Jim Dent on his son golf-playing Joseph: ‘He's going to be a great asset to this game'

Three-time PGA TOUR winner and longtime golf instructor Dave Ragan, who proved himself a steady, consistent presence on the leaderboards in the 1950s and 1960s, passed away Tuesday. He was 82 years old. Ragan turned professional in 1956 after finishing a stellar career at the University of Florida, where he earned All-America honors that year after winning an SEC individual championship. The Gators have since enshrined the Daytona Beach, Florida, native into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame. In his time on TOUR, Ragan missed just six cuts over 278 starts, finishing with 54 top-10 finishes and those three aforementioned victories. His first career victory came in June 1959, when he won the Eastern Open Invitational, before encountering his best run in late 1962, when in the span of a month he won the Beaumont Open Invitational and the West Palm Beach Open Invitational in a playoff over Doug Sanders. “My second year, I went right out to Los Angeles— finished seventh, I think—and I was kind of on my way,� he told the Daytona Beach News-Journal in 2014. “From there, I was consistently in the money, but we weren’t playing for very much then.� In 1963, he earned a spot on the Ryder Cup team, which the U.S. won, 23 to 9, thanks to his performance. He teamed with Billy Casper to win 1 up in foursomes, and won 2 & 1 in singles over Neil Coles. That year also saw his best finish in a major, when he finished second to Jack Nicklaus at the PGA Championship. His other showings in majors are highlighted by a pair of T25 finishes at the Masters and a T12 at the U.S. Open in 1963. “He was a peaceful gentlemen and the kindest soul who devoted his life to his family, the game of golf and the good book,� his son, Chuck Ragan, posted on Instagram. “Just like his sweet parents, he inspired and lifted up anyone that came close to him. He taught my brothers and I more about life, fishing, the outdoors, the game of golf, sportsmanship, love and never quitting than anyone ever had.� Ragan, who also spent time on PGA TOUR Champions, discovered instruction after his playing days ended. He was the Director of Golf and Teaching Professional at Pine Tree Country Club and Inverness Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama. Earlier this year, Pine Tree renamed their club’s tournament the Dave Ragan Cup in honor of his service. He is survived by his wife, Geraldine, and five sons.

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The ball was sitting in a pot bunker. Hunter Stewart was standing outside of it. It was a textbook example of the awkward lies that can occur on the links courses of Great Britain & Ireland. Stewart hadn't hit the ball there, but it was his job to extricate it. Maverick McNealy struck the tee shot that wound up in this trap. It was on the first hole of their first match of the Walker Cup, a competition that pits the United States' best amateurs against their peers from GB&I. "Brutal" is how McNealy described the lie Stewart faced. "I put him in some really bad spots that first day in alternate shot," McNealy recalled recently. "His first shot of the entire Walker Cup, he was standing on his head." Six years later, Stewart is still trying to help McNealy get the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible, but in a much different capacity. McNealy is in his second year on the PGA TOUR while Stewart, who has an economics degree from Vanderbilt, is in his second season working as a strategy consultant for TOUR players. Stewart's statistical analysis speaks the language of McNealy, a Northern California native who brings a Silicon Valley ethos to his career. "He's always coming up with ideas and ways to get better," Stewart said. "He innovates himself." McNealy finished 68th in the FedExCup last year. He made the cut in 17 of 23 starts, including six top-25s. A fifth-place finish at last year's AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was his best of the season. The 25-year-old has four top-25s this season and is 87th in the FedExCup. McNealy has seen some of his peers enter the winner's circle before him, but he derives satisfaction from the improvement he's seen since turning pro. The son of former Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy, Maverick expressed interest in entering the business world after college. Knowing he could still get better - even after a stellar career at Stanford, where was the NCAA player of the year, won 11 times and was and a two-time Walker Cupper - was a deciding factor in turning pro. "I've been asked when do I think I wouldn't want to play golf anymore and the answer is, ‘When I don't think I can get any better, when there's no stone unturned,'" McNealy said recently. "I love the fact that there's always room to improve." Scott McNealy used to roam the hallways of Sun and ask, "If you were CEO for a day, what would you do?" Maverick does the same with his employees, conducting annual interviews where each member of his team reviews their performance and his. "I ask, ‘How did the year go? What did you do well? Where did you struggle? Is there anything you need to do your job better? And, if you were me, what do you think you would do differently on and off the golf course?" McNealy said. "My dad said one of the most important things you can do is listen and give your employees a chance to talk openly and freely." Stewart said McNealy runs his team "like a business, and he's the CEO. He's a businessman who happens to be a PGA TOUR player. "Everyone has a role, and he's made it very easy for everyone on his team to do their job to the fullest. That's great leadership on his part." McNealy's swing instructor is Butch Harmon, who helped him sort out his swing when he was struggling with his ball-striking on the Korn Ferry Tour. McNealy has had the same caddie, Travis McAllister, since turning pro. They spent two years together on the KFT before reaching the PGA TOUR. "He's very detail-oriented and probably more of a perfectionist than I am," McNealy said. Susie Meyers is McNealy's mental coach. While McNealy was recruited out of college by the largest agencies, he decided to sign with Peter Webb, who runs a one-man operation. His trainer Is Scott Norton and physical therapist Jimmy Greathouse helped him recover from a shoulder injury he suffered last year. Karen Hallstein, who was Scott McNealy's secretary, helps Maverick with his travel. And Maverick's grandfather, Paul Ingemanson, is his financial adviser. "He'll let me know if there's a $5 fee on one of my credit cards that shouldn't be there," McNealy said. "I'm still driving my mom's 2011 Ford Explorer and I have A-list preferred status on Southwest. I think a lot of my spending habits come from my grandpa." Stewart is one of the newest additions to the team. He's not the first person to parse the ShotLink data to help players save shots, but he's the only one with a top-10 finish on TOUR. Stewart finished 10th in the 2015 Mayakoba Golf Classic, just his third TOUR start as a pro. Earlier that year, he finished third in the NCAA Championship, behind only future TOUR winners Bryson DeChambeau and C.T. Pan. Stewart's pro career stalled out on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada and in 2019 he decided to change careers. "I'm just trying to help them do the right thing on each shot," Stewart said. "It might not work on every shot because that's golf but the goal is to increase the probability of success." Stewart doesn't just help his players pick the right play on the course. He helps them set their schedule with events that fit their skillset, determine specific shots to focus on in practice rounds and set practice routines based on the state of their game and what an upcoming course may require. His goal is to help his clients save one stroke per tournament. That may not sound like much but it can have a huge impact on a player's season. McNealy uses the 12th hole at Detroit Golf Club, site of the Rocket Mortgage Classic, as tangible evidence of Stewart's impact. Stewart uses ShotLink to look at putts that players seem to consistently misread. In the practice rounds at Detroit GC, Stewart instructed McNealy to hit putts from a specific spot to the Sunday hole location. "When he tells me that, I know it's because guys never make that putt," McNealy said. He badly misread his first attempt but made an 18-footer on the same line when it mattered on Sunday. He finished T8, one of three top-10s last season. Stewart, a former SEC Conference Player of the Year and Kentucky native, also helps McNealy with his short game, especially with shots from the Bermudagrass common in the South. McNealy has learned to focus on shoring up his strengths instead of trying to fix every weakness. Stewart used Strokes Gained to devise a "winning formula" for McNealy, who was ninth in Strokes Gained: Putting last season. If he putts well, then he can garner a good finish by not losing strokes in Strokes Gained: Approach and avoiding penalty strokes with his driver. "I'm not in the business of asking guys to become something that they're not," Stewart said. "I think a lot of times people get bogged down in trying to become the best player in the world. The Tiger effect has skewed everyone's view of success in golf. I'm not saying we should limit what we try to do, but just because the Tigers and the Rorys of the world are winning all the time - they're great measuring sticks, but you shouldn't let that barometer of their success rob you of the joy of becoming the best player they can be." It's a journey that McNealy has enjoyed as he pursues his first PGA TOUR win.

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During a practice round ahead of this week’s Sony Open in Hawaii, PGA TOUR Champions pro Jim Furyk was addressed by playing partner Brent Grant with the deferential ‘sir’ formality. Grant, 25, then asked Furyk, 51, what he liked most about his early career on the 50-and-older circuit. “No one calls me ‘sir,’” Furyk replied. Grant was born in March 1996, a month after Furyk’s first Sony Open victory, carding 11-under total and besting Brad Faxon in a playoff for his second PGA TOUR title. Furyk, now a 17-time TOUR winner in addition to three PGA TOUR Champions victories, has intentions of adding a second Sony Open title to his collection. The Pennsylvania native, inspired by his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers’ late-season push to a playoff berth, carded an opening-round, 8-under 62 at Waialae CC – including a hole-in-one at the par-3 17th hole. Furyk becomes the oldest player to shoot 62 or better on TOUR since 1983, doing so with a torrid 5-under stretch on his final five holes – including a par at the par-5 18th. Playing on a sponsor’s exemption as the first leg of an Aloha Double – en route to next week’s PGA TOUR Champions season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai – Furyk proved early that he’s looking to do more than solely fill a spot in the field. “I love (the) Sony (Open) … it’s a place I’ve had a lot of success,” said Furyk after signing for his eighth round of 62 or better on TOUR. “I’m not hitting the ball far enough to compete out here on a regular basis on a lot of the golf courses, but Waialae is a place I still feel I can get around and shoot under par pretty well, and so it’s fun. “Places I’ve won, Valspar, Heritage, those are courses I can still compete on. Once in a while, I’ll dip out here, but I’ll predominantly play on PGA TOUR Champions.” When he does dip back out onto the PGA TOUR though, Furyk strategically picks his spots to maximize his opportunity to make an impact. Venerable Waialae CC appears the perfect venue – Furyk has recorded 10 top-25s in 17 Sony Open appearances, including his 1996 victory and a 1997 runner-up. The Sony Open demands a precision game. Tree-lined, par-70 Waialae CC plays to just 7,044 yards and requires players to shape the ball both ways, preferring precision to power. Three decades into his professional career, Furyk’s game fits that bill. Averaging 271.9 yards off the tee, Furyk rebounded from an opening bogey to record seven birdies and an eagle, including his sixth career TOUR ace at the 187-yard, par-3 17th. “I thought I was in-between clubs, but (caddie) Fluff assured me it was a 6-iron for me,” Furyk recollected of his decision-making process on No. 17 tee. “It was the right club and I had it teed up a little bit, trying to get the ball in the air and hit down on it. Caught it just a smidge high in the face. “And so I loved the line it was on, but I wasn’t quite sure I caught enough of it to cover it. And carried on the green probably two or three yards and landed in a perfect spot and then released towards the pin. I guess that’s kind of the line I was looking.” Yes, sir!

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