Credit: Copyright 2001 Chris Condon/PGA TOUR

Man of the hour: Isenhour taking game to next level

By JOHN KILGO

Still, when he played in the same threesome with John Daly at Riviera in Los Angeles in late February, he learned that on the PGA Tour, lessons in humility are handed out on almost a daily basis.

"I'm not a short hitter," Isenhour said. "I'm of medium distance among the guys out here. But when I hit my best drive and Daly hit his best, he was 50 yards in front of me. He'll humble you in a hurry."

After trying seven times in qualifying school to gain his PGA Tour card, and just missing by two strokes on one of those occasions, Isenhour finally broke through last year thanks mainly to winning a tournament on the Buy.com Tour. The victory was the catalyst that propelled him to an eighth-place finish on the Buy.com money list, which earned him a chance to play this season with the world's best golfers on the PGA Tour.

The start to Isenhour's rookie season on the PGA Tour was average. He made the cut in three of his first six starts. He missed making the cut by one stroke in two tournaments, by two strokes in the third.

Isenhour, who just turned 33, was born in Salisbury and lived there until he was 12. His mother and father divorced, and when his mother later remarried, Tripp moved with her to Vero Beach, Fla., where he played high school golf. But he returned to North Carolina in the summers to play his junior golf. His father, John Isenhour, 61, who still lives in Salisbury and carries a handsome handicap that ranges between 4 and 6, put a golf club in Tripp's hands when he was three years old. A career was born.

Teaching pro Scott Davenport helped young Isenhour polish his game in Florida. The pupil became so good that Georgia Tech, which was the top golf program in the ACC at the time, offered him a partial scholarship. Isenhour played on Georgia Tech teams that featured PGA players Charlie Rymer and Michael Clark, who won on Tour last year. And when Isenhour was a senior, a precocious freshman joined the Tech golf team. His name was David Duval.

Isenhour knew when he graduated from college that he wanted to make his living playing golf. He found out in those seven qualifying schools just how tough it would be. The Buy.com Tour finally opened the door for him. Now he has to make the best of his opportunity, which won't be easy.

"There's quite a difference between the PGA Tour and the Buy.com," Isenhour said. "Don't get me wrong, there are some excellent players on the Buy.com. But the best in the world are on the PGA Tour. There are 150 really good players out here. You won't find a bad one."

When Isenhour played in the season's first PGA event in Tucson this year, he looked over and saw Fred Couples warming up next to him. Suddenly, he found himself on the same stage with players he had admired and watched on television — Couples, Tiger Woods, Daly, Davis Love III.

"There was a little intimidation factor at first," Isenhour admits. "When you're next to Tiger Woods on the practice tee and 2,000 people are watching you hit shots, it's a little daunting. I went from the Buy.com Tour where I knew everybody to the PGA Tour where I knew nobody. But when the bell rang and it was time to play golf, I was OK. I've played a lot of golf, and hit a lot of shots, to prepare for this."

Isenhour is making friends on Tour each week. He says that he's quickly learned "that these are great guys out here who just happen to be very good at golf."

Going from tournament to tournament can be exhausting for players.

Isenhour says he'll play 25 to 30 tournaments over the course of the season, and fit some weeks off in there to be at home to rest and enjoy time with his family. He lives in Orlando, Fla., with his wife and young son. Orlando is home to many of the touring pros, and Isenhour has met and played golf there with Mark O'Meara, Lee Janzen, John Cook and Skip Kendall.

His early weeks as a PGA player drove home the point that Isenhour is going to have to exercise patience in his rookie season. There's a learning curve on Tour that he is going to have to go through whether or not he likes it. For one thing, the veteran players know the tournament courses from playing them many times. Isenhour is just being introduced to them, which is a major disadvantage.

"Not knowing the courses is a big handicap, maybe even more than I had anticipated," Isenhour said. "I'm playing courses that are strange to me. At the Bob Hope, we played four different courses. At Pebble (Beach), we played three different courses. The veteran players had played them and knew where to hit the ball. Four times in Los Angeles, I hit the ball exactly where I wanted to and still it ended up in spots where I couldn't make par. That's a learning experience, but a costly one. I think that having to learn the courses cost me about one shot a round, which over the course of a tournament is a lot of strokes."

Isenhour learned quickly that each player on Tour is a gifted player. He's also learned that there are no bad putters there.

"These guys can putt," he said, "and I mean all of them. Putting is everything out here. You can't overstate how important it is. I had heard that Vijay Singh was not an especially good putter. But I saw him at Pebble on bumpy greens make everything he stood over. Putting is one area that I'm working on. I need to improve it."

Isenhour signed with Nike to use its balls, gloves and shoes. He's learning the ropes, growing more comfortable with life on Tour. He's adjusting to the travel, to hotel rooms, to finding his way around strange cities. But he doesn't do a double take anymore when he walks onto the practice range and prepares to hit shots with Daly on one side of him and Couples on the other. Just as they've done, he's worked hard to be the best in sports' most unforgiving game.

John Isenhour felt pretty certain three decades ago that his son had a special gift. Tripp enjoyed playing the game in Salisbury and was always willing to work hard in order to improve.

He's at the pinnacle of the sport now, competing against the best in the world. The intimidation factor has come and gone. Now he is in pursuit of dreams, lofty dreams.

"I have my goals for this year, most of which I will keep private," Isenhour said. "I want to get better as a player. Even though I am competing against the best in the world, I want to give myself a chance to win a golf tournament.

There's a fire burning inside this young man, so be smart and don't bet against him.