Harry Hall was trying to will his way into two more Masters rounds. He had shot five over through two mentally exhausting days when, on Friday afternoon, he promised reporters, \u201cIt\u2019s not over yet.\u201d He felt he had a 50\/50 chance of making the cut.<\/p>\n
Hall did not have coin-flip odds, not even close. But that wasn\u2019t the point. He had laboured through the toughest test of his golfing life, looking and sounding completely broken after the first round, explaining how he needed two drivers in the bag, a new putter and irons he could spin better.<\/p>\n
By the time he stepped down from the podium Friday, his wife was waiting for him with a big hug. She threw her arms around Harry\u2019s side as he stared off into the distance. All I could think was, That man chose this profession, and, at this moment, the game is beating him.<\/p>\n
The next time I thought about Harry Hall was Tuesday, as I turned my gaze to this week\u2019s PGA Tour event in Hilton Head Island, S.C., the RBC Heritage. The remnants of all those missed cuts at Augusta showed themselves in who was grinding at Harbour Town \u2014 Hall among them.<\/p>\n
The Englishman hit 266 shots on the range Monday, 46 more than anyone else, at least 50 of which were drivers. Some missing left, others right. His search was evident in the data, but you also could see it in the final question I asked of him in Augusta.<\/p>\n
What are you fighting with the driver?<\/p>\n
\u201cFighting to hit it where I\u2019m looking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Only J.J. Spaun, Rickie Fowler and Andrew Novak joined Hall in the 200+ range balls department Monday. Fowler didn\u2019t qualify for the Masters, Spaun missed the cut on the number and Novak, well, he walked up the 18th hole wondering if it was the last time he\u2019d play in the tournament.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the headspace pros can find themselves in at Augusta National. And before they\u2019ve even had a chance to absorb what happened, it\u2019s on to Hilton Head and its $20 million purse.<\/p>\n
As mind-numbing as it may be to be a regular PGA Tour TV viewer to have to tune in for more significant golf this weekend, my advice would be to view this week through a different lens. While Scottie Scheffler may walk away with the title (and tartan jacket) given the form he seems to be in, other players are thinking scary thoughts \u2014 and a more laidback week in Hilton Head might be just the warm embrace they need.<\/p>\n
This article originated on Golf.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Hall was trying to will his way into two more Masters rounds. He had shot five over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[171433,61,60,91189,176602,80,160609],"class_list":["post-400031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-augusta-national","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-pga-tour","tag-rbc-heritage","tag-technology","tag-the-masters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}