Emergency 9: Fantasy golf advice for Genesis Open

It won’t be easy for Phil Mickelson to hear. He won’t ever admit it himself. But for the good of Team USA, says Kevin Van Valkenburg, it’s time for him to sit ’til his singles match on Sunday.

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DALLAS – Trinity Forest members Jordan Spieth and Tony Romo – two of the biggest sports names in Dallas — are seeking progress in their golf games. After two rounds of the AT&T Byron Nelson, each walked away feeling positive steps were made. Only one, however, advanced to the weekend. Spieth, the 11-time PGA TOUR winner, followed his opening 68 with a 4-under 67, leaving him at 7 under through 36 holes. The good news is that just a handful of players are higher up on the leaderboard. The bad news is that leader Sung Kang is 11 strokes ahead of him. “Very pleased,â€� Spieth said after his round. “I felt like I improved on yesterday, which was already a solid day. .. In a position to fire away a little bit on the weekend.â€� Romo, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback-turned-NFL-analyst, followed his opening 76 with 3-over 74. That left him at 8 over and near the bottom of the leaderboard but given that he’s the only amateur in the field and currently known for his predictions more than his pars, it was a good step. Of his four nines, he played two of them in even par, including his opening nine (he started on the 10th hole) Friday. Asked what his takeaway was in his third start at a PGA TOUR event (and his first in Dallas), Romo – who played on a sponsor exemption this week — replied: “Really just the ability to continue to improve. I think more than anything, I got a sense to be able to hit a lot of high quality shots under what is a pressure situation for me. “That’s encouraging and shows that the work you’re doing holds up when it counts and from there, you just got to find the little things that allow you to keep things going and not derail the round … technique-wise, we’re coming on.â€� Spieth’s first two rounds are his most consistent start since the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, when he opened with 66-68. But on the weekend at Pebble Beach Golf Links, he faded away, shooting 74-75. That’s been a common occurrence this season for Spieth. He ranks T-38th on TOUR in first-round scoring average and third in second-round average. But in third-round average, he ranks T-202nd, and his final-round scoring average ranks 207th. Related: Tee times | In cold weather, Kang produces hot round | A chip-in eagle – and then reality – for Romo | Nine holes blind, but Koepka still walks away with a 65 at Trinity Forest | Leishman withdraws with back injury | Origin story: Arm-lock putting Staying in contention and carrying over his good play into the weekend will be a good sign for Spieth, who has yet to produce a top-20 finish in his first 12 starts this season. “The idea is to try to get better each day,â€� Spieth said. “Sometimes the score reflects that, sometimes it doesn’t. This year, even if I’ve had a poor weekend, I felt like I found something to make me better long-term. … Oftentimes it’s looked at as negative or down, but I don’t see it that way. “I know what I’m supposed to be doing, I know what I’m supposed to be working on and I know over the course of a long career, that whether it’s short-term results or not, it doesn’t matter. It will bring better long-term results.â€� One thing Spieth definitely would like to avoid is a double bogey. He’s had one in each of his first two rounds, which has eaten away at the 14 birdies he’s made thus far. “I’d like to play a bogey-free round here or there and really get something going,â€� he said. “Clearly everybody would like that.â€� As for Romo, well, he will continue to work on his game, try to qualify for the U.S. Open and put himself in competitive situations that test his consistency. He was pleased with the way he struck the ball at times the first two days. “This game is small when it comes to your ability to improve from even one day to the next or one week or one month,â€� Romo said. “You can really make a ton of improvement with the right technique or practice.â€� He did get some golf tips from Nick Faldo, who – like Romo – works at CBS. “I think he knows a little bit about the golf swing,â€� Romo said. “I think we may listen to him a little bit. He’s got some good bits.â€�

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SASKATOON, Sask. – Graham DeLaet has never been so tan. The 36-year-old Canadian saw a photo of himself the other day and couldn’t believe how much color his skin had absorbed over the last few months, an unfortunate byproduct of being sidelined due to a back injury that has kept him away from the PGA TOUR since October 2017 and spending more time recovering in his backyard pool with his young twins.  The former Presidents Cup star underwent a steam cell injection in California late last year and although the healing process was supposed to be just over a week, he continued to experience tenderness and discomfort through the early part of 2018. The procedure hasn’t worked for DeLaet, who is now looking at alternative options to aid in his recovery – and hopefully avoid surgery. “We’ve been hoping that the stem cell would work and actually regenerate the disc, but I just recently had imaging and it’s kind of gone the other way a little bit,â€� DeLaet said. “Now it’s back to the drawing board a little bit and visiting doctors and try to pinpoint what the issue is.â€� He hits balls occasionally, but even going to the grocery store and walking around for 30 minutes sends him to the couch for a rest. But DeLaet has managed to keep busy this past eight months or so, getting his pilot’s license, getting inducted into the Boise State Broncos’ Hall of Fame for his accomplishments as a collegiate golfer, and perhaps most importantly, continuing to work with his wife Ruby on their charity – the Graham and Ruby DeLaet Foundation – that helps children, and junior golfers, in his home province of Saskatchewan. DeLaet’s foundation has raised more than $1.5 million since its inception, and if you include the three charity events he hosted prior to his foundation being formed (after his breakout 2013 season where he finished eighth in the FedExCup) the figure is north of $2 million. This year’s charity, the Ronald McDonald House, was gifted nearly a quarter of a million dollars. The Ronald McDonald House provides local families with a place to stay while their child is in and out of hospitals. Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip played from the speakers of a banquet hall in downtown Saskatoon Wednesday, while cans of DeLaet’s own craft beer label, Prairie Baard, were served to a mixed crowd – women in cocktail dresses, men in jeans, and DeLaet (clean shaven, even) in a fashionable black suit with a black tie and polka-dot pocket square. Some movers-and-shakers in the province bid on experiences at TOUR events like the Safeway Open and the Waste Management Phoenix Open. The second day of the event, dubbed the ‘Graham Slam,’ took place at Willows Golf and Country Club, where DeLaet didn’t hit any balls but instead advised a group of 30-or-so kids (who are participating in Presidents Cup-style competition this weekend where golfers from the Eastern part of the country take on golfers from the West) of his usual PGA TOUR routine, and did his best to wow the kids with some trick shots. The affable DeLaet is at ease with a corporate CEO, a group of kids, or someone he passes on the street wishing him well. When asked if that attitude is a ‘Graham DeLaet’ thing or a ‘Saskatchewan’ thing, the answer is simple, he says. “It’s a prairie thing,â€� he confirms. “There’s something about being from the prairies and Saskatchewan. There’s a pride. We know we’re a quote-on-quote underdog of Canada and that’s just us, fighting the fight. It’s how it’s been my whole life. I grew up here and went to Boise State — it’s the same thing (the school), the little engine that could. “In Saskatchewan… It’s a blue-collar mentality and they’re all good people. They’re welcoming. Now it’s more urbanized but almost everyone grew up on farms. You help, you work, if your neighbor needs help, you help.â€� DeLaet notices the same faces most years at his event, and it’s easy for him to see first-hand how committed the community is to helping others. Earlier this year, he saw that even more. About an hour from Saskatoon is Humboldt, Saskatchewan, the hometown of the junior hockey team whose bus was hit by a truck driver, killing 16 people. The outpouring of support from the world-at-large was tremendous, as the GoFundMe campaign set up to help the victims was Canada’s largest. It raised $15 million after a modest goal of a few thousand dollars to help buy some coffee and cover parking costs for the victims’ parents. DeLaet says his sister lives in that area. He has been to the area many times before and driven the exact road where the crash happened, specifically en route to a golf tournament. “It’s a bus trip almost everyone growing up has had. It was just such a tragedy,â€� he says. “People here came together, but it was national and globally as well. It was pretty amazing.â€�    Although professionally this year has been a struggle for DeLaet, the Humboldt bus crash and watching his own children grow and develop has put things into perspective for him. At one point during breakfast at DeLaet’s event, his son, Roscoe, was on his lap. Drinking apple juice from a coffee cup, the two-and-a-half-year-old is sliding up and down his dad’s leg while DeLaet recalls the first time he met Tiger Woods to a crowd of about 40 people (It didn’t go well. At Aronimink Golf Club they have a saloon-style door into the bathroom in the locker room, and DeLaet said he slammed the door into Woods’ chest). To look at DeLaet interact with his kids and the crowd would be to look at someone who appears just fine. He doesn’t move with a wince, he seems nimble enough to pick up his son – and twin daughter Kayla, who isn’t far behind – and confidently walk to the buffet to grab a piece of fruit. But DeLaet admits from a health and golf standpoint this year has been frustrating. “I miss playing so much, I miss being out there with the guys and I don’t know anything other than golf. It’s all I’ve done the last 15-20 years, and you don’t realize how lucky you are until it’s swept out from under your feet,â€� he says. He says he is in “OKâ€� shape right now and could probably play, but if he did, he would be in “so much painâ€� he probably couldn’t compete on the PGA TOUR. It wears on him mentally, and he’s doing his best to get his ailing back fixed. He says getting a spinal fusion surgery, like Woods, would be “drasticâ€� at this stage. Right now he’s trying to exhaust every option without having to go under the knife again. He did a procedure about eight years ago that caused him to miss the entire 2011 season.   He knows he’s going to be back out playing, but no timeline has been set. And whether he’ll be playing at 100 percent or just put together by a few Band-Aid solutions remains to be seen. He says he doesn’t want to do that for too many years, because he wants to have a good life after golf as well. “I’m in good enough shape to live a life, but not really to be playing competitive golf,â€� he said. The silver lining of the extended time away from his golf family has been the time he’s spent with his own family, which is why the charitable efforts this year in particular have hit even closer to home.  The DeLaet’s met while at Boise State and now split time between Scottsdale, Arizona and Boise, Idaho. They just celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary together with a celebration alongside family and friends to renew their vows. Although his kids would come on the road with the couple most of the time when they were travelling, after about 8 hours on the course DeLaet would usually be tired and not get the quality time he was hoping for. “I’ve had a lot of that this year though,â€� he says with a smile. Despite this year’s setback, he acknowledges he and Ruby are lucky. They’re in a position to give both money and time to a local cause in an area that celebrates athletes of all levels, but especially professionals. “I had never really met a professional athlete when I was a kid, just our local Junior A hockey team. Those guys I looked up to and it was amazing,â€� says DeLaet. “For these kids to be able to be around a PGA TOUR player and mix it up and have memories that will last a lifetime… that will be amazing.â€� As this year’s Graham Slam comes to a close, DeLaet poses for selfies with a group of the kids – that tan in full view – and bends over into an awkward position to get more of the participants in the photo. Then he stands up straight, and smiles.

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