Mike Sullivan has found his comfort zone, and that goes a long way toward explaining how he found himself in a four-way tie for the Western Open lead after Thursday`s opening round at Cog Hill.
Sullivan was one of four golfers (Mark Lye, Ray Floyd and Russ Cochran were the others) to fire 6-under-par 66s on the 7,040-yard Dubsdread course, new home of the Western Open after 17 years at Butler National.
”The first hole I played in my practice round Tuesday I felt comfortable on the golf course,” Sullivan said. ”I never really felt comfortable over at Butler. This golf course looks like it could be set up to be just as difficult as Butler National, but it doesn`t have those little fingers reaching out to grab you like Butler does. It`s certainly easier to pull the trigger when you don`t feel you`re falling off the edge of the world the way you do at some courses.”
Of course, Sullivan appends, ”I`ve been hitting the ball pretty well lately. If you`re hitting the ball poorly, being comfortable doesn`t help.”
There are levels of comfort, and on one level Sullivan doesn`t have much practice. He has a chronic bad back that at one point threatened to drive him off the tour.
Normally, the back would spasm, Sullivan would have to walk like a crab for a few days and ”in three days to two weeks I`d be walking again.”
Then came the time when ”I couldn`t swing a club at all for 2 1/2 months,” he recalls. ”Luckily, it was during the off-season. Still, it was probably three months when the most I could hit a wedge was 50 or 60 yards. If I swung any harder, it hurt.”
Sullivan had been a player of some promise, winning a tournament and finishing 22nd on the money list in his fourth season on the tour.
Then the back problems began, a not uncommon occurrence for one of Sullivan`s calling. ”An orthopedic back specialist has told me one of the worst things you can do for your back is bend over and twist,” says Sullivan. ”And here we are, twisting away.”
Sullivan has been told he has two herniated discs and one degenerative disc-and that surgery will not cure the problem.
”They tell me that if you get on a strengthening program it will stabilize the core of your back,” he says. ”It`s something I continually work on now. Everybody used to tell me, `Don`t work with weights because it will make you muscle-bound,` but since I`ve been on this weight training program I`ve had only a couple of flareups and they were pretty minor. I feel guilty now if I miss a day.”
Sullivan knows more ways to stretch than Jane Fonda.
Two years ago, he won his second tour event and had his best season overall, earning a career-high $273,963.
Still, he had not found his comfort zone. Not really. ”Not too long after I won at Houston I found I couldn`t swing the way I wanted to and not hurt my back,” he says. ”I`d been working out real strong and if I took a week off my back felt fine.”
But professional golfers, especially those who are struggling to pay the bills, don`t have the luxury of taking every other week off. ”Finally, I deduced that I`ve got to change my swing,” he said. He tried various new swings and then one day, ”on the practice tee my wife was watching Peter Jacobsen hit balls about five stalls away from me and she told me, `It looks like Peter`s swing wouldn`t hurt your back. Maybe you should find out who coaches him.` ”
Sullivan did just that. ”His name is John Rhodes. It turned out that Peter has had some back problems, too. Rhodes has since jokingly said, `All the gimps are going to be coming to see me.` I immediately noticed a big difference. I could hit three or four buckets of balls after a round and had no trouble getting out of bed in the morning.”
Basically, instead of keeping his head riveted to the spot where the ball was, he let it go through as he finished up his swing.
That is against all teaching. It has taken him a while to get used to.
”I`m just now getting to the point where I`m not thinking about my swing and can go ahead and play,” he says.
”My caddie and I were talking Tuesday and we agreed I`ve been playing my swing instead of playing golf. You can make pretty swings and hit bad golf shots.”
He didn`t make many bad golf shots Thursday. His worst of the day, ”an awful chip shot,” came at the 13th hole and cost him his only bogey. He more than balanced that with seven birdies for his 66.
”Sometimes if you`re comfortable,” he says, ”everything starts falling in place.” For one day, at least, Mike Sullivan made himself comfortable, baby.
