(Brian Stuard photo courtesy Titleist Golf)
By Jeff Steers
JTV Sports
Some time spent at the Callaway Performance Center in Carlsbad, Calif., has paid dividends for PGA Tour player Brian Stuard.
Stuard – a 2001 Napoleon High School graduate – finished tied for eighth place at the Sony Open in Hawaii over the weekend at the PGA Tour event.
He pocketed $192,000 for his efforts and moved from 150th on the FedEx Cup Series points list to 76th. The top 125 golfers at the end of the 2018-2019 season earn playing privileges on the tour for the next season.
Stuard hit nearly 84 percent of green in regulation in Hawaii at the Sony open and finished at 15 under par.
“I did some testing at Callaway and changed the shafts in my irons,” Stuard said. “I had been playing the X100 shafts for a few years, but decided to try something different.”
The change to the Nippon shafts worked for Stuard at the Sony Open. The tie for eighth his fourth top 10 at Wailalae County Club in Honolulu in his PGA Tour career.
“The course seems to fit my eye pretty well,” Stuard said. “The shape of the tee shots works for me and it is a place I feel comfortable.”
Stuard said he felt “burned out” at the end of the 2017-2018 season. He played in a number of tournaments down the stretch to get into the FedEx Cup Series playoffs. Stuard advanced a couple of tournaments before finishing 86th in FedEx Cup Series points.
The 2018-2019 season began a couple of weeks after the FedEx Cup Series playoffs for the Jackson native. Stuard has made a living out of playing well early in the year and getting as high as possible in series points. He had finishes of 53rd, 39th, and 52nd to begin this season.
Then, he missed four cuts in a row to end the calendar year.
“I was burned out and it was good to get a break,” Stuard said.
He also played in tournaments in Malaysia and Korea – time zones that are 12 hours different than America.
“After you come back from those tournaments, you don’t feel right for about a week or two,” Stuard said of the time change. “It is something you just have to deal with.”
Stuard took three weeks off at the in November and December before hitting the practice range hard late in 2018.
He looks forward playing in the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Country Club in late June. It is the first regular season PGA Tour event in Michigan since the Buick Open ceased operation in 2009.
“It has been a while since I played that course,” Stuard said. “I played Detroit Country Club as part of the Horton Smith Championships.”
An adjusted PGA Tour season will end in late August, meaning early season tournaments will be important for FedEx Cup Series points.
Stuard plans to play this week at the Desert Classic in LaQuinta, Calif., take a week off, then play in Phoenix, at Pebble Beach, and Riviera. He plans to play four weeks in Florida during the PGA’s swing in the sunshine state.
“It is tough to stay sharp for that many weeks in a row,” Stuard said.
As for the future, Stuard plans to take it one year at a time.
“I feel that every year I keep getting better,” Stuard said. “Despite all of the young bombers, there is still a place for my game on the PGA Tour.”
