Van Pelt puts fun back in game, others struggle

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Bo Van Pelt opened The Barclays with a 4-under 67. He needs a good week to advance to the 120-man Deutsche Bank Championship.

PARAMUS, N.J. -- Bo Van Pelt knew the minute he sat the putter on the ground that it was gone. Broken. Wobbling.

So, he grabbed a backup from his locker -- one that looked and felt a lot like the fallen one.

Made what he had to on the first. Dropped a bomb -- think 40 feet -- on the third. First bomb, he said, that's fallen for him in six months.

With that, he was off and cruising to an opening 4-under-par 67 at The Barclays.

"It was a good thing I guess the other one was broken,'' Van Pelt said with a grin.

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Ryuji Imada struggled in the first round of The Barclays with a 5-over 76.

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Amazing what making putts will do. Especially when you've cleared your mind and you're able to go out and have fun playing golf.

"It's been kind of a weird year for me,'' Van Pelt said. "Been getting frustrated because I feel like I've played better than my scores and I finally just started taking the attitude, 'I'm just going to try and play and not really worry about anything.'

"It's been fun the past couple of days because I have not really cared what was going on, so I just tried to take that attitude today.''

It worked.

This is the time of year when it's all too easy to get wrapped up in decimal points and positions on a list. It's the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup, which, at present, is an equation full of combinations and permutations. One minute you're up, the next you're down.

That only 120 players advance to next week's Deutsche Bank Championship is in the back of the minds, especially, of those players between 100 and 144 on the current list. Lee Janzen squeaked into this field Sunday night as did Justin Bolli, Rich Beem, Martin Laird and J.J. Henry. All three need good tournaments here to advance and Beem opened with a 68 and is in great shape with three rounds to go, while Laird shot 70.

Also throwing out moving-up rounds: George McNeill and Jesper Parnevik (68s), Charley Hoffman and Dudley Hart (67s) and Paul Casey (66).

But that's not the only place players get overwhelmed by numbers. Ryuji Imada's opening 76 gives him a lot of work to do. Same goes for Pat Perez (78), Fred Couples (75), Jason Gore (74), Jonathan Byrd and a host of others who opened with high numbers. If they don't bring it back, they could end the Playoffs run this week.

Van Pelt knows there is a long way to go and he's just trying to hang loose and have fun on the course -- something he hasn't done in a while. It dawned on him, in fact, after he qualified for the Playoffs.

"Just tee to green, played pretty well Saturday and Sunday and didn't get much out of it,'' he said. "Didn't have a whole lot of fun. One of those deals; 'Well, why wouldn't you be having fun playing out here?' Sometimes you've just got to come to that realization.

"There's been days or weeks that it's been fun. I think that, you know, just you always are trying to strive to get better, and probably took it a little too serious or too hard on myself.''

For the moment, that's been put aside. Instead of sleepless nights and nails chewed to the nub, Van Pelt is going with the flow. Something, perhaps, others trying to scramble up the ladder might think about.

The next few days will tell us only who's definitely out, not who's moving on. That will come Sunday afternoon.

So, Van Pelt said, the key is to concentrate on the holes in front of you. Not on your number on a list.

'It's a long year, and you know, if I play well, everything is going to take care of itself,'' he said. "If I start worrying about stuff like that, I'm not going to play very well. Just go out and have fun. I haven't had fun in a long time so I feel like just trying to put some fun back into playing golf.''

So far, so good.