Hardy grabs last Phoenix Open spot

Writing from Chicago

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Nick Hardy has this Monday qualifying thing down cold – even when it finishes on a Tuesday.

Hardy, the 25-year-old Northbrook standout, ran down an eight-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole Tuesday morning at McCormick Ranch Golf Club’s Pine Course in Scottsdale, Ariz., to grab the final qualifying spot for this week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open. It wasn’t until Anirban Lahiri missed his five-footer to force a third playoff hole that he could celebrate.

“I’m pretty lucky to beat him,” Hardy said.

Hardy, a regular on the Korn Ferry Tour, Monday qualified for the Sony Open in Hawaii a few weeks ago and went on to finish tied for 14th, earning $113,850. But money doesn’t equal PGA Tour status until you make a lot more of it, so it was back to the Monday qualifying roulette wheel again this week. There were 155 players, including a slew of Tour regulars, chasing those three spots. When the horn blew as dusk Monday, Hardy was on the outside looking in, two strokes out of the last qualifying spot while standing in the fairway of his 16th hole.

“It was honestly not the smartest play for me to finish (Monday night),” Hardy said. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to finish. I wanted to hit my approach because I thought the ball would be going the furthest. I hit a hard cut 3-wood just short of the green. I had the option to get the up-and-down in the morning or do it there. I finished and luckily I made birdie there.

“This morning I knew I had to get two birdies just to have a chance at a playoff, and I came out like, ‘I’m going to make two birdies, no matter what it took.’ ”

Tuesday’s resumption was even more dramatic. At 5-under with two holes remaining, he was a stroke from joining a gaggle sitting at 6-under and a likely playoff. But Vince Whaley joined Mark Anguiano at 8-under 64 before Hardy was finished, and all the 6-unders dropped to third.

Then Hardy chipped in from 20 feet on the par-3 eighth hole, his first of the morning, to join the 6-under crowd.

“In a tournament, I probably would have putted it,” Hardy said. “In a normal situation, I’d have putted and got my three, but I knew I had to chip for the best shot at making it. Right when it landed, I felt it was going in.”

That was good, but sinking a 10-footer for birdie after a 5-iron approach on the par-4 ninth was better.

Hardy fist pumped with his right arm, then fist pumped again, then double-pumped like he’d sacked Tom Brady to win the Super Bowl, then fist pumped again.

You could say he was pumped.

“I’d been struggling with my driver and didn’t have a lot of good looks because of that, but I hit a good drive on No. 9,” Hardy said. “I finished on the (harder) side to make birdies.”

With Hardy at 7-under 65, all the 6-unders went to their cars. But Lahiri, who has earned $305,575 on the Tour this season, including a sixth-place finish at Puntacana, birdied four of his last six holes, including his last, to match Hardy at 65. It was back to the par-5 18th tee for them, only one to advance. Both were in the fairway off the tee, on the green with their second, and two-putted. Back to the 18th tee again.

This time, both pushed their drives to the right. Lahiri missed the green left, Hardy right, where he was nearly blocked from the hole by a tree. Lahiri chipped to about five feet, Hardy to about eight feet after a big first bounce.

Hardy would putt first, and walked home his birdie putt. No fist pumps this time, not with Lahiri so close. And not after the 33-year-old native of Pune, India missed. Just a handshake, a hug of his girlfriend, and relief.

“I’m pretty proud of myself,” Hardy said. “No matter what happened in the playoff, there were things to be proud of, just the way I handled myself. I took that approach, that attitude, and it worked.”

It’s golf’s little secret that Monday qualifiers, featuring players on the way up, on the way down, and on the way to nowhere, are the fiercest competitions in golf. It’s usually over 100 players for four spots. No trophy, no money, just a chance to make some on the weekend.

Phoenix is even crazier, with only three spots available and eight pre-qualifying tournaments to fill the qualifying tournament field. Over 550 players were in those pre-qualifiers, and Anguaino proved the quest was worth it with his Monday 64 to advance to the big show.

Hardy, as a Korn Ferry member, went straight into the Monday scrap, and came out of it with a ticket to Thursday’s first round at TPC Scottsdale, joining Anguaino and Whaley. He knows the course, because he winters in Scottsdale and plays and practices there.

“I know the golf course well, that’s not a problem,” Hardy said. “I’ve just got to see how it’s playing, firm or soft.”

Two years ago, Hardy lost in a playoff, and had that in his head at times Tuesday morning.

“I was 1-over through six, finished 7-under and lost in a four-for-three playoff,” Hardy recalled. “That moment was crushing to my soul. I think about that all the time. I had six other moments like that where I miss the cut by one or come close right when I turned pro.

“Honestly, I’ve just improved the way I’ve handled myself for those moments.”

Such introspection paid off on Tuesday morning.

– Tim Cronin

Thanks to Bill Ibrahim of the Southwest PGA, which runs the Phoenix Open qualifying tournament, for information, plus photos which should run in the next digital edition of Illinois Golfer.