From the skin, it’s simple to take a look at the golf profession of Smylie Kaufman and level to the day the place all the pieces changed.
It was Sunday on the 2016 Masters and Kaufman, 24 years previous on the time, was seeking to cap off his meteoric rise to the highest of {the golfing} world. He’d gone from a stable faculty participant to a successful Korn Ferry Tour professional to capturing 61 on Sunday of the Shriners Children’s Open to win within the fall of his rookie yr on the PGA Tour. And now, due to a spherical of 69 in brutal Saturday situations, he’d performed his means into the ultimate group at Augusta National alongside his good buddy Jordan Spieth. The golf course suited him. He felt the second did, too. He would possibly not win the Masters, however this promised to be a career-changing day.
“If I could pick a golf course design to say ‘this suits your game the best,’ it would be Augusta National,” he says. We’re sitting by the vary at Sea Island on the eve of this fall’s RSM Classic, in dialog for the second episode of Breakthrough, which you’ll watch above or on YouTube here. I’m not positive how keen Kaufman — now a well-liked on-course analyst for NBC Sports — will likely be to inform the story of his enjoying profession however he lets the phrases spill out, one story into the following, far sufficient eliminated that he’s comfy sharing, latest sufficient he can nonetheless really feel all of it.
And he remembers there’s no day in golf fairly like Masters Sunday.
“It just takes a while to get to 3 o’clock,” he says, remembering that Sunday. “I was pretty bored that day, to be honest. I was looking for anything to do, I turned on the Golf Channel. And I’m a sucker for certain movies, if it’s on I have to watch it. And Tin Cup is one of them. I wish someone had taken the remote and turned the channel, because Tin Cup is not what you should be watching on Sunday if you want to go win the Masters. So that wasn’t helpful.”
Not a very good begin. But it’s value remembering this subsequent half as a substitute.
“I get out there and it’s the first time on the range that I’ve ever had any wrist discomfort,” he says. “I get on the range and I start feeling something in my wrist.”
Kaufman’s coach took a fast look and informed him that he ought to be good for the day. Kaufman believed him. As he warmed up, the wrist felt higher. He doesn’t use that as an excuse for what occurred subsequent; he admits it didn’t trouble him for the remainder of the day. But it turned out to be a harbinger of issues to come back.
Kaufman’s spherical obtained off to an odd begin. He stuffed his strategy at No. 1 to 4 ft and missed the putt. He really birdied the par-5 second. But that was the final good factor to occur for some time. He wasn’t nervous, he insists. He was just a bit bit off.
“I learned some things I would have been able to use for the next time,” he says wistfully. “I just had some really terrible breaks. And that’s Augusta National. When you’re like, a foot off, it can really mess you up and get you in some really terrible spots.”
He by no means obtained comfy with the pace of the greens, which he describes as having turned “purple” in a single day. Compounding and discomfort was the impact of being paired with Jordan Spieth, whose final-round collapse was way more dramatic and certain commanded extra of your consideration.
“He was making putts, everybody was moving, and I just could not settle down. I wasn’t able to take that extra deep breath that day,” Kaufman says.
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He bogeyed 3 and 4. He bogeyed 7. Then 9. Then 10. Then 11. When they obtained to No. 12, Spieth hit two balls within the water, giving up the lead en path to a tragic quadruple-bogey 7. But in a darkish irony that was Kaufman’s greatest second of the day; he caught his tee shot and fist-pumped in a birdie putt.
Still, that may show the lone vibrant spot of the again 9 for both buddy. Kaufman bogeyed 13 after which completed double bogey, bogey, bogey for a final-round 81. He plummeted to T29.
It can be comprehensible if Kaufman had allowed that second to interrupt him; he’d hardly be the primary golfer to get undone by Augusta National. But Kaufman is a tricky man to rattle and insists he left the week optimistic.
“From a mental standpoint I thought I had learned so much, that I would be able to use those experiences for the next time, that I was like, dude, my first Masters I made it to the final group?”
Mostly he was pissed off that he’d let a 76 balloon to an 81, holding him from robotically qualifying for the following yr’s occasion.
Looking again now, nevertheless, the distinction between 76 and 81 appears meaningless in comparison with that little twinge he felt on the vary.
A string of missed cuts got here within the weeks that adopted; three in a row and eight of the following 11. His rookie season was derailed. His dependable ball-striking had gotten shaky. Still, couldn’t put his finger on an evidence till far later.
“Really it was my wrist that was preventing me from doing the things we were trying to do in the golf swing,” he says. He left his longtime coach Tony Ruggiero. He left his subsequent coach, too, and his subsequent coach after that. He was on the lookout for a magic answer. There wasn’t one to be discovered.
Kaufman’s profile had risen at the same time as his recreation and well being had disappeared. That’s as a result of this timeline coincided with the spring break journey he’d taken with Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas to the Bahamas, the place they ushered in a brand new period of golf-on-social media with a buddies journey that rapidly made the rounds. Kaufman had by no means stated he thought he was nearly as good as his travel-mates, however nonetheless — the strain mounted by affiliation. The negativity started to construct on itself.
“I would say the physical injuries that I had led to a lot of the mental hurdles that I had,” he says. “And at that same time was kind of the rise of social media in golf … I saw the best and worst of it in such a snapshot of a couple years.”
In 2017 Kaufman’s struggles continued; he nabbed two prime 10s however missed 15 of 27 cuts. Then got here 2018. He made the reduce in his second begin of the yr, the CareerBuilder Challenge, and completed T69. Then he missed each reduce the remainder of the season.
“Not only was I trying to play better, I was trying to tackle a golf course where it felt like there was a bear in the woods I felt like was trying to chase me down,” he says. “And I’m over here trying to prove Joe Schmoe wrong that I’m a good player. It just — I think mentally I wasn’t ever really prepared. I’ve never had anybody tell me that I suck.”
He had no good solution to cope with the nervousness that had risen to the floor. And he didn’t really feel like he might step away and get wholesome. When he went house, Kaufman couldn’t get away from the sport. When he was on the course he couldn’t get away from a giant proper miss.
He made only one PGA Tour reduce within the years that adopted, a 71st-place end on the 2019 Rocket Mortgage Classic.
He’s tempted to say he has no regrets, given the place he’s ended up. But that isn’t fairly true.
“Maybe the only regret would be that I did have injuries and I really did have some serious tendonitis going on,” he says. “It didn’t require surgical procedure but it surely was a power tendonitis in my wrist after which my left elbow. So there was in all probability moments the place I might have taken six to 9 months off to essentially get wholesome, and it could have helped me, in that point interval, to cool down, press the brakes, nearly have a golf retreat with my group to get everyone again on the identical web page and get me assured once more.
“I think it got a little too fast, me trying to fix things.”
There’s a cheerful ending to this story — one which continues at this week’s Sentry with a microphone in hand. I hope you’ll watch the remainder of the interview to listen to how that occurred subsequent, however I’ll depart you with a serene scene courtesy of Kaufman, this October.
“The end of this year, at the Ryder Cup — I’m not an emotional person, I’m not a cryer,” Kaufman says. “If it’s a sad movie I can’t even tear up.”
“But I’m strolling down the primary fairway and my spouse was up there, she got here for the week. It was simply so cool to see her after which I used to be strolling up the golf green and I used to be actually tearing up, emotional. I used to be like, that is precisely the place I ought to be.
“You are where your feet are, and I was very happy with where my feet were.”
You can watch the whole interview beneath.
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