Eric Frisbee Career Log

[Friz]

Two years ago, one of golf's rising young stars was making his mark on the PGA tour.  In a 5 month span, Eric Frisbee made 17 cuts on the PGA tour, highlighted by a top 5 finish in Puntacana and a 12th place finish at the prestigious PLAYERS Championship; and seen his World Golf Ranking climb to 128 just the week before he walked away from the game.  What happened?  We caught up with Eric for an exclusive.

"Some stories just aren't that exciting.  Sometimes you may be doing what you love, but other parts of life get in the way.  Sometimes a baby comes and you think 'oh, I'll still have time to golf', or you move and the clubs get put in the basement while you finish that one last project for the twelfth time, or you start a new job and your new boss is 'a bit more into tennis.'  Or in my case, all of these things could happen in a very small window and before you know it you're off the tour and staring Q-School in the face again."

Some players may not have been up for starting over, but Eric took on the challenge.  After Q-School dropped him into the Korn Ferry Tour ("Man, when I walked away this thing was still the Web.com") he is starting his journey back to the PGA Tour.  Nothing will stand in his way ("Guys, I still have a family thats going to come first").  He only has one goal ("My other job is pretty important to me too, and its not like I'm going to let my new house fall apart") which is to regain his spot among the elite.  ("Seriously, I'm just happy to be playing again, I'm just out here to have fun, lets not blow this out of proportion").  We will be tracking his progress exclusively here as Eric rises from the ashes to climb the ranks back to the PGA Tour!

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Golfer's Note: I doubt anyone else will really get much out of my stories, I did used to be pretty consistent in PGA.  But after most of two years since I was there back in TGC2, and most of a full year since I played at all, I thought it would be fun to track where I am now and see if I can get my swing back.  Hope you enjoy my progress 

[Friz]

In his first official tournament back, Frisbee took the first positive steps towards his ultimate goal. A slow start gave way to a strong finish in round 1, where after playing the first 6 holes at Even par, the last 12 holes came at -8. The strong play continued into round 2 as he finished the front 9 at -5 to bring him to -13 for the tournament. However, not playing in almost two years showed on the 12th hole as Frisbee found himself in a greenside bunker. What happened next was disastrous. Frisbee wound up and inexplicably launched the ball 50 yards over the green.

"Seriously, you'd think this guy had never hit a bunker shot in his life. The only way I could describe it is that he swung like a flop shot, but his grip was as normal as could be. What a joke."

After such a strong showing to that point, it was all he could do to scramble back for a double bogey on the hole. He put his head down and scraped two more birdies back in his final 6 holes to get back to -13, but an Even closing 9 left him anything but comfortable heading into the clubhouse and eyes on the cutline. More and more golfers passed him but at the end of the day -13 was enough. He made the cut on the number and would get to play the weekend. The damage had been done though, Frisbee did not look like a confident golfer over his next 36 holes. He limped down the stretch and finished tied for 72nd place.

After his final round on Sunday, Frisbee stated "Hey, I got to play four rounds in my first tournament back, I must have done a few things right. I've got some things to work on. Consistency, confidence.......bunker play...". A made cut is a step in the right direction, but it may be a longer than anticipated path back.

[Friz]

Uh oh folks, we had a sighting of the Frisbee from old this week. After a couple decent rounds to get through the cut again, he went LOW on Sunday to shoot up the leaderboard. A fourth round 59 jumped him to a Tie for 13th for the week, and coming off the 18th green there was a look of disappointment on his face.

"I was -10 through 11 holes. I can't truly complain about a round in the 50's, but I can complain a little bit about only going -1 through the final 7 holes."

There were a couple other rough spots throughout the week, a three putt on a par-5, a few unnecessary bogeys, extended birdie droughts, and other par 5's that he just could not take advantage of. We are seeing flashes, but still waiting for the consistency. But a 13th place finish in a week where consistency was missing should cause others to take notice and see where he ends up next.