Golf world presents revised calendar of events for 2020

CROMWELL, Conn. – If a sense of calm seemed to envelope Patrick Cantlay moments after he made a double-bogey at his 17th hole, the par-3 eighth, in Thursday’s first round of the Travelers Championship, there were good reasons. One, by nature, Cantlay possesses a remarkable even-keel disposition. Two, he still signed for a 4-under 66 to continue a stretch of golf that is as good as anything being played on the PGA TOUR. And, third, he’s in a comfortable environment. “I turned pro here in ’12 and I played well here as an am in ’11,� said Cantlay, though he greatly understated the second half of that statement. That’s because in 2011, the then-19-year-old at UCLA scorched TPC River Highlands to the tune of 10-under 60, a bogey-free effort that featured an eagle and eight birdies. It remains the only 60 posted by an amateur in PGA TOUR history. “I like coming back to places that I like playing golf at,� said Cantlay, who led through 36 holes that year, but faded to T-24. He’s played here three other times since turning professional, but despite the sloppy bogey at the 204-yard eighth (“Just hit it a little fat and it went in the water,� he said), Thursday was his best score since that 60 eight years ago. “I hit the ball really well today. One missed shot cost me two.� You’d have to go back a long way to find a round of golf that didn’t have Cantlay speaking positively. Since missing the cut at THE PLAYERS Championship in March, his five stroke-play tournaments have produced stellar performances. A win (the Memorial Tournament), three other top 10s and a share of 21st at the U.S. Open last week have featured 20 rounds of golf, 12 of them in the 60s, a scoring average of 69.05 and a combined score of 43-under-par. Everything about Thursday’s start says Cantlay appears ready to continue that sizzling trend. “My mindset for a while has been, ‘Come out, win the golf tournament every week,’ and I’ve been close. I’ve played really well.�

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That 2-hour drive from Palm Harbor, Florida, to Orlando earlier this week was like “crossing the streetâ€� for Steve Hulka. Maybe not for you and me. But Hulka, who had recently finished a three-day, coast-to-coast drive hauling a 24-foot trailer filled with eight tons of luggage and golf gear, has a little different perspective. The longtime PGA TOUR caddie started a business in the fall of 2002 called HOPE — which is an acronym for Hulka’s Overland Players Express. His regular clients have grown from six pros at the start to over 50 this year with the assorted Sunday night walk-ups welcome, too. Since starting the business, Hulka is on his fourth Chevy Silverado, a brand new 2018 model, as well as his fifth trailer. The first was a 16-footer but the demand increased so much that Hulka had to go to one that’s 8 feet longer several years ago. In an average year, Hulka drives about 45,000 miles, making the total entering this year right around 675,000. No word on how many times he’s changed the oil in the truck – that’s what Hulka was doing recently when he broke for a telephone interview — or had the tires rotated. That recent trip from Los Angeles to West Palm Beach is the longest of the year. Three days and 2,700 miles later – including driving through what Hulka calls a “Biblical stormâ€� – the truck was unloaded. Without fail by Tuesday, though, anxious players started calling to see how close their overland express was. “One of those players that called looking for us on Tuesday, I go, so do you have to make a Target run for socks and underwear?â€� Hulka says with a smile. “He left all his suitcases with us thinking, you know, OK. But to, his defense, he took three weeks off prior to that. So he wasn’t really thinking (about how far it was.)â€� The idea for his business was hatched in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Hulka was traveling back from his aunt’s funeral and he was struck by the increased security he encountered at the airport. “I could not fathom the fact that our army were standing there with M-16s and there was a 2-hour line and all I had was the backpack,â€� Hulka recalls. “I was like, how are the players going to get their gear with their wives and their children and their clubs and their suitcases and everything … if this is how the landscape for flying has changed so drastically.â€� Hulka was caddying for Pat Bates at the time. Over the next 10 months or so, he and Bates and Ben Crane, Jonathan Byrd and Paul Stankowski often brainstormed how they might make travel easier. Stankowski finally suggested that Hulka rent a truck from Ryder, which at the time sponsored the tournament at Doral. Hulka eventually decided the best way would be to buy a truck and a trailer. He called Henry Hughes, who was then an executive vice president at the PGA TOUR, and pitched the idea. Turns out, a caddie on what is now called PGA TOUR Champions had a similar plan. So within 24 hours, Hulka wrote an eight-page business plan and sent it to Hughes. “I figured, OK, the first guy that gets his business plan to Henry’s is going to get this opportunity,â€� Hulka recalls. “So I made sure I was first. And Henry called me a day later and he said, Hulka, we love your plan. You’ve covered all your bases and you are good to go.â€� Hulka’s six original clients quickly grew. The word of mouth was overwhelmingly positive and it wasn’t long before Hulka realized that he and Stankowski and the rest were right — HOPE filled a niche for TOUR players who average 20-25 weeks on the road a year. Hulka’s wife Mary, who was his graveyard shift driver for many years, found stackable, 55-gallon rolling bins at the Container Store. The pros buy those and pack away children’s toys, rain gear and other supplies, essentially giving them an extra locker, and then Hulka loads them on the truck and hauls them to the next event. “They’re pretty sturdy and they’re big enough to hold lots of stuff,â€� he says. “And some of them weigh hundred pounds because those girls can pack.â€� Hulka has also transported exercise bikes, training tables and motorcycles — even a mattress that a player uses when the one at the hotel or home he’s renting isn’t comfy enough. And don’t forget the new golf towels that the caddies get every week – including some very specific brands, such as AT&T for Jordan Speith and RBC for their six-man team. “We’ve got four different towels on our truck trailer, just boxes of towels,â€� Hulka says. “They get shipped out to us. In fact when you called me, I was on my way to the laundromat to wash the dirty ones because we keep a supply of rewashes for the rainy days.â€� It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, er, driving, though. One year, as Hulka drove through the Florida Panhandle near Bubba Watson’s home in Bagdad, he heard two loud booms and realized both tires on the passenger side had blown. “We actually had to sleep in the trailer because it happened at 3 o’clock in the morning,â€� Hulka says. “Well, I got one spare not two … but that one spare we put it on, we jacked up the trailer, put it on, and we limped down the highway another 30 miles to Baghdad. And we, we waited until 7 for this tire store to open up so we could get some new tires.â€� The truck lost an entire wheel assembly in Sharon, Pennsylvania, on Monday night during another drive from Boston to St. Louis during the FedExCup Playoffs. Hulka had to rent another trailer, re-pack and leave his own to be fixed. He arrived at the Ritz-Carlton in St. Louis at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night. “I heard later from (TOUR official) Ross Berlin that Geoff Ogilvy walked out on the range in tee shirt shorts and flip flops,â€� Hulka chuckles. “And he goes, Geoff, what are you doing? He goes, ‘Oh, you haven’t heard about the Hulkas?’ They’re back in Pennsylvania. They had a breakdown. I don’t have any luggage. “And we never lost a beat other than we were half a day late getting into St. Louis. That’s been the only really set back that we’ve had in the 16 years of the business where we were actually late. I guess that’s a pretty good fielding percentage.â€� For many years, Hulka’s wife Mary helped shoulder the driving and packing duties, literally, as well as figuratively. “Boy, could she schlepp luggage,â€� Hulka says, noting his wife often loaded the truck herself on Sunday night while he finished his caddying duties. Then they’d hit Cracker Barrel and head out for the next tournament stop. He’d take the first shift while she slept and then they’d trade places. Mary has now gone into “semi-retirement,â€� as her husband puts it, and spends most of her time back home in Phoenix being a grandmother. Their son, Ben, who was the manager of the football team at Arizona and later spent four years working for the Seattle Seahawks, has now joined the family business. “He puts stickers on Nick Foles’ helmets (at Arizona),â€� Hulka says. “Isn’t that something? Now here’s Nick Foes, Super Bowl MVP.â€� Oh, and the Seahawks won the Super Bowl the first year Ben worked for the NFL team. “So he really had a great four years, met the love of his life and now he’s working for us,â€� Hulka says. The biggest difference between having Mary and Ben on the road with him? Now he eats at Chipotle on Sunday night. “This millennial thing,â€� Hulka says good-naturedly. “Cracker Barrel’s too grandma, grandpa and they got to do Chipotle so we can get going a little quicker.â€� Hulka, who is 65, thinks he has another three years or so before he retires and Ben takes the business over. Hulka will caddie this year for Chad Collins, starting with next week’s Chitimacha Louisiana Open and then moving full-time to the PGA TOUR. “(I’d like to) get him to the top and then walk off into the sunset,â€� Hulka says. Or, he can always drive.

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Erik van Rooyen … It’s doubtful that the missed cut in his last start at the Made in Denmark dented the South African’s confidence. He finished T8 at the PGA Championship the preview week and ranked T9 in greens hit, ninth in proximity, eighth in strokes gained: tee-to-green and third in putting: birdies-or-better at Bethpage. That secured his exemption (via the top 10) into the RBC Canadian Open, which will be his fourth PGA TOUR start of the season and fifth of his career. He’s 19th on the European Tour’s Race to Dubai standings with a pair of runner-up finishes among five top 15s in the last three months. And now he’s fresh off qualifying for his first U.S. Open at the sectional in Columbus, Ohio. Danny Willett … Given that he won the Masters only three years ago, that he lands here is all you need to know about how far he’s separated from the main stage. The 31-year-old battled injuries in the interim but he was buoyed by a smattering of consistent results in the second half of 2018. The rise was punctuated with a victory at the DP World Tour Championship in November. As a renewed member of the PGA TOUR, he’s had only one top 25 since, but the waters are a-gurglin’. En route to a T41 at the PGA Championship, he ranked T3 in greens in regulation. Last week at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, he finished T11 in GIR. Hot irons will play at Hamilton this week, so his next objective is to put four rounds together. Nick Watney … While the Zurich Classic of New Orleans presents as a twist to break up the routine of the season, it shouldn’t be overlooked as an opportunity to regain form. He and partner Charley Hoffman placed T9 for what was Watney’s first top-15 finish of the season. It also lifted him back inside the top 125 of the FedExCup standings and sparked a 3-for-4 run in individual competition entering the RBC Canadian Open. Even better, he’s reclaimed confidence with his staple as a powerful ball-striker. En route to a T8 at cozy Colonial, he ranked T4 in greens hit, seventh in proximity and led the field in strokes gained: tee-to-green. Last week at the bigger ballpark of Muirfield Village, he finished T11 in GIR and paced the field in proximity. The 38-year-old now sits a much more comfortable 98th in the FedExCup. Tyler Duncan … The PGA TOUR sophomore made news at the AT&T Byron Nelson where he struck his wife, Maria, in the head on the first bounce of his drive on the 13th hole of Trinity Forest in the second round. (She’s OK.) Despite that shot, he performed wonderfully and in line with his profile as a ball-striker, but it was improved putting that made the difference between another forgettable result and the career-best-tying T5 that he logged. And that was on large greens. Hamilton’s smaller targets project to accentuate his strength even more. Cameron Tringale … He’s had a helluva career and he’s still only 31 years of age. Most wouldn’t trade a record of 156-for-256 as a professional with eight figures in earnings, but the Georgia Tech product remains winless in PGA TOUR-sanctioned competition. It’s also been three seasons since he qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs and he’s currently 138th in points, but the RBC Canadian Open could springboard him back. In fact, it’d be a continuation of form first captured in earnest at the Valero Texas Open where he finished T17 while ranking T3 in greens in regulation and T5 in proximity. After a T5 with Roberto Castro at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Tringale posted a T23 at the AT&T Byron Nelson and slotted T4 in GIR and second in conversion percentage inside 10 feet (66-for-70). As he’s conjuring old form, it’s relevant to cite that he finished T19 at Hamilton in 2012, finishing T5 in GIR and 12th in strokes gained: tee-to-green. He also co-led the field in fairways hit. NOTE: Sleeper is a relative term, so Rob uses unofficial criteria to determine who qualifies. Each of the following usually is determined to be ineligible for this weekly staple: Winners of the tournament on the current host course; winners in the same season; recent major champions; top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking; recent participants of team competitions.

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