ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – For Trey Mullinax, it’s all gravy. The Alabama big man didn’t even bring his passport to last week’s Barbasol Championship – such was his lack of confidence in his ability to win the PGA Tour event from the opposite field and land one of the last places in the 150th Open Championship at St .Andrews.
And yet he won, a 25-under finish good for the 30-year-old’s first PGA Tour title. Next is a quick NetJets flight home to Birmingham, Alabama to collect the passport, then to JFK airport in New York for the transatlantic flight to Scotland. His clubs arrived in St. Andrews, which is better than some – airlines lost luggage left and right this week – but not in the state they left New York in.
“I had to pack my things because all my clubs were out of my bag when I got here,” Mullinax said after a six-under 66 on Saturday after reducing the count. “A lot of clubs were bent, so we had to adjust and stuff like that.”
“I guess going through the TSA, whatever, they took the irons out and didn’t put them back in my golf bag, they were just in the travel case. A few irons were bent and stuff like that. “
Mullinax immediately noticed the problem with his irons, but a rather crucial distortion went unnoticed for his first two rounds.
“I actually found out last night that my putter was at 2 degrees,” Mullinax said. “I knew it sounded funny. I had to say to my caddy, ‘Man, I have to press it a lot. I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know what’s going on.’ The ball was not rolling like in Kentucky. Surely I haven’t lost it in two days. I found out today that it was 2 degrees colder. I played much better today.”
Indeed, he did. After his round alongside Kevin Kisner, who cut him off with a shot with his under-65 seven, Mullinax was happy with his game but a disturbed touch that he didn’t notice the problem with his putter earlier . How does he explain this?
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