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SAN ANTONIO — As the defending champion of the Valero Texas Open, Andrew Landry’s face is plastered all over town. His mug is even on the hotel keys at the J.W. Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa, home ofTPC San Antonio, where Landry was the only player in the field to post four rounds in the 60s en route to his first career PGA TOUR win. “It was one of the most special moments of my life,” Landry said. Seeing his face on his room key is just another reminder of the long, circuitous path Landry took to the winner’s circle. It’s a path that began at the same nine-hole muni — The Pea Patch in Port Neches-Groves, Texas — as fellow TOUR pro Chris Stroud before following him to Lamar University. “Andrew may be the best competitor I’ve ever been around,” Landry’s college coach Brad McMakin said. Such a bold declaration demands anecdotal support and McMakin delivers the goods, detailing how Landry, who transferred to the University of Arkansas when McMakin took the job there after Landry’s freshman year, used to carry a pair of goggles in his golf bag. “One time, he dropped them on the tee when he played David Lingmerth and Lingmerth asked, ‘What is that?’ ” McMakin recalled. “He said, ‘I’m fixin’ to poke your eyes out so you better put them on.’ It’s just the way he was.” Then there was the time when Landry overslept for his first tournament at Arkansas and the team left without him. Landry caught a cab and beat the team, which had stopped for breakfast, to Notre Dame’s Warren Golf Course. After shooting 65, Landry approached McMakin and said, “Coach, I would advise you not to leave me again.” “The more you stepped on him, the tougher he’d get,” McMakin said. “He was right. I never left him again.” Related: Power Rankings | Insider: Former champ Bowditch upbeat in back recovery | Expert Picks | What you need to know for the Valero Texas Open | Diaz: ‘Just a normal problem’ Landry set an Arkansas team record for top 10s in only three seasons. But after graduating in 2009, he toiled on mini-tours in his first four seasons as a pro. He started to see the light when he began driving seven hours each way to Austin to work with swing instructor Chuck Cook. Nevertheless, he signed up for Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament in 2014, telling himself this was his last chance. He and fellow Arkansas grad Austin Cook (no relation to Chuck) roomed together at second stage in Panama City, Fla. Landry opened with rounds of 75-76 and his chances of advancing looked bleak. But Landry refused to quit, perhaps because of his blue-collar upbringing, McMakin says. Landry’s father is a FedEx delivery man and his mother is a school teacher. “His father cut grass to help pay his entry fees,” McMakin said. “I can tell you this: there were multiple times where his parents came to watch him play college tournaments and they slept in their car. He saw that and he wasn’t going to let them down. He just had that in his blood.” Needing to go low in the third round, Landry and Cook prayed together at dinner. The next day, Landry fired a 64, three strokes better than anyone else the entire week. “He told me he had to pull over on the side of the road because he was crying,” Cook remembered. “It was such a big round for him that he had to take a minute and reflect on what had happened.” Landry advanced to final stage and finished second to earn his Web.com Tour card. Money was still tight for Landry. In 2015, he had only had $1,500 left in his bank account the week of a Web.com Tour event in Cartagena, Colombia. None of that mattered when he found the ring he wanted to get his now-wife, Elizabeth. He put $500 down on the ring and headed to the tournament with only $1,000 to his name. He won that week and was on his way to earning a PGA TOUR card. As a rookie, he made his mark at the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont, holding the 36-hole lead before ballooning to a final-round 78 and finishing T-15. The big takeaway: he needed to focus on his approach shots, especially from 160-170 yards. “I was hitting a lot of 8-irons where (eventual U.S. Open champ) Dustin Johnson was hitting wedge,” Landry said. “I better be good from there if I’m going to compete.” At last year’s Valero Texas Open, Landry outperformed the field by +1.923 strokes on all approach shots, ranking first for the week, and also ranked eighth in Strokes Gained: Putting (+1.291). “I did everything pretty awesome last year,” Landry said. It didn’t hurt that he gained extra motivation when he overheard the caddie of one of his playing competitors, Zach Johnson, ask his player before the third round, “Who’s this guy we’re playing with?”   Landry set out to make sure caddie Damon Green would remember his name the next time they met. Landry carded 67-68 on the weekend for a score of 17-under 271, which marked the lowest winning total since the tournament moved to TPC San Antonio in 2010. “When Green popped into a port-a-potty, he had to restrain himself from tipping it over,” McMakin said of Landry. “That’s him though. If I was in a bar fight, I’d want Landry with me even though he’s 5’5” 160 pounds. He’d be the guy that would be there for you. He’s never been afraid to play anyone, anywhere.”Â
Tiger Woods, seeking his first victory in five years, fired his lowest PGA Tour opening round since 1999 — an 8-under-par 62.
