undulations on the greens. It wasn’t easy, but it’s always enjoyable to get away from my comfort zone and hit different types of shots. It really allows me to learn something new about my game.

I didn’t know what to expect as a rookie on the Nationwide Tour this year. After the final stage of q-school, I really devoted myself to my game and preparing for the upcoming season, which to be honest is the opposite of my normal, more relaxed approach. So now, concluding the fourth event, to have only made one cut is extremely disappointing.

My game is very, very close. I’m just not getting anything out of the rounds. I’m not taking advantage of some birdie opportunities and I’m making careless mental errors. At least from here, there is no where to go but up!

I know this may sound crazy, but it’s almost like I care too much about the game of golf and succeeding. Golf is supposed to be enjoyed and shouldn’t take over your whole life. With that being said, I am getting on a plane Monday headed to Mexico with my girlfriend and two of my best friends for the week — without my golf clubs. I’m taking a break to recharge the batteries, have a few cold ones and ease the mind.

Golf is a funny sport; one week is all it can take to turn things around. Your game comes and goes. It’s like no other sport I have ever played before. I didn’t actually start playing golf regularly until my senior year of high school. It wasn’t until the beginning of my senior year in college that I decided to persue golf as my career. I grew up on the soccer field. In soccer, when you aren’t playing well you can run harder, slide tackle and allow your aggression to be taken out on the field. Golf is the exact opposite. You need to remain patient and bury the emotions.

I have some work to do, but I am very excited for the rest of the season — at no point will I ever get disappointed. My goal is to always stay encouraged and keep plugging away. I am very confident in my ability. I will continue to do what’s needed in order to improve mentally and physically and I will be ready when it’s my time.

The remainder of the season is on the opposite side of the coast from where I reside in Southern California, so the travel will now become more difficult. Rental cars, flights, baggage and hotels are never a healthy combination for the mind, but it’s all part of the learning process in my rookie season.

Someone used to tell me as a kid “act as if.” Act as if every situation you encounter is an opportunity to learn to better yourself. The rest of the season is going to be just that. My next event will be the South Georgia Classic Presented by First State Bank and Trust Company. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season and hopefully at the end of the year I’ll have a PGA TOUR card in my hand.

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Two days before his 18th birthday, Manassero added two more birdies on the back nine on his way to a 4-under 68 to finish with a 16-under total of 272. Bourdy made a charge up the leaderboard with four consecutive birdies beginning at the third hole, but he bogeyed the eighth and had a double bogey on the 11th. He finished with eight birdies in a 67.

Rory McIlroy (69) had to settle for third, two shots back, after holding the second-round lead as he tried to bounce back from his Masters collapse last Sunday. The Northern Irishman had four birdies and a lone bogey on the first 11 holes but seemingly fell out of contention with a double bogey on the 12th. However, he rallied with three more birdies and could have forced a playoff with another birdie on the par-5 18th, but his hopes evaporated when his second shot went too far to the right.

Manassero, who became the European Tour’s youngest winner with his victory at last year’s Castello Masters, said it was “just fantastic” to earn another trophy before turning 18.

“It was tough,” he said. “The course is really tight and all the players were doing good and playing well. It’s just not easy to concentrate, especially to stay calm.”

Martin Kaymer, No. 1 in the world rankings, was eight shots back in a tie for ninth while Masters champion Charl Schwartzel finished another stroke behind after a 70.

McIlroy, who had to take a nearly 30-hour flight to Malaysia and arrived only a day before the tournament began, looked visibly tired during the final round, despite maintaining his smile for the huge crowd swarming around him.

However, his caddy ran out of patience when some spectators ignored the ban on taking photos while players were teeing off and asked officials to confiscate some of the cameras.

Manassero will move up to 35th in the world rankings next week. He received the winner’s check of $416,6660 and became the Malaysian Open’s youngest winner.

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“I just missed out on Augusta (this month’s U.S. Masters) but playing the other three majors will be fantastic,” said the Italian teenager.

“I am really proud of that and the next target will be winning another tournament and keeping the momentum going. It’s a great achievement after just 11 months of professional golf.”

Manassero’s victory in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday was his second on the European Tour.

He became the youngest winner on the circuit when he captured the Castello Masters title in Spain in October.

Manassero turns 18 on Tuesday and is planning to mark the occasion in style.

“I couldn’t imagine anything better, going back home to celebrate my 18th birthday and my second victory,” he said. “It’s great to be able to celebrate both together.

“I never expected it at all to have one win before I was 18 and now I’ve got two.”

Manassero said that as a young child he was inspired by the feats of fellow Italian Costantino Rocca, Tiger Woods and especially Seve Ballesteros.

“I grew up watching Costantino, Seve and Tiger,” he said. “I thought Seve was the kind of player I wanted to be.

“The crowd was cheering for him and he was different to everyone else. He is a great person and a symbol of what a person should be.

“He sent me a letter after I won in Spain. That was nice.”

While there was delight for Manassero in Malaysia, there was more anguish for Rory McIlroy the week after the 21-year-old Briton let slip a four-shot lead in the final round of the Masters.

“I am disappointed with the result but everything else was positive,” said McIlroy after finishing third in Kuala Lumpur. “I am proud at how I picked myself up from last week.

“Matteo is fantastic. He is a great talent, to get two wins on the tour before your 18th birthday is pretty special.”

(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)

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The 62-year-old golfer recently completed a one-year prison term for failure to pay $1.6 million in taxes between 2002 and 2004 and spent 10 months in an Alabama prison camp before transferring to a halfway house and home detention.

Thorpe was released Jan. 17 and is back on the Champions Tour for the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am, which opened Friday at TPC Tampa Bay. It’s his first tournament since 2009.

“I did what I had to do there, and, no, you don’t want to be there,” Thorpe said. “I had to make it work, and you’d be surprised what you can do when you have to do something. I don’t want to see any of you guys go there, but I had to accept it.

“I apologize to everyone for the mistakes that I made, and I blame no one else but myself. I did the things I had do to and just want to move forward.”

Thorpe, who had three PGA Tour wins in the 1980s, joined the Champions Tour in 1998 and is making his 12th appearance at Outback, where his best finish was a tie for fourth in 2003. Thorpe was last on tour two years ago, appearing in 22 events and posting three top-10 finishes, including eighth at the Outback.

During his time in prison, Thorpe said he rarely worried about his golf game.

“With the situation I was in, I didn’t think about golf that much,” he said. “I watched a lot of golf while I was up there and I missed the guys, the competition more than anything else. I think that, in my case, being away 10 months, was good for me, because it let me look at the golf game and then get my life right.”

Thorpe says he’s returned, not only in shape, but also smarter. He created what he calls Team Thorpe — financial advisers to make sure what happened in the past doesn’t happen again.

The week leading up to the 54-hole Outback tournament was gratifying for Thorpe, who said he received lots of hugs from people glad to see him back on the tour.

He also mentioned letters from certain players, such as two-time Outback champ Tom Watson, who withdrew from the field Wednesday due to a death in the family, helped him get through the past year.

“Tom sent me some letters (in prison), which were unexpected, and he gave me some putting tips, and when I saw him (Wednesday), I said, ‘I could’ve used those tips 30 years ago,’” Thorpe said with a laugh. “Certain people all realize we all make mistakes and those don’t hold it against you. Life is a game of mistakes, but I feel it’s behind me, that I did what I had to do, that I paid for my mistakes and my life is on the right track with the right people in my corner.”

Thorpe said he slowly got back into golf after his release, only chipping and putting the first week, then after a week hit longs shots and “it started to feel like I hadn’t missed a beat.”

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