It’s been a long time since Tiger Woods has been in a winning position after the third round. Question is: How will he deal with the emotions Sunday?
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Quiros leads in Italy, Weir makes cut
As they embarked on professional careers soaked with potential, four players shared the stage at the 2019 Travelers Championship in Connecticut. Three of them — Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolff — went on to win PGA TOUR titles more rapidly than anyone could have expected. The transition to the TOUR is rarely that easy. The fourth member of the group learned that first-hand. The resume that Justin Suh compiled at the University of Southern California could more than hold its own with his three peers. Six months atop the world amateur rankings. A Pac-12 Player of the Year award. And a spot on the All-American first team. But what wasn’t known when the moderator alluded to the bright future that lay ahead for the four players is that Suh was nursing a wrist injury that would send his swing off-kilter. That malady, and a global pandemic, delayed his path to the PGA TOUR. While Morikawa and Wolff both won on TOUR within weeks of that press conference, and Hovland earned his TOUR card via that year’s Korn Ferry Tour Finals, Suh failed to advance out of the first stage of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School. He is known for a relentless optimism, but even he could not find a silver lining. “It sucks,” he said. “Absolutely sucks.” There was no chance at redemption the next year, as Q-School was one of the many tournaments canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic. While his peers were on the PGA TOUR, he spent time on PGA TOUR Latinoamerica and was a regular at Monday qualifiers. Suddenly, the path seemed undefined. But this is where that optimism was so valuable, allowing him to keep working even as his future was full of uncertainty. Progress was made last fall, when he earned Korn Ferry Tour status via Q-School. The season got off to an inauspicious start but as the spring came, Suh’s talent began to shine through. There was a stretch of nine events where his worst finish was T27. The consistency continued into the summer and then he saved his best for last, earning his first professional title at the season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance. With top-25s in two-thirds of his 24 starts, including 10 top-10s, Suh finished atop the Korn Ferry Tour’s season-long points race, which earned him fully-exempt status and spots in THE PLAYERS Championship and the first U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club, not far from where he was a collegiate star. At this week’s Fortinet Championship, the San Jose, California, native is making his first start as a PGA TOUR member just 90 miles from his hometown. “Justin is one of the happiest people that I’ve ever met in my entire life,” said longtime friend and fellow TOUR player Joseph Bramlett, who won the Korn Ferry Tour Championship a year before Suh did. The two now live in Las Vegas and practice together almost every day when they’re home. “I haven’t once seen him feel sorry for himself. I haven’t once seen him dejected. The kid just shows up every day with a great attitude, and it’s impressive.” Suh wasn’t about to let his early struggles, including that Q-School misstep, derail him. He’d been building toward a professional golf career since his dad first put a plastic club in his hand around the age of 4. Suh followed in the footsteps of his older sister Hannah, an acclaimed junior golfer who eventually played for Cal. She’d get a lesson, then teach him what she had been taught. They’d spend hours competing at the course, with stakes like push-ups or the “five bucks we saved up.” This environment kept Suh from ever getting burnt out, he figures. Her success also fueled him. “I was always left at home when she was flying to all these tournaments,” Suh laughed. “I remember that was one of the goals; I wanted where my parents would fly me out to play a golf tournament. That was the one goal.” Suh moved from California to Georgia when he was 6 – his parents are in the restaurant business, and they had an opportunity there – and then back to California at age 8. Competitive by nature and physically well-rounded, Suh has a pure love for the game – he fondly recalls crucial putts and momentum swings in Junior Golf Association of Northern California events – Suh fulfilled his first golf goal and flew to compete at some of the biggest junior events. He got on the radar of several college coaches across the country, including USC’s Chris Zambri, and the interest was reciprocal. “He’s got to be one of the more, if not the most skilled, mentally that I’ve ever coached,” Zambri said. “He doesn’t go down any negative roads, which is interesting to be around as another human being; most of us turn down those roads often. I enjoyed witnessing that and just learning from it personally. “There’s a difference between being a positive person and being mentally skilled, dealing with pressure well, and he does it all.” Click here to subscribe to #TOURBound, the official podcast of the Korn Ferry Tour. After all those secondhand lessons from his sister, Justin’s golf sense was well developed into his collegiate career, but there was one area he needed to refine. He needed to hit the ball higher to compete on the longer, tougher course setups that he encountered in college golf. He and instructor Bill Johnson – Justin’s swing coach to this day – went about building a swing to maximize long-term potential and success. “He had an interesting swing,” Zambri said about Suh before college. “He was a steep low-ball hitter, and we decided he might need to change that, and he just dove in. He made that commitment, where a lot of people don’t have the foresight to buy into something like that; it might hurt their score the next handful of times they play. “He waited a bit to really dive in, until tournaments were over, then he just dove in and never looked back.” It led Suh to become a two-time First Team All-American and the world’s No. 1 amateur. It led him to a seat at a table alongside Hovland, Morikawa and Wolff in Connecticut. He just had a speed bump on the road to the biggest stage – and perhaps he’ll be stronger for it. “It’s not who I am,” Suh said of keeping the setbacks from overtaking him. “I’ve always just lived my life and whatever happens, happens; control what I can control, and I just needed to get better. I couldn’t do anything about those guys being so successful early; I just knew I had to get better. “I worked hard, worked on the right stuff, asked a lot of people what to work on, got gradually better, and I’m grateful I’m in the position I’m in now.” While a fierce competitor, Suh also enjoys the sweeter side of life. He fondly recalls his parents’ ice cream machine and was such a regular at a Korean barbecue restaurant in Los Angeles that his picture is on the wall. I haven’t once seen him feel sorry for himself. I haven’t once seen him dejected. The kid just shows up every day with a great attitude, and it’s impressive In high school, he’d play pickup basketball into the darkness. Kobe Bryant is one of his sports heroes, and he embraces the “Mamba Mentality.” He lived in a house with the tennis team in college, and he enjoys an occasional pickleball game and a hike – although he admits it can be tricky to find time for outdoor adventuring on the road, and that he’s in search of a new hobby. His favorite part of winning the Korn Ferry Tour Championship wasn’t the trophy, or the fully-exempt TOUR status, or the access to some of golf’s biggest events. It was winning a bet with Bramlett – last year’s Korn Ferry Tour Championship winner. “We played for dinner this week, so he owes me a dinner,” said a beaming Suh. “Something expensive. Something really expensive.” Success might have been expected, but it’s not given, and Suh knows that. That’s why, after clinching his TOUR card in August, his voice broke as he recorded a selfie video for social media. Reflecting on his journey, all the way back to those days chasing his sister with a plastic club in his hands, and the people who supported him along the way made him emotional. His voice broke, if just a touch. “It was a moment of being overwhelmed with emotions,” Suh said afterward. “It was a moment to reflect on what I’ve done and what I’ve achieved, and to be officially #TOURBound was a big moment. “Since the day I started playing golf, it was always the dream.”
If there’s anything Darius Rucker likes as much as making music, it’s playing golf. The three-time Grammy Award winner with that distinctive baritone plays to a 6.4 handicap. He’ll be partnered with his good friend Kenny Perry this week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where the two will try to make the cut for the second straight year. The 52-year-old Rucker has also taken on a wide-ranging set of new responsibilities as the PGA TOUR’s first Brand Ambassador. You’ll be able to hear him as a commentator on PGA TOUR Live, as well as on other TOUR digital channels, and see him in-person at events. And when Rucker tours with Hootie and the Blowfish later this year, look for him to wear vintage T-shirts on stage that showcase the PGA TOUR’s “Live Under Parâ€� campaign. “It was a no-brainer for me,â€� Rucker says. “I’m just a proud to be a part of the PGA TOUR — proud they wanted me to be out there representing them in a different way. It’s going to be a lot of fun.â€� Before he headed off to play golf in his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, last Thursday morning – “I’ve got to get ready for Pebble,â€� he says with a laugh – Rucker took time out for this Q&A. Q: Which is harder, playing golf in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am or performing a medley of your hits before a packed house? RUCKER: “Playing golf at Pebble. I’ve been playing music for as long as I can remember so that’s old hat. But playing at Pebble; well, golf is nerve-wracking, especially with people watching you — and you could hurt them (with an errant shot).â€� Q: Do you put a lot of pressure on yourself when you play at Pebble or in other pro-ams on the PGA TOUR? RUCKER: “No. That’s the one thing that I’m really good at with golf is never really expecting too much. I’m that guy who goes to No. 1 and says to himself, OK, let’s go play well, but remember, you do suck.â€�  Q: How did you get interested in golf? RUCKER: “When I was 14, my best friend (Rick Johannes) and his dad was in the Navy and they used to go play golf all the time. One day I was over at the house and Mr. Johannes said, we’re going to play golf. And he looked at me and said, ‘Hey, Darius, do you want to go?’ I was like, ‘I’d love to go’ and a couple of months later he gave me my first set of clubs. And my love, my love has been there ever since.â€� Q: What was it that attracted you to the game? RUCKER: “Back then, it was a sport that I hadn’t played before, and I loved playing sports. So I just wanted to do it. Back then I thought it was me against the ball. Now I know it is me against the course, but you know, you’re just trying to get that ball in the hole. And the more we played, the more I loved it and the more I wanted to play.â€� Q: How quickly did you take to it? Were you good at it immediately or was there a learning curve? RUCKER: “Goodness, no. I’m not good at it now. We were only playing once or twice a month back then. So, you know, I’d go and just try to play and then when I got to college, I had a couple of friends that played, so we tried to play a lot. But I really, really, really, really wanted to get good once Hootie started to make it. I got tired of stinking it up.â€� Q: You’re starting your “Group Therapy Tourâ€� with Hootie and the Blowfish in May. How often do you get to play when you are on the road? RUCKER: “I play every day. After we’re done with the show, I’ll get in my bus and we’ll go off to the next town. When I wake up that morning, I’m parked in the parking lot of a golf course. Yes. Every day.â€� Q: That’s amazing. Do you search out the golf courses ahead of time or do you have favorites? RUCKER: “We’ve been doing it so long, we’ve got favorites in a lot of cities. But you know, it’s one of my tour manager’s jobs to make sure I have a place to play golf.â€� Q: Do you play that much when you are at home in Charleston? RUCKER: “My son (Jack) is 14 and he wants to play college golf. So he and I play a lot. He’s starting to beat me now, too.â€� Q: Do you remember the first time he beat you? RUCKER: “I remember the first time he beat me, yes. He shot 76 and I shot 78. He still hasn’t let me forget that.â€� Q You have a monthly radio show on SiriusXM called “On Par with Darius Rucker.â€� Do you have a favorite interview that you’ve done so far? RUCKER: “Jack Nicklaus. Jack and I have become friends over the years. And I asked him to do the show and he says yeah. Such a great guy. ‘Sure, I’ll do it’. And then so you have two 15-minute segments. Sometimes you use them all, sometimes you go over. So, the second segment, we’re coming out of commercial or something and we’re talking to Jack and I said, ‘Hey, Jack, when in ’86 [entering the Masters], did you think you can win this thing?’ And he said to me, ‘Well, Darius, on Wednesday’ and then he went day-by-day and on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, he’s going shot-by-shot. Not just his shots but like he’s talking about when Greg Norman hit this or that shot and all of it. And I’m sitting there with my producer and our mouths were agape, because we’re, like, this is not really happening. So, he does this whole thing. Fifteen minutes talking about Augusta — and when he got off, I said to my producer, ‘Now we have a golf show.’ That was awesome.â€� Q: I’m sure you’ve made a lot of friends in the game. Do you have any favorites? RUCKER: “You know, I do. I’ve got a bunch of friends and you’re always pulling for your friends when they’re in contention and everything. But Tiger’s my favorite player. He’s probably my best friend out there and he’s also, my favorite player. There’s not a lot of things in sports that gives me more joy than watching Tiger Woods play.â€� Q: Then you must have loved the TOUR Championship last year. RUCKER: “Oh man, loved it. Loved it. Ever since the first day he stepped on the PGA TOUR, I have this thing that Saturday night, if he’s in contention, I’ll send a nice text. Or you text him something encouraging. At the TOUR Championship, I did it again — and just, just the text I got back, I turned to a buddy of mine and I said, ‘He’s going to kill these people tomorrow.’â€� Q: Do you remember the first time you met Tiger? RUCKER: “Oh God, that’s a great story, OK. When Hootie and the Blowfish was starting to have some success, we were still playing clubs and then the bigger places started booking us. They wanted us to cancel the club dates and we told them that we wouldn’t because the clubs were so good to us coming up and we didn’t want to screw them. We’re going to play them all out and then start the other tour. So we’re finishing up a string of clubs and we’re playing this club in East Lansing, Michigan. … We’d play a show and then we’d go out to a bar called Rick’s American Café. We were sitting at the bar and I look over the bar and I’m like, ‘Isn’t that that Tiger Woods kid that everybody’s talking about?’ He’s 18. And he was going to Stanford and (our bass player Dean Felber) says like, yeah. So I went over and I said, ‘Are you Tiger Woods?’ and he says, ‘Are you the guy from Hootie and the Blowfish?’ and I sat down and we just hung out all night. But the thing that tops the story, I’m sitting there with this kid Tiger Woods, 18, and we’re sitting there and then somebody (a former Michigan State hockey player) comes in with the Stanley Cup. It was his week. Here I am in the bar with Tiger Woods and sitting on the bar was the frigging Stanley Cup. That was a crazy night.â€� Q: Do you have any favorite courses? RUCKER: ‘I’ve got a favorite course. People always say, what are your top three courses? Augusta. Augusta and Augusta.â€� Q: How many times have you played there? RUCKER: “Well, I’m lucky. I’m lucky. I get to play a couple times a year and it’s just, still, every time I play it, it’s like the mecca in the golfing world. When I’m there, every time I drive on to the road, I can’t believe I’m getting to play Augusta.â€� Q: Are there any courses you want to play that you haven’t? RUCKER: “I’m lucky with being a golf guy going all over the country and all over the world. You get to play all the courses you want to play because you’re known as a golf guy. But my last course I really, really wanted to play was St. Andrews and this summer I toured Europe and I got to play it with my son. It was unbelievable. This is, I guess, a humble brag. We were going to Europe and we had four rounds in seven days and our four rounds were, we played [TPC] Sawgrass, Augusta, St. Andrews and Carnoustie. Four rounds in a row in seven days. That was awesome.â€� Q: So which course did you play the best? RUCKER: “I played the best at St. Andrews, which is shocking because the wind was blowing 45 miles an hour. I think I shot 83 at Augusta that day, but I played really well at St. Andrews.â€� Q: So, what brings you more joy — playing music or playing golf? RUCKER: “Oh, goodness gracious. Wow. I’ve never been asked that question. It’s different kinds of joy, I think. I will say this, though, the most joy I have between those two things is when my 14-year-old is playing good and him and I are on a golf course. It is my favorite time in the world.â€�
