Willis leads at Harbour Town, 18 yet to finish
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C., - If ever someone wondered why ‘head case’ and PGA Tour player seemed to be synonymous at times, they needn’t look further than the top of the leaderboard at The Heritage. The name sitting alone atop the board is Garrett Willis, a cagey veteran who has worked his way back onto the tour after years of spinning his wheels after a fairytale start to his career.Open, then went mostly downhill for a near decade. He was a non-exempt player on the tour for five consecutive years from 2005 through 2009 before earning his way back for 2010, and then earning enough money to keep full-status for this year.
He’s made the cut in two of seven starts prior to this week, with his best finish being a tie for 15th in Tampa. To listen to him speak about his trials and tribulations in deciding on a putter to put in his bag this week, you’ll understand why this game is almost 100% mental at the highest level.
“I mentioned earlier at the start of this week I haven't been really confident with my putter,” Willis told the media following his opening round. “I actually showed up this week with about four of them, had two made and then had my dad FedEx me three more from back home. And putted with the belly putter for -- yesterday we played Chechessee Creek over in Beaufort, a great golf course. Played with a belly putter there. Played with a belly putter on the practice round on Tuesday. Actually got to the golf course 30 minutes before I would normally get here to work on my putting.
“Putted with the belly putter before breakfast and then after breakfast, and then as I was walking to the range, I said, you know what, go back to my car and get Old Faithful. I can't pull the trigger,” he continued.
“So I carried my own bag to the range while my caddie went to get the putter. Hit balls on the range, and hit like three or four putts with my Old Faithful putter, and hit a pretty good shot in there for about ten feet and missed it and kind of had the negative thoughts of, here we go again, not making any putts.
“But hit a great shot on No. 2, ran my first putt about eight feet past the hole and made it coming back. And I said, wow, maybe I can make a putt. And then from there that momentum, it just carried over to No. 3, made a good 10, 12-footer,” he added as he recalled running off six straight birdies.
So, equipped with “Old Faithful” Willis was able to grab the lead after a 7 under 64, which included only 24 putts. He stands one shot better than the quartet of Tim Herron, Chad Campbell, Arjun Atwal and Matt Bettencourt. Another shot back were 2009 winner Brian Gay and Mark Wilson, looking for his third win of the year.
Bettencourt didn’t have putter issues, but his were more serious and he was thankful to be alive. On his drive to Hilton Head from his home in South Carolina he and his wife were involved in an accident just 15 minutes into their trip.
“Yeah, it's been a pretty eventful week for us,” Bettencourt explained. “My wife and I were heading down here Monday morning and we were in a car accident. So actually a camper shell fell off the pickup in front of us. And we were coming over a blind curve on Interstate 26. There was nowhere for us to go. There was a big rig to the side of us, so I just plowed into it. Pretty much totaled the vehicle. So it was one of those things, you know. Probably if it wasn't for the safety of BMWs, we would have been in serious trouble.”
Play was suspended due to a dangerous situation at 4:54 p.m. and resumed at 7:10 p.m. Play was then suspended due to darkness at 7:57 p.m. with 18 players yet to complete their round. Those players will be back in position at 7:45 a.m. on Friday, with the second round resuming as scheduled at 7:20 a.m.
The biggest loser as a result of the delay was Bill Haas. The Greenville, SC resident stood at 5-under at the time of the resumption of play and knocked in a 31-inch putt to move to 6-under. A tough stretch ensued with a bogey-bogey-triple bogey-par finish for a 1-under 70.
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