Dillon Board wanted to go back to 'being a creator.' He created a gem last week in Texas
Dillon Board needed to refresh his game and had the solution.
Go back to work.
He not only found it in the dirt but in some familiar Westside dirt, with his longtime swing coach, at the Bent Creek Golf Club following two missed cuts in Argentina and Chile.
And they were no-frills practice sessions.
“No launch monitors, no video, no Track Man ... just me hitting and Eric watching,” said the Baldwin High graduate and member of the Korn Ferry Tour. “We went back to basics, hit some shots, tried not to over-analyze and just tried to paint a picture in my head. Real old-school stuff.”
It worked, at least for one week, and it guaranteed that Board will get more starts, beginning in two weeks with the Korn Ferry’s stop in Kansas City, Mo.
Board posted his best career finish on the Korn Ferry Tour last week with a tie for 16th in the Veritex Bank Championship at the Texas Rangers Golf Club in Arlington, Texas. Board shot 19-under 165, with rounds of 64, 66, 69 and 66.
Board made eight birdies in the final round and drained four putts of 17 feet or longer – including a 52-footer at No. 16.
“It was a solid week,” he said.
Board had to correct misses to the left
Board said he developed a left miss in South America, which is especially dangerous since he and Holcomb committed to a left-to-right game a few years ago.
“When you’re aiming left for a fade and you go left, that’s concerning,” Board said.
The work he and Holcomb put in took a week to take hold. Board missed his third cut in a row at the LECOM Suncoast Classic but he made enough birdies to convince him he was on the right track.
Board said he likely would have made the field for the Advent Health Championship May 16-19 without his finish in Arlington. But the tie for 16th got him in the field under the Korn Ferry Tour’s top-25 exemption for the following week and no doubt will help moving forward.
Board is 90th on the Korn Ferry points list.
Board plays better when he's 'a creator'
In the end, he said when he has a feel for the game, he plays better.
“I try to be a creator, an artist,” Board said. “I was trying too hard to be too precise. And it’s all about giving yourself opportunities.
If Board can gain some steam, it would be one of the better success stories on the Korn Ferry Tour. He earned conditional status at the PGA Tour Q-School last December (then captained the winning team in the Henry Tuten Gator Bowl Pro-Am) and posted a top-20 in his first start in Colombia.
Board played golf at three colleges and, by his best estimate, eight mini or developmental tours. He said he made a deal with his wife Mackenzie that if he didn’t get Korn Ferry status by the time he was 30, he’d “hung it up and gone out in the real world.”
He turned 30 last November. Time is still on his side.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Dillon Board goes old-school with longtime coach to jump-start his game
