Monday Backspin: Focus on short game critical for Wilson

text size

For all the talk of the "New Breed" vs. "The Establishment," the first two winners of this season are a couple of guys in their 30s who have had brief periods of success scattered throughout what have been solid but unspectacular careers.

In other words, that's golf.

Neither Jonathan Byrd nor Sunday's winner Mark Wilson exactly fit the profile of today's power players, but they are proof that you don't have to smash the ball 320 yards to have a successful career if you do other things really well.

In both players' cases that means finding a lot of fairways and hitting a lot of greens.

What Wilson lacks in name recognition (or size at 5-foot-8, 145 pounds), for example, he makes up with a game that is good enough for him to have ranked 26th on the PGA TOUR in driving accuracy and fifth in final-round scoring average in 2010. That ability was on display Sunday when he shot 65-67 in a 36-hole marathon to win by two.

The thing that helped Wilson the most was his short game.

Wilson thought he was a pretty good at practicing, but his trainer Corey Puyear and the folks at the Titleist Performance Institute gave him some good drills over the winter.

"I really just have been focusing on my wedges this year 100 yards and in, just spending a lot of time and not caring about hitting drivers on the range," Wilson said. "You wouldn't see it. The chip shot I hit on 10 was pretty pathetic, but those are the shots I've been practicing a lot, the 50 , 60 , 40 yard kind of pitches and getting them up and down."

The result for Wilson was that he didn't make a single bogey over his final 40 holes at the Sony Open in Hawaii, where he was fifth in the field in putts per green in regulation, second in driving accuracy, second in birdies made and, of course, first on the leaderboard.

Stock up

Matt Kuchar: A couple weeks ago, someone asked who this year's Matt Kuchar will be. Well, it may very well be Kuchar. Two starts, two top-10s after a tie for fifth at Waialae. Looks like he might lead in top-10s again. Justin Rose: I don't know that he'll win twice again this season, but Rose has looked good in two starts this year with ties for 12th and 13th, respectively. And he would have fared a lot better if not for that opening 75 at Kapalua. Steve Marino: Why Marino hasn't won by now -- he has 19 top-10s over the previous four-plus years -- is a little head-scratching, but he's taken his commitment to a new level this year with improved fitness.

Stock down

Camilo Villegas: Not exactly a stellar start to the season for Villegas. He was disqualified at Kapalua and wasn't in contention and missed the cut at Waialae after rounds of 75-69. It's Villegas' worst start since his second year on TOUR (2007) when he opened with a pair of missed cuts. Zach Johnson: If Johnson were a stock, now would not be a time to buy (or sell, for that matter). He's still dinged up with a toe injury and it's shown in the result -- a T57 this week after a T23 in the winners-only Hyundai Tournament of Champions. Johnson is consistent, though, so once he's healthy he'll start performing better. Ernie Els: It's early, but the weekend hasnt been kind to Ernie Els. A week after stumbling in with scores of 74-71, Els shot 67-74 to drop 29 spots on the leaderboard at the Sony Open in Hawaii. He's always played well early in the year, though, so lets see if he can turn it around in the next month.

THE BACK NINE: 9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

1. Mark Wilson admitted to not looking at the leaderboard Sunday and say what you want about whether a guy should know where he stands -- just ask Robert Garrigus last year in Memphis -- it worked. As mentioned, Wilson was bogey-free his last two-plus rounds. "That's one of those neat stats to have," Wilson said. "I don't have too many bogey free rounds in my career, so it's pretty cool to have two in the same day."

2. With the win, Wilson also gets into the Masters for the first time. His previous wins -- last year at the alternate-field Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun and at the 2007 Honda Classic -- didn't qualify him. "Believe me, I looked at the fine print on that one and made sure," Wilson said. "I thought it was a calendar year when they first announced it, and I was really excited, but no, it was from Masters to Masters so I didn't get in. When I won Mayakoba and all my friends thought I was in, but opposite events don't get you in. Everyone keeps asking, how can you get in, how can you get in." Now they know.

3. As mentioned earlier, this was Steve Marino's 19th career top-10, and it's his third career runner-up. That hasn't gotten inside his head, though. At least not yet. "I'm really not worried about it," Marino said. "I had a really good chance [Sunday]; I just didn't make the putts and hit a couple bad shots at some bad times. But I'm just going to keep plugging along and maybe one day it'll fall my way."

4. This week's Abu Dhabi Golf Championship will feature Padraig Harrington, who has tumbled to 26th in the world while undergoing some major swing changes the last two years. "Some of the work I've done will probably take me another six weeks to bed that in competitively but I'm optimistic," he told Sky Sports News. "Lots of things have changed and I'm ready to go forward and, in my head, have the greatest year ever." Among those changes are a new grip, lower hands on the club, a new pre-putt routine and no more waggle. That's a lot of tinkering and Harrington has paid the price for it. Now we'll see if it finally pays off.

5. Drawing any parallels between Tiger Woods and Joseph Bramlett beyond their alma mater, swoosh on their hats and similar backgrounds would be asking an awful lot of Bramlett. But Bramlett, who became the first African American in 25 years to advance to the TOUR through q-school, understands he can have an impact no matter how many wins he racks up in his career. "Off the golf course, I think there is definitely a great opportunity for me to hopefully inspire some younger kids and try to keep changing the game," Bramlett said. "I think I'm prepared for it. I've been lucky, because I've had a great set of parents who have grounded me and made me comfortable with who I am."

6. Vijay Singh isn't getting any younger and at a soon-to-be 48 he had to change up his fitness routine -- he used some soccer drills -- in the off-season to combat some recent injuries. "I'm still getting a little swelling, but it doesn't hurt me," Singh said of his knee, which he had surgery on in early 2009. "It's feeling pretty good. I'm pretty optimistic about this year." Then Singh went out and finished MDF (made cut, did not finish) at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

7. Speaking of injuries, Brandt Snedeker had surgery late last year to repair a torn labrum in his left hip, will make his season debut at this week's Bob Hope Classic. Jonathan Byrd had a similar procedure in 2004. Since then Byrd has won four times. I'm pretty sure Snedeker would take half that right now.

8. Stat That May Only Interest Me: Tim Clark broke his winless drought at THE PLAYERS Championship last year, but he now has nine runner-up finishes with at least one second-place finish each year dating to 2005.

9. So much for golf's later power couple. Dustin Johnson told the Associated Press that he hasn't been dating anyone, including Natalie Gulbis, for the last two months.

Forward Spin

The Bob Hope Classic is one of the longest weeks in golf with five rounds, most of which last six hours due to the pro-am format. It also yields boatloads of birdies. Remember, David Duval shot a 59 to win there and the winning score is routinely in the neighborhood of 30 under. Last year, Bill Haas won with a birdie on the final hole and became the third first-time winner in the last four years there.

Next Kodak Challenge hole

TOURNAMENT: Bob Hope Classic HOLE: The par-3, 130-yard 17th at PGA WEST, Arnold Palmer Private Course ABOUT THE HOLE: From the tee of this short par 3, you will have a beautiful panoramic view of PGA West. Don't forget to focus in on the pin on this long narrow green. Proper position is a must on this dangerous little hole. Kodak Challenge standings

.