The journey to the pro ranks includes thousands of miles on the road, stays in budget hotels and plenty of hard work, often with disappointing results.
Brody Fischer understands that as well as anyone.
Fischer competed in his third Web.com qualifier in Gaston, N.C. on April 27, which included nearly 23 hours on the road and a roundtrip drive that covered nearly 1,500 miles.
He carded a plus-3 73 to finish tied for 54th place in the pre-qualifying event at Gaston Country Club. He missed the cut by just four strokes.
“On paper, four strokes looks like a lot, but standing there on the 16th hole I was even par,” Fischer said. “I finished three over and that’s what it came down to.”
Fischer and his caddie, Riley Keagle, began the long road trip to North Carolina on Tuesday. They spent the first night in Lexington, Ky.
The 5 ½ hour car ride allowed the two the opportunity to mentally prepare for Thursday’s pre-qualifier.
“We know what the course is going to be going down,” Fischer said. “We look at the online course layouts and how it’s going to be laid out, so you just try to think about what shots you're going to hit and with having a lot of different options of clubs, every tournament I have the choice to take out either a hybrid or a 62-degree wedge, depending on the course, so you have to think about what you're going to take out and what your strengths are going to be on the course. For instance, this course only had two par-5s as opposed to most courses having four. You just try to get in the mindset of what you're going to do on each hole. Once you get to the course you have to put all the thoughts into the swing.”
This was Fischer’s third long road trip of the year as he already drove from Phoenix to Louisiana and he also competed in an event in Las Vegas.
He follows a similar routine for each event.
“Usually the day before the qualifier we play a practice round,” he said. “We get paired with somebody else and get in a little practice. After driving in a car for 11 1/2 hours, I just want to play golf. We get out there, hit some putts and chips onto the greens and then go out and play.”
During the practice round, Fischer will hit multiple balls from each shot location to help him determine which clubs and shots are best suited for the various lies he might encounter during the event.
“You kind of play a round but you try to learn the course and where everything is you've seen online and the yardage,” he said. “You have to hit different shots from different places because you never know where you'll be. They dot the pins, they put a little red dot where the pin is going to be the next day, so that’s nice to putt to the hole locations. You get to learn the par 3s and make sure you know what club to hit, obviously depending on wind. You have to make some adjustments when you get to the tee the next day.”
It always helps when he can play his practice round with others who are more familiar with the course.
“We played the last five holes with a couple kids that were members there and a guy from Pinehurst, N.C.,” he said. “It's good to play with some other guys to see some different shots coming in and learn the greens a little more.”
After the practice round, Fischer and Keagle analyze and evaluate each shot and hole to better prepare for the next day.
“The golf course we just played is a second shot golf course,” Fischer said. “The fairways are pretty wide open. You've got to get the ball in play off the tee and from there the shots get a little trickier.”
Knowing the importance of his second shots, Fischer emphasized hitting the greens in regulation and positioning the ball in the right spots on the tiered greens to set up makeable putts.
“If you're on one side of the ridge and putting back up and down the hill, you don't want that,” he said. “We focused on hitting the second shots, whether we're hitting a shot from 150 yards or 100 yards, so we were dropping a couple balls and hitting three or four shots into the greens just to hammer home the comfort of it and getting comfortable with where the hole locations are going to be.”
Fischer also simulated different scenarios he might face in competition.
He’d hit both a driver and a 3-wood off several tee boxes to be ready for anything he might encounter on the course.
“Golf is all about the misses,” he said. “It’s how good you can miss it.”
The goal for Thursday’s pre-qualifier was to make the cut and move on to the Monday qualifier, which is the next barrier to playing in the Web.com tour event that weekend.
“To get your card and qualify you have to make the cut in any Web.com event and get status,” Fischer said. “The better you finish is better status. The goal is to make the cut and finish high, so that you can get enough status so you don’t have to Monday qualify anymore or so you only have to qualify at certain events.”
Fischer opened the day on the back nine, where he finished with an even par 35.
After 16 holes, Fischer was in position to make the cut.
“I was even par and we kind of knew what I had to shoot based on last year, so we had a par 5 right in front of us and I ended up making a double bogey,” he said. “Instead of an easy par 5, or an even par or a birdie, I went the other way two strokes and I ended up making a double bogey. It was a bad swing off the tee. That got me into the trees and I couldn't the ball into the hole from there.”
He closed out the round with a par and a bogey to finish with a three-over 73.
“Obviously there's an emphasis on every golf shot you hit,” he said. “If that (bad shot) were to happen early in the golf round, you can't try to get all your strokes back on one swing. You've got the next ball in front of you, you’ve got to hit a good tee shot and a good set shot then make a putt. You have to try to keep the round slow. You can't try to press and get those shots back as soon as possible.”
Unfortunately for Fischer, he had just two holes left to improve his score.
“Early in the round, you have a lot of holes left,” he said. “After 16, 17 was a par 3, we knew we had to fire at the pin. It was a 6-iron uphill about 192 yards. You just have to hope for a hole in one. You want to hit it in the hole every time but you know you have to stick it. It came up a little short. I was going right at the stick and it was right over a bunker. I came up short and ended up making par. You get to 18 and at that point you almost have to hit a drive and have a little slip wedge in and try to get it in the hole and hope something happens the rest of the day.”
Missing the cut stung, especially since he was on the verge of achieving that goal with just two three holes left to play, but he’ll use what he learned in Gaston to help make the necessary improvements and be ready for his next event, the South Bend Open on May 15.
“You really have to be patient with it,” Fischer said. “It becomes a little bit of a challenge. You have to test yourself. As soon as we got in the car for the ride home Riley started typing up things we can work on and the things we did well.”
Fischer was pleased with his efforts on the greens.
“My putting was pretty spot on,” he said. “I did have two three-putts that were from about 50-80 feet, but I made good par putts. I got up and down when I needed to, so the short game was there.”
It was the second shots that caused problems.
“I just didn't hit a lot of solid second shots,” he said. “I had some tap-in birdies but I hit them short. I missed the green on an easy hole and have to get up and down for par. It was good my short game was on because I was able to not let it get away from me.”
The Gaston event also identified another area Fischer must improve on to consistently shoot lower scores.
“I would say I need to go back and work on my iron game, all the way from 80 to 150 yards and really hammer those to work into a 10-foot circle,” he said. “You want to have a birdie putt any time you have a scoring club, those low irons. You put yourself in a position off the tee to do that and you don't do it, you're losing strokes every single time on the field.”
Fischer will spend the next several weeks before the South Bend Open working with his coach/father John Fischer.
“We’ll work on some drills,” Fischer said. “We hit a good shot every two or three holes, but you want to hit a good shot and give yourself an opportunity almost every single hole. These guys on tour are making seven, eight or nine birdies every round, half the holes, and then they're making pars on the rest of them.”
For Fischer, the path to lower scores is obvious.
“The No. 1 way to save strokes is to not make bogies,” he said. “That sounds obvious but that comes with being more consistent. Any time you're in trouble you try to get it back out and play for par. When you're in the opportunity to go for the pin and make a birdie you've got to stick it in there and give yourself a putt. There's some good stuff to learn from and there's some stuff I felt confident about.”
Working toward the Open, Fischer will follow his typical training routine.
“Every day until the tournament, it's getting up and going for a bike ride and a little work out,” he said. “I like to ride my bike 7-10 miles every morning and just try to get to the course, hit balls, work on the short game and try to get out to play. It's big to get out and get the on course experience.”
Stay tuned for more as Brody Fischer chases his dream.
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