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When you’re a PGA Tour rookie, you take advantage of the opportunities that come your way, be it tournament starts or tee times with the world’s best. Tyler McCumber, 28, has played 11 times this 2019-20 season. Arguably no start brought more visibility than the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
McCumber was paired with Tiger Woods in the third round, when crowds were still holding out for a Woods’ victory. Woods eventually faded to T-9. McCumber finished T-21 that week, his best so far this season.
Lots of Tour players go years in their career without playing next to Woods. Across all professional sports, it’s a rare opportunity to compete alongside an icon.
“You’re not going to really get that situation very often and if you didn’t approach it with some sort of, ‘Let me soak this in,’ in regards to, ‘Let me learn from him, let me see what he does so well,’ you’re really missing out on an opportunity,” McCumber said. “You’re being neglectful, I guess you could say, if you didn’t have room for that in the day.”
McCumber loved the energy of a Tiger crowd. He had a bogey-free 68, one better than Woods.
McCumber’s attitude toward playing with Woods reflects his attitude toward this career in general: Take the opportunities, accept the challenges. Off the golf course, McCumber is an avid surfer. He once backpacked across the south coast of New Zealand with a surfboard in tow, but he compartmentalizes when it comes to his day job.
“I don’t travel with my surfboard – that’s a myth,” he said, laughing.
He does, however, pack a wet suit, sometimes arriving early for a tournament or staying a day late to catch waves. With friends in Puerto Rico who can likely rustle up a loaner board, this week will likely work out that way.
McCumber is one of 16 rookies in this week’s Puerto Rico Open field. Eighteen events into this PGA Tour season, a rookie still hasn’t won, which is the longest streak to start a season since 2009, when no rookies won.
McCumber has played on the Mackenzie Tour, Latinoamerica Tour and Korn Ferry Tour since turning professional in 2013. All those experiences – plus a college golf career at the University of Florida – amounted to ample preparation.
“I think you learn right off the bat if you like playing for money and the pressure of it,” McCumber said of those developmental tours. “It’s obviously a little bit of a different scale. I’m a firm believer that whether it’s a putt to win the club championship or a putt to win a collegiate event or a mini-tour event – or to make a cut on a tour event or win a tour event – it’s really the same philosophy of that pressure and being able to handle it in a different way.”
McCumber has three Latinoamerica titles and three Mackenzie Tour titles to his name. There were small revelations too, like how to travel and how to make time for things on the periphery – the pro-ams and media responsibilities.
In terms of schedule, McCumber is playing any event for which he’s eligible. That has still allowed him to stick to a routine that feels familiar – namely, don’t play more than three events in a row.
Ideally, McCumber will play himself into a situation where he can create a schedule based on courses that suit his game. Even if that isn’t always the case as a rookie, “I just try to view it as a challenge to tighten up other parts of my game.”
McCumber’s first start of the season at the Military Tribute at the Greenbrier is a prime example of that.
“There’s a lot of wedges and I do feel like that part of my game has gotten better, and it almost sort of proved it to me when I was there,” he said.
McCumber finished T-47 at the Old White TPC in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, to start his year.
Torrey Pines, on the other hand, highlighted his game off the tee. The carries worked to his favor. He averaged just over 310 yards in driving distance for the week.
“Given that I can’t pick and choose quite yet where I’m playing, I kind of just use it as a great way to make my game more well-rounded and challenge those areas where we can always keep getting better.”
As Tour life goes, none of the nuances are lost on McCumber.
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