Billy Andrade needs to visit a barber and could put the razor to good use.
His gin game is on the up-and-up, he’s conquered three jigsaw puzzles for the first time in his life, his sleeping habits have changed, and he’s recently rekindled his profession by practicing and playing golf ahead of a hopeful return to his job.
Such is quarantine life in his home in Atlanta during a global pandemic.
The four-time winner on the PGA Tour winner and three-time victor on the PGA Tour Champions hasn’t played competitively since March 8 when he closed with a 67 in the Hoag Classic in California to finish 47th. Now he’s counting down the days until the PGA Tour Champions is scheduled to resume July 23 in the Ally Challenge in Michigan.
“I’m going crazy. This is nuts,” Andrade, 56, said in a chat with Golfweek. “Thank god we can play golf again. I didn’t play for a couple months, didn’t pick up a club. Last week, week and a half, I’ve played four times, hits balls a few times.
“It’s groundhog day, seems like every day. You wake up, you do the same thing, and you go to bed and you wake up and do the same thing again.”
But Andrade’s spirits remain high – a tribute to his glass-half-full approach to when the sun comes up. Still, he so misses the game he loves and has afforded him a grand lifestyle and led him and his top-notch mate, Brad Faxon, to donate millions to charity. On the flip side, however, he said it’s been a blessing to be able to spend so much quality time with his two children and wife.
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In a lively exchange – there is no other kind with Andrade – he touched on shelter-at-home life, golf’s anticipated return, his time spent battling Tiger Woods at his apex and then Bernhard Langer at his PGA Tour Champions zenith.
And he misses being out on the road, the camaraderie and chasing a trophy.
“That’s what we all love the most – being in the mix, being nervous and playing golf and trying to win tournaments,” he said. “You miss listening to your name on the first tee and being a little nervous.”
For now, he’ll keep staying up till 2 a.m. and thinking about days gone by. Good days. Days when he went up against the guy in the red shirt.
“In the year 2000, Tiger and I got paired together in the first two rounds six or seven times. I had a front-row seat to this greatness,” he said. “He was all business. I’ve never seen a player so focused. He wasn’t chatty-chatty on the golf course. He didn’t want to get really close to the top players; he just wanted to beat them all.
“I saw that stinger for the first time, on the fourth hole in the Bay Hill Invitational. It went about three feet in the air, straight down the fairway. I was in awe. And I had a tap on my shoulder and it was my caddie, and my caddie said, ‘Hey, you’re up. You have to hit.’ I was blown away. I had never seen a shot like that.
“He had no weakness. He hit it high, he hit it low, he putted as well as anybody I’ve ever seen. His short game was fantastic when he missed greens.”
And then Andrade had to face the Tiger of the PGA Tour Champions – Langer, the two-time Masters champion who won 42 European Tour events and then 41 PGA Tour Champions titles, including 11 majors.
“You talk about a player with no weakness,” he said. “He is an absolute machine and so dedicated. And he’s such a good guy.”
Andrade can’t wait to see that guy again. He hopes it’s not a long wait.
“Everyone wants to get back to normal, but normal’s gone,” he said. “It’s all a new normal. We on the Champions Tour are going to see how the PGA Tour handles the next two months, before we go back out.
“No. 1 for me is safety. If we can be safe and we can do this, that would be fantastic. But that’s asking a lot. I hope it all works out. I would love to play a tournament starting tomorrow. I think everybody would. But we want to keep our families safe, we want to be safe. Hopefully, all the sports can get back but I still think it’s a long shot.”
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