Ben Coley golf column: Patience & perspective

Patience. In any sport, a desirable attribute. In golf, a necessary one.

Sergio Garcia has patience. Seventy-three majors had yielded nothing but heartache prior to the 74th, in which he finally got what he deserved after a stirring battle with Justin Rose. Just three weeks have passed but that final round at Augusta is already immortal: watching it back is to relive one of golf’s great duels, a head-to-head the like of which even the Masters has seldom seen.

Rose is another with patience. After bursting on the scene as an amateur at Birkdale in 1998, Rose found the transition to professional golf impossibly tough. Twenty-one events returned prize money of zero; there were two trips to Qualifying School and many frank conversations with his support team before a first professional victory in 2002.

It would be another 11 years until Rose won his major. It's no wonder he's adamant he'll add the Masters to his collection one day.

And so to Kevin Chappell, winner of the Valero Texas Open on his 180th PGA Tour start.

Aged 30, it’s unlikely that Chappell’s CV will ever boast the depth of Garcia or Rose. He could and should represent the United States – victory in San Antonio puts him fifth on the current qualifying list for this year’s Presidents Cup – but to do so year in, year out would require another significant step forward given the bottomless nature of the PGA Tour.

That isn’t to say he isn’t capable. It’s less than a decade since Chappell was named the standout player in college golf, an accolade usually reserved for the most gifted. And while lacking a notable professional victory prior to Sunday, he had been second to Jason Day in the PLAYERS and at Bay Hill; second to Rory McIlroy at the TOUR Championship and third to him at Congressional; third to Dustin Johnson at Firestone.

High-class form from a high-class player who not only has the game but has the patience, too. On that score at least, he’s already shown that he’s a match for Garcia and for Rose.

It was here in Texas six years ago that, as a PGA Tour rookie, Chappell left the course inconsolably bereft following a narrow defeat to Brendan Steele, when a bogey at the driveable 17th hole proved costly. Rather than run away and hide, Chappell made Texas a staple of his schedule knowing that he’d have further opportunities to right that wrong.

“That’s what keeps me coming back,” he said on Sunday night, speaking for the first time as a PGA Tour winner. “I felt like I had some unfinished business here and, you know, there’s a lot of positives for me with this event.”

There are many qualities to admire in top-class golfers, whether the athletic brilliance of Rory or DJ, the otherworldly ruthlessness of Tiger, the mental maturity of Spieth, the meticulous dedication of Day. My favourites might be patience and persistence, though. They somehow seem more human, more achievable. At least that’s what I keep telling myself in a year of near-misses.

As if a reminder were needed, victories for Chappell and Garcia are the best possible demonstrations of how fine the margins in golf are. Had Garcia’s drive at the 13th been lost, rather than found, surely his chance would’ve gone. Had Brooks Koepka made the short putts he missed on holes 14 and 17, perhaps Chappell would’ve left San Antonio as he arrived: a nearly-man, resigned to second, beaten yet again by a world-class opponent.

Instead, he goes to the Zurich Classic of New Orleans as a worthy winner at the very top of his game to tee it up with his friend Gary Woodland, for whom golf is a million miles from the most important thing in the world right now.

Woodland and his wife Gabby lost one of their unborn twins during the week of the WGC-Match Play, forcing his withdrawal from that event and removing golf from his focus. “My life has been put into perspective,” he said on the eve of the Masters, where he understandably missed the cut. “Bogeys don’t seem that important anymore.”

The hope is that the Woodlands welcome a child into the world in the coming months, having been through hell to get there. When they do, perhaps Gary will follow his friend’s lead and win for the first time since 2013, knowing that this is just sport, and that the hardest battles are fought off the golf course.

“That's been the biggest thing of my success as of late, golf doesn't really matter,” Chappell explained on Sunday, revealing that the night before the biggest round of his life was all about looking after the kids and keeping them to their routine.

Two weeks earlier Rose, a man on the other side of the outcome, tweeted: “Congrats @TheSergioGarcia. Incredible battle out there. Sport in the moment can be tough. But it's just sport.”

And for once, had Garcia been beaten by Rose, you sense he’d have found similar words – even if magnanimity in victory is of course easier to reach.

"Lately, you know, I've been getting some good help and I've been thinking a little bit - a little bit different, a little bit more positive,” he said, Green Jacket buttoned up tight.

“And kind of accepting, too, that if it for whatever reason didn't happen, my life is still going to go on. It's not going to be a disaster.”

Perspective. In any sport, a desirable attribute. In golf? A decisive one.

Players to watch

As you may have gathered, I’m a firm believer in the small details which might separate golfers over 72 holes.

It might be a new caddie or a new perspective; an old putter going back in the bag or a return to a familiar part of the world, but quite often it’s possible to find triggers for good play even when you’re not privy to the most important factors like how confident a player feels and how well they’ve prepared.

The challenge is to marry physical factors with speculative, anecdotal evidence: a golfer might well be inspired, but if they can’t keep their driver on the same planet as the golf course, they’re not going to win.

Perhaps that’s for another column but I’ve seen enough from Pablo Larrazabal lately to believe that Garcia’s Augusta win was a little, necessary injection for his countryman.

Larrazabal played beautifully over the weekend for 11th in China, having been 13th in Morocco previously. His form prior to the Masters had been abysmal and, clearly, a break has done him good. No doubt practice is the key part of his improvement.

But seeing his idol win at Augusta might’ve helped Larrazabal keep at it when things hadn’t gone his way for two rounds at the Shenzhen International. If he can get off to a better start this week, a fifth European Tour title could well be his reward.