Harrison Frazar's strategy to remain calm during a tournament: Head to the movies
So how does a professional golfer keep his mind from obsessing over the task at hand after the round? Harrison Frazar turned to Tom Cruise and a big bowl of popcorn.
Frazar ended the second round of the 2023 Kaulig Companies Championship with a one-stroke lead, and he'll enter tomorrow's final round tied with Steve Stricker at 7 under.
After Friday's second round, Frazar didn't want to simply sit in his hotel room all night. He wanted to give his golfing brain a break. So he and his wife went to see "Mission Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One," and he grabbed the biggest bowl of popcorn he could find.
"It's always good to get out of the hotel room and have something to occupy your mind," Frazar said. "I don't know if we'll go to another movie [Saturday night] or if we'll just go to dinner or something but, yeah, you don't want to sit at home in your hotel room and obsess over yardage books and pin sheets and mistakes and strategy, because that doesn't really do you any good."
Frazar, 51, has a chance to end a lengthy drought on Sunday. He hasn't yet won on the PGA TOUR Champions, nor has he held a share of the lead entering the final round like he is this week. He also hasn't won since the 2011 FedEX St. Jude Classic.
The brief break with watching Cruise doing his own stunts and smelling the butter on the popcorn was a needed reprieve, as Frazar noted that some nerves had set in during Friday's round.
As he said Saturday afternoon, Frazar knows what to do. It's just been a while.
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"[The nerves] started about 30 minutes before the tee time. I could feel my heart starting to beat a little bit," Frazar said. "You know, look, you just deal with it. It beats the alternative."
It's all about balance. A little nervousness isn't necessarily a bad thing.
"I think nerves are just a sign that you care, right?" he said. "If you're not nervous, that means you don't care about what's going to happen."
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Frazar will be in Sunday's final group with Stricker and Stewart Cink, who is one shot behind the other two at 6 under. Frazar and Stricker might be tied for the lead, but they couldn't be more different when it comes to recent experience in closing out tournaments.
Stricker has already won four times this season. Frazar hasn't won in 4,417 days. Even seeing the extra cameras following the group of leaders is relatively new. In that way, Frazar is the underdog on Sunday. And he's been hungry for a win for a long, long time.
"It's just been a while. I do know how to do this, right? But it just takes time," Frazar said. "You've got to get comfortable with what's going on around you. Anytime you see cameras and people showing up, you kind of wonder what's going on."
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Harrison Frazar tied for lead at 2023 Kaulig Companies Championship
