Robert Damron hits his tee shot on Friday on the third gap at Norwood Country Club.
Getty Images
Robert Damron was apprehensive. The personable professional had turned 50 final October, and yeah, the PGA Tour Champions is made for the 50-and-over bunch. But yeah, he hadn’t performed shortly, and nerves salivate over that thought.
He’d come round, although. There he was final week, at Norwood Country Club in St. Louis.
And then his spouse went right into a port-a-potty on Saturday on the eighth gap.
Didn’t see that coming, did you? But the story right here is at the very least … something.
Let’s discuss Damron right here first. He’s been a professional since 1994. He gained as soon as on the PGA Tour, on the 2001 Byron Nelson. He almost gained the occasion once more three years later. He revamped $6 million in prize cash. Solid. But he stopped. In an interview three years with Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch, he had been combating driver yips. Damron took an analyst gig with Golf Channel.
Then 50 got here and he began to surprise. Then he stopped. Then he began once more.
“I wasn’t ready,” he mentioned on a video shared last week by the PGA Tour Champions. “I didn’t know if I actually wished to. And I am going, I do know I’ll play some, and I need to play some. It’s like a fraternity out right here, so I get to come back out and see my buddies, guys I haven’t seen in so lengthy. And I wished to follow sufficient to the place I, like I mentioned, I’m not going to complete final. And for about six months, I used to be going, ‘Oh, I’m going to complete final. I stink.’
“And I thought I’d take a little while to get it back. No big deal. But it really wasn’t until recent that I felt like I can go shoot a score. You know, I’ll be what, 51 late October — it’s not like it’s forever ago I turned 50, but it’s further back than I care to think about. I’m going to stand on the tee on Friday and I have no idea what to expect. Will I feel fine? Will I be nervous? Will I be swinging well? Will I not? Who knows? I hope I’m swinging well. We’ll see.”
And yeah, there he was final week, at Norwood Country Club in St. Louis, for the Ascension Charity Classic. Earlier this summer time, he had performed the Senior Open at Royal Porthcawl in Wales, and now he was on a tour once more. Last Friday, in the course of the first spherical, Damron shot a one-under 70. On Saturday, in the course of the second spherical, he was three photographs worse.
One of the smoothest-ever gamers points scary warning about swing speeds
Nick Piastowski
On Saturday, he took to the positioning previously often known as Twitter. He shared this, at 6:56 p.m. Eastern time:
“So lucky to have my first @ChampionsTour start be at @AscensionCCG. What a first class event ! Played bad today but at least my wife didn’t lose my courtesy car keys down the depths of a full porta potty……oh wait…she did….”
Then, at 8:15 p.m. ET, he wrote this:
“The keys have been found at the bottom of the worst vile filth imaginable. They’ll probably make us buy the car.”
There’s extra.
There are particulars.
A hat tip to the curious minds on the PGA Tour Champions social media workforce, who puzzled what occurred with Damron and his spouse, Molly, tracked down the professional on Sunday, recorded the dialog and shared it.
Here then is Damron’s telling of all of it:
“Yeah, I get accomplished. Crappy is an excellent option to describe how I performed. It wasn’t good. I struggled off the tee all day lengthy and by some means solely shot a pair over. I don’t even know the way, but a whole lot of luck. And then, simply to make the day so a lot better and brighter, my spouse sheepishly appears at me within the parking zone later and goes, ‘I don’t have the keys. I dropped them in a porta-potty again on 8.’
“And I am going, ‘What do you mean, dropped them in a porta-potty — like around?’ No, no, no, within the porta-potty.
“So final evening, we took one of many sanitation staff — bless his coronary heart — out to the place she thinks she dropped them. He had this stick. I’m holding the door open, he’s fishing round — nothing.
“Last night, I get a text from tournament director. ‘We found your keys.’ They were pumping it out last night.”
At this level within the video, Damron held up a sealed-shut plastic bag holding the keys.
“As a matter of fact, I’ve got them right here. They’re not going to be touched by human hands again. They’re staying in this baggie. They’re definitely a biohazard, but they work.”
There’s nonetheless extra.
On Sunday, in the course of the remaining spherical, Damron shot a 68. He tied for forty fifth. Good stuff. If there have been nerves, he hid them effectively. But barely forward of the tip of the match, the PGA Tour Champions then shared the video — which drew this response from Damron.
“Thanks to @AscensionCCG for being so understanding and patient! And as per our arrangement I’ll never bring Molly back to St Louis again!!”
