A little blurb from Tod Leonard at the San Diego Union Tribune on Wednesday:
Pat Perez is back at Augusta for the first time since 2003, and it's like he's a different player attacking the course.
"Everything is different. Now I can play it," Perez, the Torrey Pines High grad, said yesterday after finishing a frigid practice round.
The swing changes Perez made in the offseason that led to his victory in January's Bob Hope Classic and his qualification for his second Masters will serve him well this week. Perez can hit a right-to-left draw now, which is extremely valuable on numerous holes at Augusta.
"I can shape it now," said Perez, who tied for fourth two weeks ago at Bay Hill.
In his first Masters in 2003, Perez played solidly early, but faded on the weekend with 79-75 to finish tied for 45th.
Without a win, he couldn't get high enough in the world rankings to secure a return trip to Augusta. But he said that never bothered him.
"You don't want to come out here and shoot 90," he said. "You don't want to embarrass yourself. I knew I was going to play bad. If you're going to come here, you want to be able to compete. I can do that now. It would be nice to have a good week."
Pat's caddy Mike Hartford snapped a few pics with his iPhone during Sunday's practice round at the Masters. Below is a shot of H, Pat and a full time local caddy named Gibby, who assisted Team Perez during their round. The other, a shot of the green on #12.
We sat down this week with Pat's long-time caddy Mike Hartford. For those who don't know the history, Pat and Mike have been lifelong friends and "H" has been on the bag since Pat's days on the Buy.com (Nationwide) tour.
Mike is an accomplished player in his own right. He was the NCAA Division III Freshman Player of the Year at UCSD (where he majored in economics) and won the San Diego City Amateur in 2000.
These days, Hartford is the even-keeled "ying" to Perez's "yang" and in his eighth year on tour, was right there with Pat brought home that first victory in January at the Bob Hope Classic. For those who missed Tod Leonard's piece on H in the San Diego Union Tribune, make a point to check it out.
H has agreed to chat with PatPerezGolf.com each week, in an effort break down what goes on inside the ropes. After Pat's T4th place finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, we figured this would be a great week to kick things off with an amazing caddy and an even better human being:
"Pat's coming off a great week in Orlando. I'll do my best to recap it for you here.
Tuesday we played a practice round with Jason Gore and Tommy Armour III, which worked out nice as both Jason and Pat are working with Mike Abbott as their swing coach.
They're both trying to flatten out their swing plane and when Mr. A is working with one, the other has the benefit of watching what the other is doing. They're both working on getting their hands at the top of the swing to be behind their shoulders, as opposed to above their shoulders and near their ears.
It's a flatter, deeper swing plane and it produces a more consistent shot because at impact, the club is more shallow through the ground. It doesn't dig deep into the ground, which a steep swing does... which is what Pat used to have.
The guys played 18 on Tuesday and we were back out there Wednesday for the Pro-Am. Mr. A was our for about nine holes, working on the same thing, keeping it simply, critiquing and checking Pat's lines. From there Pat headed over to the fitness trailer to get some more time in with his biomechanics coach Joey D (Joey Diovisalvi) and it was an early night as we had an early tee time on Thursday.
Opening round conditions were a bit rough when we went. Winds were blowing about 15 m.p.h. and whenever you have wind, that's going to impact scoring conditions. Wind is probably the toughest condition for PGA Tour players. The greens were also firm for us on Thursday.
Pat got off to a good start with a nice chip in on the par-three second hole. He missed the green to the left and had a reasonable chance to get up and down. He was just off the green and in the rough, but used an L-wedge and holed it. The birdie was a big bonus and got the round started off on the right foot. Especially in a tournament where pars were sometimes as good as a birdie.
Pat played really well on Friday and Saturday, too. Three straight rounds of 70. A lot of solid pars, some great birdies and some good bogeys. Going into Sunday, we started the day T6th and eight strokes off the lead and felt we had a shot.
What really stands out from Sunday is that we were +2 over the first four holes and fought back.
Pat actually made a great bogey on #4. He hit three wood, didn't get all of it, had a long shot to the green and put it in a greenside bunker. It was about a 40-yard bunker shot that he bladed over the green into the back greenside bunker and had another tough bunker shot, which he put about four feet from the pin and putted for bogey.
As frustrated as you are with bogey, in a case like that you're relieved that it wasn't worse. The next hole was a par-four and he hit a great tee shot, went eight iron with his second shot and left it six feet from the hole and made birdie. Now we got one stroke back and we're going into a par-five where Pat knows he has a good shot at making birdie, which he did.
It was a good drive on #6, he laid up to a good number, hit that to about eight feet and again putted for birdie, which had us even after six and feeling pretty good about things.
A few years ago, there's a 50/50 chance Pat winds up shooting a 78 after a start like that, but in his ninth year out here he's truly maturing as a player. Everybody on tour goes through the same process, it's just a matter of when. A guy like Tiger was able to master that in his early 20s, whereas other guys might not figure it out until their 40s. Pat got there around 30 and it's made a huge difference in his scoring. Especially in the final round.
Mentally you have to come to the realization that every stroke counts the same; whether it's Thursday morning or Sunday afternoon. You can't lose your cool just because you miss a shot or else you might unravel in the middle of a round.
Pat is also much more comfortable with his swing these days. He knows he's going to hit some good shots and he knows he's going to have a handful of chances to make birdie.
We picked up two more birdies on #11 and #12, gave one back on #14. We were one-under with four very difficult holes to play, which Pat played even with a birdie on #15, back-to-back pars and the bogey on #18.
It was a great tee shot on the final hole. We were about 150 yards to the flag and he came out of the shot a little bit. It still looked really good in the air, but it was a little short and came up just past the rocks in the rough, which he eventually saved with a good bogey."
Check back this week as H will be chiming in from the Masters. Team Perez is headed to Augusta on Saturday and Mike Hartford will be bringing us all the latest and greatest.
Pat Perez is back at Augusta for the first time since 2003, and it's like he's a different player attacking the course.
