When he landed in Hawaii this week to play in the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions, Nick Watney discovered his surfboard was damaged in transport. For some, this might have been a bad omen. For Watney, considered perhaps America’s best player, it was just a minor inconvenience.
Watney was in the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday afternoon, enjoying the surf on the board of a Maui resident.
“It makes you step back and count your blessings and appreciate Hawaii and winning on the tour,” Watney said in a phone conversation Wednesday. “It’s an absolutely beautiful spot.”
Little can keep Watney from his appointed rounds. Since joining the PGA Tour in 2005, no player has climbed as steadily. The proof is in his missed cuts — 16 (2005), 10 (2006), nine (2007), six (2008), five (2009), two (2010) and three (2011).
Last year Watney moved into golf’s elite, winning twice, earning $5.2 million and cracking the world’s top 10. The only downside was his performance in the majors. He missed two cuts, was a nonfactor in the Masters and tied for 12th at the PGA.
“I put too much emphasis on those tournaments,” Watney said. “Once I got there and put the tee in the ground, I got mad a little quicker, expecting too much.”
Watney said he will try to approach this year’s majors the way 2011 British Open winner Darren Clarke did.
“He wanted to win that event more than any one he’s ever played,” Watney said. “But his approach was to have as much fun as he could.”
Watney’s highlight of 2011 came in the AT&T National at Aronimink, where he shot an 8-under-par 62 in the third round on his way to his fourth PGA Tour victory.
“The funny thing is I did it on basically nine holes. I turned at even par,” Watney said of his course-record score. “Then I’m not really sure what happened. That’s as good as I got.”
The 6-foot-2 Watney has always been among the tour’s longest drivers. Refining other facets of his game has taken more work. Under the tutelage of Butch Harmon, Watney has improved his iron play dramatically. For example, on approaches between 75-100 yards, Watney ranked No. 1 on tour last year. In four of his first five years, Watney failed to finish in the top 150 in the stat.
Watney’s drive to improve is a surprise to some considering his laid-back California demeanor. Tightly wound? That description applies less to Watney than perhaps any player on the tour.
“I feel like inside the ropes, you can be very motivated and driven,” said Watney. “Once you’re out of that arena, you can become a nice, good person. I don’t think it has to overlap. When you’re working, you do what you have to do.”
Watney grew up in Sacramento and played golf for his uncle, Mike Watney, the 34-year head coach at Fresno State and a former PGA Tour pro, who was the only college coach to offer him a scholarship, and a partial one at that.
“I certainly did not have it rough as a child, but we weren’t members of a country club or anything like that,” Watney said. “I kind of got a late start in golf. I was about 13. I think it’s just that I’m a competitive person and I really love playing tournament golf.”
By his sophomore year Watney was an All-American. A year after graduation, Watney played in his first PGA event, the 2003 FBR Capital Open at Avenel. Then it took just one season on the Nationwide Tour (2004) to advance to the PGA.
In June, Watney will return to Washington, nine years after his PGA Tour debut as he defends his title in the AT&T National at Congressional. He hopes to be a major champion by then, but his pursuit of that goal won’t define him – at least on the outside.
“The feeling walking off the 18th green last year at AT&T National was absolutely euphoric,” Watney said. “Someone said this the other day, ‘If you love your work, you’ll never work a day in your life.’ That’s sort of what I feel like.”
– Kevin Dunleavy
