Tarpon Springs, Fla. — You take your luck when you can get it in golf because you can't count on anything.
Take Ted Purdy. He officially arrived on the PGA Tour when he won the Byron Nelson Championship in 2005. You win on tour, and you're pretty much set for life, right? Sure, he's done well financially, racking up close to $6 million in four seasons. But the two-year exemption that came with winning expired last year. Purdy lost a little of his focus, and when he looked up at the end of the season, he'd lost his exempt status by a little less than $27,000, finishing 127th on the money list.
He tried to improve his status at the qualifying tournament, better known as Q-school, but washed out. So he's looking to get into PGA Tour events any way he can this year. That's how he found himself at Fox Hollow Golf Club near here in Monday qualifying for the PODS Championship. His 67 was good enough to tie for the last spot in the PODS, but he faced a playoff with Chad Collins as darkness fast approached. There was no playoff, however, because Collins never showed. Tournament officials reached him on his cell phone at a restaurant 45 minutes away. The last PODS spot was awarded to Purdy.
"It was a great break for me," said Purdy, 34, who was tied with Collins for the lead after shooting 67 until the last two players of the day shot 65 and 66. "He probably figured he was safe," Purdy said of Collins. "Hey, I was almost ready to go home, too. If he'd checked three minutes before the last three scores were posted, he still would've thought he was safe. But he wasn't."
Purdy was so pleased with the good fortune that he decided not to break up a winning team. He had grabbed a caddie from the Fox Hollow bag room for the qualifying round, a 17-year-old Mitchell High School golf star named Kenny Cavender, so he brought him over to caddie during the PODS as well, on the condition that he could get off school for four more days. He could.
Thursday at Innisbrook's Copperhead Course was another good day. Purdy shot 69, two under par, a good start. Better, he played in the morning and avoided the afternoon storms that caused a delay in play. He looks like a man whose future is on the upswing.
"It's going to be a fight to get back to where I think I belong," he said, but he is seeing signs.
He has made only one cut and $14,610 in his first four starts, but he feels the hard work he's been doing since December is starting to come to fruition. He hooked up with a biomechanics instructor in Phoenix when he couldn't get time with golf instructor Butch Harmon.
"When I lost my card, I started searching for a new coach," Purdy said. "I called Butch Harmon because I wanted to work with the best. He's a busy guy, though; he wasn't taking any new clients."
The new instructor discerned that Purdy's hips weren't strong enough to produce the kind of swing Purdy wanted. So Purdy hit the gym, hard. "I've had quite a change in my body just since December," Purdy said. "I can feel the changes starting to pay off."
What went wrong in '07? Lots of things. "I had some issues," Purdy admitted. "I was fat and negative and dealing with two kids and not quite focused on my game. To compete out here, you have to be focused. You have to be in good shape and I wasn't. You have to work on your game and I didn't. I was just distracted."
The inaugural FedEx Cup sprung a surprise on him, too. "I'd won $700,000 in June, and the number to keep your card the year before was $650,000," he said. "I got passed by 22 guys after the FedEx Cup. I wasn't expecting that. The FedEx Cup did what it's supposed to do-more guys make more money and the top guys make more money. To be one of those guys, though, you've got to be focused."
Another change Purdy made was with his putter. He's still using the same heel-shafted model that he used to win his first $5 million, but he has returned to his old setup.
"My short game and putting were weak points last year, but I feel good about my game now," he said. "It's taken a few weeks, but I'm looking forward to putting it all together."
Purdy has never taken the easy road. A former All-American at Arizona (he roomed with Jason Gore), he got his start in Asia. He won the Indian Masters (which doesn't come with a green jacket) in 1997 and was the Asian Tour's rookie of the year. He made it through Q-school in '98 but won only $46,800 in 27 events, so he went to the Nationwide Tour for a few years to gain experience. He made it back to the big tour in 2004, finished 36th on the money list, and had been a solid money-maker until last year, when his $758,734 in winnings came up just short.
He took a small step in the right direction Thursday, due in part to a small piece of good luck in Monday's qualifier.
