Scott Stallings’ victory in the True South Classic: the biggest surprise of the 2012 PGA Tour season
The US PGA Tour is no doubt the best of all golf tours in the world. Every year, a number of players try to make it to the PGA Tour, in a bid to participate in highly paid tournaments.
In the meantime, it is not easy to earn even small slices of the big prize purses offered by the tournaments.
Scott Stallings is one of the players who struggled hard to make it to the bigger stage. He turned professional in 2007 and participated in the PGA Tour Q-School for the first time in 2009.
However, he failed to earn the card, after missing the qualification criteria by just one shot. He then returned to the qualifying school in 2010 and finished tied for the 11th position.
This time, he comfortably confirmed a berth on the PGA Tour for the 2011 season. In his early appearances, he missed the cut in each of the first five tournaments that he played.
Thereafter, he started building some momentum with some good finishes and earned the biggest cheque of his career by winning the 2011 Greenbrier Classic.
Anyhow, he completed his rookie season and entered the second year of his career on the PGA Tour.
This time, he seemed a completely different player. He got off to a poor start to his season and failed to make it the final two rounds in the first six tournaments that he played.
Thereafter, he made the cuts at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Masters Tournament. However, he failed to keep his form intact and missed the cuts in eight of the next 10 tournaments.
He then participated in the True South Classic. Until then, his best finish in the season was a tied 22nd position that came in the PGA Tour’s curtain raiser Hyundai Tournament of Champions.
Therefore, no one could have expected that Stallings might do something that will make him the most surprising golfer in the game.
He recorded a sparkling 24-under par tournament score and defeated Jason Bohn with a two-stroke margin at the True South Classic.
“Obviously, it's a special week," Stallings said after his victory in July that earned him a total of $540,000 as prize money. "Anytime you win on the PGA Tour it's special. A lot of things and people went into winning this tournament and I'm very thankful”.
Talking to the reporters in a post-tournament news conference, he stated that he worked with a sports psychologist, which helped him regain his form.
"I hurt my confidence and hurt everything that came along with it," said the 27-year-old, who resides in the Knoxville, Tennessee. "I learned a lot of lessons through that”.
The very next week saw him tie for the seventh position at the RBC Canadian Open. However, he once again lost his form and has not finished in the top-10s since then.
By and large, one can say that Stallings’ victory this year was one of the biggest surprises one could see on the PGA Tour.
He came from nowhere and bagged the second PGA Tour title of his career. Right now, he does not look to add another victory to his resume in the near future.
However, the game of golf always remains ready to bring huge surprises for its followers and show something new on the scene.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Tags: