Brian Gay, who won the 2013 Humana Challenge on Sunday, credits more distance off the tee with helping reshape his game. / Crystal Chatham/The Desert Sun
LA QUINTA — No one is ever going to confuse Brian Gay with John Daly or Bubba Watson, the grip-it-and-rip-it players who have helped usher in the power era on the PGA Tour.
“Obviously my game, I’ve got to put it in play and score from there and take advantage of the opportunities when I have them,” Gay said after winning the Humana Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation on Sunday at PGA West. “I think the tour, I think it’s a lot of a power game now, the last number of years. I feel like a bit handcuffed at a lot of events.”
The Humana Challenge might well be one of the events on tour where the longer hitters on tour don’t have an advantage. The par 5s on all three Humana Courses are reachable for almost every player in the field. Homes and hazards can make most holes feel tighter off the tee than they really are. Because of that, many of the big hitters leave the driver in the bag on many holes at the Humana Challenge, while players like Gay (and 2012 winner Mark Wilson) can still hit their drivers.
FULL COVERAGE: Humana Challenge golf tournament
“If I don’t play well on the shorter, tighter courses, then I’m so, well, I felt like I needed to try to make some changes, getting older and not getting any longer, so I felt like I needed to try to do something different and help my game,” Gay said.
One change was to start working with former tour player Grant Waite and teacher Joe Mayo.
“I’ve always been a short hitter on the tour and I felt like I was getting older, I’m only going to get shorter and shorter,” Gay said. “So I kind of went to Grant initially to get his thoughts and to work on some stuff to try to hit the tee ball farther.
“I thought it would help my game. And it was tough last year trying to play making those changes. I feel like it’s coming around. It’s helped me a lot and just was trying to get more efficient with my driver numbers to kind of max out my distance.” www.testoril.com
