The local PGA Tour contingent is quickly taking a liking to 2010.
The start to the year stands in sharp contrast to 2009, when Tour players with strong Colorado connections were very slow to get up to speed.
Less than two months into the new season, local Tour players have already recorded four top-10 finishes, with the most recent being Kevin Stadler’s ninth-place showing Sunday in the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico. It was the second straight top-10 performance on Tour for the Kent Denver High School graduate. Stadler (pictured) took 10th place Feb. 7 at the Northern Trust Open despite a costly double bogey on the final hole.
In between those two tournaments, Cherry Hills Village resident David Duval very nearly won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Duval was tied for the lead until defending champion Dustin Johnson birdied the 72nd hole to prevail by one stroke over Duval and J.B. Holmes on Valentine’s Day.
Also joining in the top-10 fun this year was former Colorado State University golfer Martin Laird, who opened the Tour season with a fourth-place showing at the SBS Championship in Hawaii. Laird had earned a spot in the invitation-only tournament by virtue of his October victory at the Justin Timberlake Tour stop in Las Vegas.
A year ago, the story was much different. The local players not only went without a top-10 finish in the first two months of the year, but the top-10 drought extended until the second half of June. That’s when Duval tied for second in the U.S. Open, marking his best finish on Tour since 2001.
Fortunately, the last seven months of 2009 proved to be much more rewarding than the first five as the Colorado contingent recorded a half-dozen top-10s, with Laird picking up a win; Laird, Duval and Stadler posting runner-up finishes; and Leif Olson posting a third-place showing.
As for 2010, a look at the season-long money list shows the progress the local players have made. The current standings include three pros with local ties in the top 45: Duval (21st), Laird (38th) and Stadler (42nd).
Stadler, son of 1982 Masters champion Craig Stadler, has been the most consistent of the local performers this year. In four tournaments in 2010, he’s finished out of the top 20 just once and has shot above 71 just once. Stadler regained his fully-exempt status on Tour last year despite playing just 20 tournaments.
“I put a lot of work in over the off-season, and basically all of last year,” Stadler said earlier this month. “I played on a conditional status last year and only played 20 events, and it was a very, very slow year for me. And I just made good use of the time, put a lot of work in, so it’s nice to be showing some signs.
“”¦ I’ve kind of struggled (with) just feeling like I really belong out here (on Tour). It’s my fifth year. I’ve been out here for a while, and it’s kind of a shame it’s taken that long to get comfortable out here. I needed to get after it and just kind of realize this is where I’m at now.”
Duval, meanwhile, entered the season in a position similar to what Stadler was in last year. The former No. 1-ranked player in the world lost his fully-exempt status last year despite his runner-up performance in the U.S. Open. And while his two second-place finishes in the last eight months have demonstrated Duval is capable of returning to his old form, his play remains inconsistent.
He’s come close to two victories since the start of last summer, but those are his only top-50 finishes since the beginning of 2009. Last week, on the heels of placing second at Pebble Beach, Duval shot 71-79 and missed the cut in Mexico.
This year, Duval has played either very good or poorly; there’s been little middle ground. Of his 13 Tour rounds in 2010, he’s shot in the 60s seven times, and 73 or over five times. The result is that he’s gone missed cut, 76th place, second place and missed cut in his four events. The next step in Duval’s comeback figures to be eliminating those rounds in the mid to high 70s.
Despite the inconsistency, Duval has certainly made considerable strides from a few years ago, when he seemed to be in a free fall.
“In the end, I kind of see it as this is what I do, and I’m pretty good at what I do,” Duval said at Pebble Beach. “I’ve had some struggles for a while — a long while — and I feel like I’m kind of getting back on top of everything how I want to. This is what I expect of myself. I expect to play well. With that said, that doesn’t mean you’re going to have a chance to win every week. But to expect to be in control most of the time with what you’re trying to do.”
