Perhaps Kevin Stadler, who turned 30 last month, is coming of age with his golf game.
That’s certainly the way it appears considering how the Kent Denver High School graduate has performed on the PGA Tour over the last seven months.
In Stadler’s first three full seasons on Tour, the best finish he managed on the year-long money list was 124th. In other words, his status on the top golf circuit in the world was tenuous.
But given how Stadler has played since late August of last year, he looks like he belongs on Tour, and not as just a marginal player.
Stadler — who’s won the Colorado state high school tournament (1997), the CGA Match Play (1999 and 2002) and the Colorado Open (2002) — hasn’t finished first yet on the PGA Tour, but he’s been in the mix on a fairly regular basis in the last seven months.
In his last 10 Tour events, dating back to late August, Stadler has recorded three top-10 and six top-25 finishes. Considering he managed just five top-10s in his first 124 PGA Tour starts, that’s quite a step forward. By far the closest he’s come to a victory on Tour was at August’s Wyndham Championship, where he lost to Ryan Moore on the third hole of a playoff.
“More than anything it just kind of helps mentally to know that I definitely have what it takes to play out here,” said Stadler, who is in the field for this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational.
In six tournaments this year, Stadler has finished in the top 20 four times and in the top 10 twice. And very good scores have become far more commonplace for the son of 1982 Masters champion Craig Stadler. He’s shot 65 to 67 in nearly 40 percent of his rounds in 2010.
The improved play has done wonders for Stadler’s money winnings. In his last 10 Tour events, his average check has been $86,500. Compare that to his career average before this recent stretch: less than $19,000.
“I put in a lot of work in the off-season, and basically all of last year,” he said.
Just because Stadler’s results have been more consistent in the last seven months doesn’t mean he’s rock-steady within rounds. In fact, he probably has more peaks and valleys than most Tour players in that regard. The final round of the Puerto Rico Open earlier this month was a good example. Stadler , who shot 73, didn’t make a par until the seventh hole, and he ended up with six birdies, five bogeys, a double bogey and six pars.
For the season, Stadler leads the Tour in greens in regulation percentage (76.3) and also ranks in the top 10 in par-breaking holes (26.1 percent) and holes per eagle (69). On the flipside, his putting and sand play leave something to be desired.
If he can improve those shortcomings, Stadler should soon have success on the PGA Tour, just as he has had on the Nationwide circuit (four wins) and as an amateur (he was the Pac-10 Player of the Year in 2002). Now in his fifth full season on the PGA Tour, he knows the time is right for him to step to the forefront.
“I’ve kind of struggled (with) just feeling like I really belong out here,” Stadler said. “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.”
