Drew Nelson has spent so much time recently trying to improve other people’s swings, he hasn’t had much time to fine-tune his own.
His swing, taught to him by a father who knows something about golf, looked good during Tuesday’s U.S. Open local qualifier at Summergrove Golf Club in Newnan. Nelson hit all 14 fairways, missed only four greens — just one badly — but couldn’t find the range with his long putter.
As a result, he shot the best ball-striking 76 he said he has ever shot, but it wasn’t one of the 10 lowest scores that were good enough to advance to sectional qualifying.
Brad Arrington of Augusta and Jonathan Hodge fired an 8-under-par 64 to share medalist honors. They were followed by Covington’s Jonathan Fricke, Nicolas Wade, Alex Coe, McCuen Elmore and James Hahn, who each shot 5 under. Eric Axley, Alpharetta’s Tim Weinhart and Michael Lavery clinched the final three spots after a playoff. They will advance to sectional qualifying. The U.S. Open will be played at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, starting June 14.
Still, Nelson’s result wasn’t bad considering he has played three rounds since October and no competitive rounds in more than a year. He wanted to try for several reasons.
“It’s the U.S. Open,” Nelson said. “Dad won it. He said you need to do it.”
Dad is Marietta’s Larry Nelson, winner of the 1983 U.S. Open at Oakmont and an interested spectator who followed Drew for the first nine holes of Tuesday’s round.
Drew was a tour player like his father, winning more than 35 events in a nine-year career on the mini-tours when he wasn’t caddying for Larry. Drew was on the bag for 14 of his dad’s 19 victories on the Champions Tour.
But Drew Nelson never broke through full-time onto the Nationwide Tour or PGA Tour because his body kept betraying him. He said as soon as he started to gain momentum as a player, another injury would occur. The last of three rotator-cuff blowouts came in 2010 and sidelined him.
Nelson began to work for Back9Promotions after the last injury. Rob Pritts, the company’s president, caddied for Nelson on Tuesday. The two also work with Larry Nelson in the venture that has kept Drew off real golf courses and in the world of simulated ones.
Larry bought a golf simulator and rented a space so that he could practice indoors, away from what he described as Atlanta’s inconsistent weather. The Nelsons and Pritts began to wonder how they could do more than just use the simulator as a toy. After some calibration to ensure that the readings were accurate — otherwise it wouldn’t do the elder Nelson any good as a practice aid — they came upon the idea of using the simulator as a teaching and club-fitting aid. They opened Dynamix Golf in Marietta in January.
“We all want to make money, but the goal is to see how much we can help out people with the proper fitting,” Drew Nelson said.
Business has been good. So good that Drew, whose instruction has been featured on Golf Channel, said he hasn’t had time to practice outdoors much.
Still, it was evident that the swing taught to him by his father and the practice on the simulator seem to work well.
His distances were dialed in with his irons during most of Tuesday’s round, but his only birdie came on a six-foot putt on the 17th hole. As the ball rolled into the cup, Nelson raised his arms in a mock celebration. Despite giving himself a lot of chances, he wasn’t disappointed afterward.
“This isn’t my life anymore,” he said. “There’s a difference between hitting balls and scoring. The little mistakes tend to get amplified.”
