Monday Backspin: Scott's road back; Tiger-Haney fallout

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About the time Adam Scott was celebrating his first PGA TOUR victory in two years, Dave Stockton was in the Denver airport waiting to board a flight home to California following a bear hunting trip to Canada. He hadn't seen the final round of the Valero Texas Open, but good news travels fast.

"I am really stoked," Stockton said via cell phone. "I'm sure [Dave] Jr. is just over the moon."

Two weeks ago, Stockton gave Scott an impromptu 30-minute putting lesson after Scott missed the cut at the Quail Hollow Championship.

"His stroke looked good to me," Stockton said. "I saw just one flaw."

That flaw was that Scott was coming up and out of his putting stroke. To fix the problem, Dave and Dave Jr. did a drill with Scott each of the last two weeks in which they kept a club down over the ball so the putter couldn't come up on his follow-through. The idea was to get Scott to feel the sensation of the back of his left hand going down the line.

"It was the way he used to putt as a kid," said Dave Jr., who was on the way to the airport to pick up his dad. "It's very similar to what we did with Phil [Mickelson]."

So was the result. Just prior to last year's TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, the Stocktons worked with Mickelson on his putting stroke. He won the next week.

Champion's Replay

Want to hear what Adam Scott said about his win at The Valero Texas Open? Click here Final round: Replay Scott's round MORE VALERO • Shot of the Day • Final-round highlights • Complete tourney coverage

"[Scott] was hitting it flawless," Stockton said. "It was just a matter of him getting confidence with his putter."

That confidence was evident in San Antonio. Early in the week, Scott texted Stockton Jr., telling him he was feeling great from 6 feet and in. When Thursday came, Scott texted him again, saying this time that he felt great from 15 feet and in. By the end of the week, Scott had missed just one putt inside 6 feet.

"It's huge for your confidence," Scott said. "Just the belief in yourself that you get out of it. Even if you're feeling good, there's nothing quite like winning.

"I'm still as good a player as I ever was. I have to take the momentum and confidence and run with it from here."

The other thing the Stocktons had Scott do was rather than looking at the spot where he wanted to hit the ball, they had him visualize it going in the hole. Now when Scott sets up to a putt, he looks at nothing but the hole before stepping into his stance.

"Almost instantly it was better," Stockton said.

How did the Stocktons hook up with Scott in the first place? It was at the behest of Phil Mickelson, who told them the one guy they really needed to take a look at was Scott (more on that in the Back Nine).

"Did I think he'd win this quick? I wasn't sure about that because it had been a while," Stockton Jr. said.

Sunday night, Scott got one more text from Stockton Jr. It read: "This is just the beginning."

Stock up

Ernie Els: The Big Easy got his fifth top-10 and fourth top-5 of the year after hitting a speed bump at THE PLAYERS. Els has finished outside the top 20 just once since March in what's been a resurgent season for him. FedExCup rank: 1 (1 last week) Bo Van Pelt: After three straight top-5 finishes, Van Pelt finished in a tie for 28th in San Antonio. He's still playing good golf, though, ranking in the top 10 last week in putting while putting together sub-70 second and third rounds. FedExCup rank: 21 (23 last week) Fredrik Jacobson: The Swede has been impressive on some difficult tracks -- he was a combined 26 under at The Honda Classic, THE PLAYERS and the Valero Texas Open -- and he got his second straight and third top-10 of the year with a runner-up Sunday. FedExCup rank: 25 (57 last week)

Stock down

Vijay Singh: With three missed cuts and a T64 in Texas, the last player other than Tiger Woods to own the top spot in the Official World Golf Rankings has now fallen out of the top 50. Talk about a slippery slope. Singh may now have to go through U.S. Open qualifying. FedExCup rank: 95 (94 last week) Zach Johnson: The last time Johnson went this deep into a season without a top-10 was ... never. Johnson missed the cut in Texas after opening with an 80 that included a six-putt and a front-nine 43. He does have five top-25s, but only one of them has come in the last two months. FedExCup rank: 67 (59 last week) Paul Goydos: Since back-to-back top-5s in February, Goydos has just one finish inside the top 50. He also missed the cut last week after shooting a final-round 81 at THE PLAYERS that included a five-putt on a hole. That's the definition of Stock Down. FedExCup rank: 82 (79 last week)

THE BACK NINE: 9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

1. As mentioned, the Stocktons work with Adam Scott was borne out of their relationship with Phil Mickelson. But it's not just Scott the two are working with. Hunter Mahan, Anthony Kim, Se Ri Pak, J.B. Holmes, Billy Mayfair and a handful of others have benefited, too. And it call came about unexpectedly. With their respective golf careers sort of stuck in neutral -- Dave because of rotator cuff surgery, Dave Jr. because of tendonitis in his wrist -- the two began with Mickelson and it has spread from there over the last 10 months, mostly because of their street cred of having played the TOUR. "We didn't have a plan to do it, it was a perfect storm type of thing," Dave Jr. said. "This year's been so much fun. We're getting so much satisfaction, I don't see us ever doing anything different."

2. We see it in a lot of sports: Aging veteran takes young player under his wing to bestow years of knowledge on said talent. That's exactly what Mickelson, who turns 40 this year, seems to be doing these days. "Phil has always been very generous with helping other players," Stockton Jr. said.

3. There was nothing earth-shattering revealed in the Hank Haney interview with GOLF CHANNEL's Jim Gray Sunday night, other than Haney confirming what Woods was in therapy for. Besides that, it sounded like Haney just wanted out of the vortex.

4. I've used the word vortex a lot when talking about Woods and that's exactly what playing with him or being in his inner circle is like. Haney said it's not easy being in that inner circle because you get drawn into everything. "It's fun to a certain extent," Haney said. "By the same token you're always kind of thinking I have to watch what I do, I have to watch what I say because I represent Tiger."

5. The one point Haney did take issue with when it came to Woods? The fact that he took a lot of criticism for Tiger's recent swing problems and that Woods wasn't "more supportive" while giving "evasive" answers. The two are still friends, Haney added, but like a lot of coach-player relationships, this one has run its course.

6. One last thing from Haney: He believes "100 percent" that all the distractions off the course have affected Woods on it. He's absolutely right and even Tiger has admitted as much. Woods will recover from this, but when and how are questions we don't have the answers to yet.

7. I remember doing a story with Jerry Rice toward the end of his football career about his passion for golf. One of the things he revealed was that he caught bricks as a kid as a way of strengthening his hands to catch footballs. Well, it looked like he was hitting bricks at last week's Nationwide Tour event, where he shot an opening-round 92. Making matters worse was that his caddie used a range-finder during the round, which is of course an automatic disqualification. The Raiders. Dancing With the Stars. Now this.

8. It's a week later and there aren't any more answers about the shocking death of 25-year-old LPGA Erica Blasberg than there were when her body was discovered late last Sunday afternoon. What we do know, though, is her death was as tragic as it is sad. You could see that in every single LPGA player last week who talked about the loss of, by all accounts, a very, very sweet girl who was well liked by her peers.

9. This is purely a guess, but I think Tiger may go without a swing coach for a little while. One of the names that has been rumored as a possible replacement for Haney is Sean Foley, who works with Woods pal Sean O'Hair, among others, and Foley has gone on the record in the past as saying he would be open to working with the world's No. 1 player. I can't imagine anyone stepping into that role right now, though.

The Forward Spin

Last year, Rory Sabbatini became the 14th player to win the "DFW Double" with victories at the HP Byron Nelson Championship and the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. Sabbatini's play this year has been spotty of late, but Texas seems to bring out the best in him. I'm not sure you can expect a repeat, though, since the last player to successfully defend at this tournament was Tom Watson, who won in 1978, '79 and '80.

Last week's Kodak Challenge hole

HOLE: The par-4, 374-yard 17th at TPC San Antonio LAST WEEK: San Antonio resident Jimmy Walker used his course knowledge to his advantage -- he birdied the 17th on Sunday to move into a tie for the lead with Rickie Fowler at 8 under. Click here to tour the Kodak Challenge holes | Current Kodak Challenge standings