Tuesday Practice Partners
If a player on PGA TOUR Champions is going to take advice and use it, it’s probably coming from whoever practices on Tuesdays.
Some Tuesday groups are very close. All the boys know Kevin Sutherland-Paul Goydos-Steve Flesch troika. UCLA teammates Scott McCarron and Brandt Jobe are also in a close triangle with Glen Day.
Day said sometimes players don’t hear each other that well.
“Jerry had two things going for him. He and Steve are really good friends, and Steve is one of the best putters in the world and he has been for years,” Day said. “Steve knows Jerry’s game. So I’m sure they went to the green, Jerry understood what Steve said and if it fits, it works.”
Day and Jobe spent some time this season working together.
When the PGA TOUR champions gathered in Naples, Florida, for the first all-around event of 2022, Day went to the shooting range with Jobe and grabbed a video camera.
“I took some videos and we talked about what we talked about. Let him see what was going on (with) what he wanted to do,” Day said. “And he said, ‘Holy cow! You’re right. Your friends are always trying to help you.”
Jobe said he and Day talked about how the club and body work at the bottom of the swing.
“I have a tendency to treat myself ‘high,’” Jobe said. “So he gave me some advice and I had my best start to the season in a few years. It really helped.”
Jobe had three top-10 finishes in the first six events, including a tie for second at the Insperity Invitational on May 1. The following week, the PGA TOUR champions arrived in metro Atlanta for the Mitsubishi Electric Classic, and Jobe dropped some balls on the stove, grabbed a chair and sat down and worked with Day to straighten him out.
“I was injured all year, and I was really struggling when we got to Atlanta,” Day said. “Brandt and I had rented a house. Monday night I was in a bad mood and I said, ‘If you mention golf, I’m out. I’ll have a glass of wine and we can watch baseball.
“The next day at the shooting range, he throws some balls and says, ‘We’re going to fix you right now.’ He sat there and worked with me for about an hour, trying to develop a swing to play through the injury that I have now. And I finished seventh that week. I played very well.”
It was Day’s only top 10 finish this season.
“We are a traveling circus,” Day said. “Our wives are friends, we are friends; friends or not, they know him. I’ve played a lot with Paul, Kevin and Steve. They hang out, but I’m still friends with them. The putter I’m using is one that Steve had a weight for them and said, ‘I’ll send you some.’ So he sent me some weights for my putter.
“We all try to help. At some point we have all asked someone a question. It’s a big circus, but we’re a big family.”
Source: www.pgatour.com