FedExCup bubble boy Trey Mullinax enjoying second life

Dylan Frittelli took something of a busman’s holiday last week. The personable South African didn’t make the field of 64 for the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. Even so, Frittelli still found himself inside the ropes during the first two days of competition at Austin Country Club. But Frittelli had traded his golf clubs in for a microphone so he could call the action for PGA TOUR LIVE. “It was a fun, fun gig, just being out there in the moment and seeing everything,” he says. Frittelli worked the first-round match between Jordan Spieth and Keegan Bradley on Wednesday, as well as Thursday’s tilt that pitted Sergio Garcia against Collin Morikawa. He kept the weekend open to prepare for this week’s Valero Texas Open. After all, playing, not commentating on, the PGA TOUR is Frittelli’s regular job. The 31-year-old has done well at his chosen profession, too, winning the 2019 John Deere Classic and making the FedExCup Playoffs each of the last three seasons. But Frittelli wants to expand his media footprint. He has done some studio work at events in South Africa, as well as at a professional soccer game in Austin, Texas, where he went to college and now makes his home. He knows on-course reporting is the logical starting point, though, and the opportunity presented itself last week. “I’m just getting my feet wet,” explains Frittelli, who is also starting a podcast. “I obviously am focused on playing and I want to play for another 10, maybe 15 years. Who knows, but ideally, I’d just like to give it a go and see if I enjoy it. … “It’s interesting. Obviously, I have the expertise to know what I’m talking about and having a foreign accent helps, too. But right now, it’s just a little thing to get on my resume and my CV, if I ever want to go into it.” Frittelli says he showed up “pretty green” on Wednesday of last week. In fact, he didn’t even think to bring a yardage book because he knows Austin Country Club so well. But he has insight on the players from competing against them regularly, and he says he learned a lot from Colin Swatton, a PGA TOUR LIVE mainstay who once caddied for Jason Day. “You just give a little bit of color,” says Frittelli, who called Spieth’s shots while Swatton handled Bradley. “You tell them what the lie is like. You tell them what things you’d be looking for as a player, any special features on the green or wind conditions or maybe the lie’s a little iffy.” Frittelli says it was easy to converse with the hosts. But it was a “very multitasking-based skill” to learn how to artfully finish a thought and hand it back to the studio when a producer was counting down to a break in his ear. He was careful with the microphone — he had to toggle between one line that connected him with the producer and the other one that was live. “I was very pedantic about that,” Frittelli says. “You don’t want to leave it on and then you start having a conversation, but you get used to it eventually.” The Spieth-Bradley match was a comfortable one for Frittelli to call in his debut. Spieth was a freshman at Texas in 2012 when Frittelli was a senior. The South African made the winning putt that year when the Longhorns beat Alabama for the NCAA title, ending a 40-year drought. Frittelli didn’t get a chance to tell Spieth that he’d be on the call, though. He had planned to go to the range and give caddie Michael Greller the head’s up but “I think it was a bit of a surprise,” he says. When Spieth drove into a hazard on the ninth hole, Frittelli could see a ball in a good lie on a rock face. So, he picked his way about 50 feet down the hillside to see if it belonged to his former teammate. Turns out, it didn’t. “I’d never been down there before, but I knew that that cliff was pretty stable,” Frittelli says, noting that the LIVE cameras caught the South African’s descent. “I had a couple of people screenshot it and send it to me.” Frittelli’s next venture, which is called the “On Tour” podcast, will launch within a month. He is working on the project with Erik Anders Lang and randomgolfclub.com. Lang is the host and director for SkratchTV’s documentary series “Adventures in Golf.” Frittelli already has done interviews with several players for the podcast, and he hopes to collect more this week in San Antonio. He’s not sure who will be the first guest yet, but he wants to make sure the podcast launches with a “bit of a splash.” While golf is his priority right now, Frittelli is excited about his new endeavors. He’s building toward the future, and he likes to keep busy. “I don’t want to be to a point where either I’ve fallen off TOUR or chose to stop playing on TOUR and then go, what am I going to do now and sit around for a year or two, trying to figure it out,” Frittelli says. “I would rather have a couple different avenues that I can go into straightaway because I don’t like just sitting around doing nothing.”

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In a Sunday chalk-full of drama near the bubble of The Finals 25 money list, a stellar final-round 65 by Denny McCarthy moved the University of Virginia alum to the top spot on the four-tournament order of merit. McCarthy captured the Web.com Tour Championship by four shots over Lucas Glover, and with Sangmoon Bae not in the field this week, McCarthy jumped from No. 11 to No. 1 by just over $37,000. McCarthy finished 149th on the FedExCup standings in 2017-18, but didn’t finish outside the top-15 in any of the four Web.com Tour Finals events, going T5-T9-T13 in the three tournaments leading into this week’s finale at Atlantic Beach Country Club. “I just did what I’ve been doing the last three or four months now. I’ve been playing some really good golf of late,� said McCarthy. “I’ve been knocking on the door for quite some time, and what better way than to finish it off with a win this week.� With the victory, and with the top spot on the Web.com Tour Finals money list, McCarthy earns full status for the 2018-19 PGA TOUR season, as well as a spot in THE PLAYERS Championship. Bae moved to second on the Web.com Tour Finals money list, while Robert Streb, Peter Malnati, and Cameron Davis – who finished tied for third at Atlantic Beach CC – rounded out the top five. McCarthy said he’s been doing “so much work� behind the scenes, and complimented his great team for how “tremendous� they’ve been throughout the last year, after moving to 23 under with his 6 under performance on Sunday. He admitted he was aiming to get to 24 under in the final round, but he got the job done despite an early bogey on the par-4 second hole. McCarthy missed nine cuts in 22 PGA TOUR starts this year – his best result was a solo fourth at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship – but he’s already looking forward to getting back out on TOUR. “I’m going to be much better suited having played all these places once this past year and getting some tournament rounds on those places,� he said. “It’s really tough to get out there and play great golf. You’re just not familiar with the course … you’re just not as comfortable with where to miss it off the tee and into the greens. “I’ve played all four of these (Web.com Tour Finals courses), so the combination of really good golf I’ve been playing plus course knowledge, got me a win here.�

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Presidents Cup International Team captain Ernie Els received a nice piece of news during the lengthy rain delay Thursday at the first round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Els is headed to Pebble Beach in June for the U.S. Open. The USGA gave the two-time U.S. Open champ a special exemption for the second consecutive year.  Els is the first player to receive consecutive exemptions since Hale Irwin in 2002 and 2003. Els, who is partnering fellow South African Trevor Immelman this week at TPC Louisiana while also evaluating potential players for his Presidents Cup team in Australia in December, won the U.S. Open at Oakmont in 1994 and at Congressional in 1997. This will be his third U.S. Open start at Pebble Beach, site of this year’s championship. Els finished third in 2010, two shots behind Graeme McDowell. He tied for second in 2000, 15 shots behind Tiger Woods. His appearance at Pebble Beach this year will be his 27th U.S. Open start. Els is among 50 players exempt from qualifying. The USGA will take the top 60 in the world rankings after next month’s PGA Championship for players not already eligible.

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