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Notebook: Tasting Tour Life

Ty Tryon's Spring Break

By Jaime Diaz

Christo (black visor), Ty (putting) and their teammates were pampered like pros, which they hope to become.  J.D. Cuban GOLF PLUS EXTRA My Shot: Jim Colbert Jaime's Top 10: Teen prodigies TRUST ME Tour commissioner Tim Finchem wants to move the Players Championship to May by 2003. Always overshadowed by the Final Four and, even with its massive purse, viewed as just another stop on the Florida swing, the Tour's pet tournament has lost its pizzazz. Moving to May -- the only month from April to August without a major -- would put the event in the heart of the batting order and end the notion that it's a Masters tune-up. UP DOWN Annika Sorenstam ESPN The Slam The Slump Hale Irwin Lee Trevino May March Patty Sheehan Pat Bradley THREESOMES Q. What do these players have in common? 1. Joe Durant 2. Larry Nelson 3. Annika Sorenstam A. They're the only players to win consecutive starts in 2001. Durant took the Hope and Doral, Nelson the MasterCard and the Royal Caribbean, and Sorenstam the Welch's/Circle K and the Standard Register Ping. NEXT UP PGA: The Players Championship Senior: Emerald Coast Classic LPGA: Nabisco Championship European: Sao Paulo Brazil Open INSTANT POLL Will you play a hot driver knowing that it will later be deemed nonconforming? Yes No View Results

Sixteen-year-old Ty Tryon showed more than just a cool hand when he finished 39th at the recent Honda Classic. He also offered a glimpse into the future of pro golf.

The day after the Honda, at which he shot 10 under par, Tryon joined the other members of Orlando's Lake Highland Prep team for a spring-break trip to Southern California. Arranged by assistant coach John Cook, a 10-time Tour winner whose son, Jason, is a freshman on the team, the jaunt was like Tour Life 101. The team, along with squads from Southern California schools, played four courses, visited a golf-apparel company, lounged on Manhattan Beach (a three-wood from Tiger Woods's Left Coast abode), were studio guests of the Jim Rome talk show and took in an NBA game.

The trip was like a touring pro's off week, which was no coincidence. Some of Lake Highland's best players attend David Leadbetter's golf academy in Bradenton, Fla., which is geared to produce pros. Leadbetter, whose son, Andy, is a sophomore on the team but didn't make the trip, instructs Lake Highland senior Christo Greyling, the No. 1-ranked junior in the U.S. (Greyling also qualified for a Tour event, the 2000 Buick Challenge) and oversees the instruction of Tryon, the No. 5 junior. The team plays home matches at Isleworth and Lake Nona, Orlando courses at which dozens of pros practice. No one was surprised last year when Lake Highland's low four scores in one 18-hole match totaled a state record 17-under 271.

"These kids are advanced," says Cook, who attended most of the team's matches last fall and was a stroke behind Tryon at the Honda. "High school golf used to be one or two guys who could play a little and a bunch of kids trying to break 45 for nine holes."

Consider Tryon's routine. He attends class from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., then devotes most afternoons to golf. Either he goes to Leadbetter's learning center at Champions Gate to practice with his coach, Kevin Smeltz, or he works at Keene's Point, where he gets an hourly wage and playing privileges in exchange for cleaning carts and picking up on the range. He does schoolwork from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Golf has been William Augustus Tryon IV's path since he was nicknamed Ty by his father, Bill, after Chevy Chase's Ty Webb character in Caddyshack. Bill, who owns a mortgage lending company, took his son to Leadbetter at age seven. Three years later he took Ty to the Candyman Gym in Orlando for boxing lessons from former WBC heavyweight champion Pinklon Thomas. "It taught Ty to take a blow and deliver a blow, physically and mentally," says his father.

Leadbetter sees a youth movement in the future of the U.S. tours. "We are going to see kids who are ready to go on Tour when they're 16 or 17, and they're going to skip college," he says. Leadbetter wasn't speaking specifically about Tryon's intentions, although Tryon's old e-mail address, Proquick, might be a tip-off.

Bill Tryon intends to follow the example set by his own father, a three-sport star at Princeton. "My dad never pushed in sports, and I grew to love them on my own," he says. "Ty plays golf for himself. As for the future, we're taking it day by day."

Issue date: March 26, 2001

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