Rutledge Remembers His Roots

Just when you’re feeling kind of jaded and cynical, figuring that professional golf is all about the money and nothing else, along comes a renowned decent guy like Jim Rutledge to demonstrate loyalty to those who helped set his career on course.

Rutledge went four under and tied for second at last week’s Times Colonist Open at Uplands Golf Club in Victoria, the first of 11 events on the Canadian Tour’s swing through this country after stops in South America and Mexico.

Coming home to Victoria from the Nationwide Tour has its advantages for Rutledge, who has played off and on the Canadian Tour since 1979.

“I get to see a lot of people who I don’t get to see very often. I get to see them all at once,” said Rutledge.

“I enjoy playing the golf course, I grew up playing a lot of golf there as a kid and I know just about every single member up there and the golf course is in unbelievable condition,” added Rutledge, who tries to get home frequently throughout the season. Read more

Fractured Friday Thoughts from a Tumultuous Week

Some fractured Friday thoughts on a week that has been dominated by news of the swine flu outbreak that caused both the Canadian Tour and Nationwide Tour to postpone events in Mexico, believed to be the country of origin for the virus.

Mexico is urging its citizens to stay home, while shutting down non-essential government services in an effort to contain an outbreak that could be on the verge of being a pandemic, according to the World Health Organization.

Meanwhile, Canadian Tour commissioner Rick Janes reported that the exodus of players and officials from San Luis Potosi, where this week’s tournament was to be played, was running smoothly and everybody was expected to be outside of Mexico by today at the latest. Read more

DeCorso Battles Injury Down the Stretch

Canada’s best hope to become a newcomer on the PGA Tour in 2009 now has a large obstacle in the way with the final few weeks of the Nationwide Tour season on the horizon.

Bryan DeCorso of Guelph, Ont., won the first Nationwide Tour event of his career in early May after taking the South Georgia Classic a week after tying for fourth at the Henrico County Open, a tournament in which he held the lead at one point.

After his victory, DeCorso stood fourth on the Nationwide Tour money list and in great shape to finish in the top 25, which would have earned him a ticket to the PGA Tour next year.

In 15 tournaments since then, Decorso has 10 missed cuts and one withdrawal and now looks up at the top 25 from his current position in 31st with $159,996. With the tour on a two-week break, DeCorso is regrouping with four tournaments left, two of them smaller purse events.

“The drawback is the amount of money that it takes (to get into the top 25),” said DeCorso. “By year’s end, it going to be $205,000. I only have 160, so I have to make $45,000 to get to the projected amount. On the Nationwide Tour, that can be somebody’s whole season and I have to do it in four events.”

Money isn’t his only concern. Since winning in Valdosta, Ga., DeCorso, 37, has been playing at times with pain, including one bout at the RBC Canadian Open in July at Glen Abbey in Oakville, Ont. Last week, he was told by a specialist in Orlando that he has a degenerative disk in his neck.

“There are times that I’ve performed okay with it. There are other times when it’s prevented me from doing anything good,” he said. “It’s just become the ultimate frustration for me because there have been times when I’ve been playing good and it’s flared up and it’s really prevented me from doing what I wanted to do and other times, it’s got in the way of me making the cut or just having a good weekend,” said DeCorso.

Much was made of swing changes he’d made along with coach Greg Towne, but DeCorso now suspects that those changes may have aggravated the problem.

“I have a feeling that all these swing changes that I’ve made, my body, for some reason, doesn’t like it, so I’m going to have to sit down with my coach and I’m going to have to talk to him about all these swing changes I’ve been making and how my body’s reacting to it and what should we do. I’m not going to live my golf career like this. I hit a golf ball on the range (at the Oregon Classic) and my neck went out and it’s happened about five or six times this year, so I can’t continue to live that way, with the pain so excruciating.

“I was going to withdraw from the event, but there’s too much emphasis near the end of the year on me making money. I played through severe pain on Saturday and Sunday, so if it was in the middle of the season, I would have withdrawn. I don’t want to injure myself even more.”

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