Inside the Ropes: Simpson hopes to build momentum for playoffs

Webb Simpson, coming off his missed cut in the PGA Championship, will try to get his season back on track this week at the Wyndham Championship.

Last year at Greensboro, he changed the course of his career by claiming his first PGA Tour victory and followed it up two weeks later by winning the Deutsche Bank Championship during the PGA Tour playoffs en route to finishing third in the FedEx Cup standings and second on the PGA Tour money list.

The best was yet to come. Simpson outlasted the best players in the world to capture the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in June.

"There's no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't have won the U.S. Open had I not won here," Simpson said recently on Wyndham Championship media day at Sedgefield Country Club. "Being in the final group Sunday here playing, trying to win my first event, playing through all the nerves and the what-ifs, I really drew from that and learned from it.

"We all have tendencies under pressure, and just learning what I tend to do, whether it's hitting quick or walking faster, I kind of took all those and applied it to the back nine Sunday at Olympic and came up one shot ahead."

Veteran Chris DiMarco told pgatour.com: "Webb has finally realized just how good he is. A lot of other people knew it, but you have to believe it yourself. He's a great young player, and I think he'll get better and better as the years go on."

Simpson, who turned 27 last week, was in position to win again when he posted rounds of 65-66-66 to take a two-stroke lead into the final round at the Greenbrier Classic early in July, but he closed with a 3-over-par 73 and slid to a tie for seventh.

Then he took six weeks off to be with his wife, Dowd, before, during and after the birth of their second child, Willow Grace, even missing the Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.

When he returned last week for the PGA on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, the rust on his game led to a 79-72--151 that missed the cut by one stroke.

And he didn't for a moment regret his decision to stay home.

"The British Open will always be there, and the way I look at it is, this might be our last child that we're going to have," the deeply religious Simpson said. "So it's a decision I haven't even thought twice about.

"... I took a break when I was playing really good golf. To be honest with you, I feel like the first three weeks I was back at home I didn't want to play any golf, and then kind I gradually got back into it.

"When you pack your bags for three weeks every month for a living, it kind of becomes second nature to you, so I felt like I wanted to pack up and get ready to go. Not that I wanted to leave the family or leave home, but as a competitor you want to always compete. That's why I'm glad to be back."

Simpson felt like he was going nowhere in his career at the end of the 2010 season, when he posted only two finishes in the top 10 on the PGA Tour and missed the cut in 13 of his 31 tournaments.

So he decided to make some changes, and the most important might have been hiring respected caddie Paul Tesori.

"Nick Watney texted me saying Paul Tesori is looking for a bag, you might want to call him," said Simpson, a 2008 graduate of Wake Forest. "I called him ... and we did about a 10-minute interview. Actually, he did more of the interviewing than I did."

That's often the way it is with the best caddies, especially with a guy who's been around the block and is asked to pick up a younger player's bag.

Tesori's sage advice came in handy down the stretch at the Olympic Club.

"If you're 1-over par for the tournament going into 16 and you looked at the leaderboard and all of a sudden you have a one-shot lead, is it going to add anxiety?" Tesori said to Simpson.

"Of course it will. Why would you want to add anxiety? It's already anxious enough."

So Simpson didn't look at a leaderboard until after he hit his tee shot on the 18th hole. He saw that he was in a tie for the lead with Jim Furyk, who was in the process of imploding a couple of holes back.

After missing the green with his approach shot, Webb made a brilliant up-and-down for par with a remarkable chip shot across the green and wound up winning by one stroke.

"This is the calmest I have ever seen him in contention," Tesori said. "He was way calmer here than he was when he won at Greensboro."

Simpson is a Carolina boy, born in Raleigh and living in Charlotte, who once caddied at Sedgefield.

Seems to be the perfect spot for him to get it going again.

COMING UP

PGA TOUR: Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C., Thursday through Sunday.

TV: Thursday and Friday, 3-6 p.m. EDT on the Golf Channel; Saturday and Sunday, 3-6 p.m. EDT on CBS.

LAST YEAR: Webb Simpson, who once caddied at Sedgefield Country club as a teenager, posted four rounds of 3-under-par 67 or better and earned his first PGA Tour victory, by three strokes over George McNeil. Simpson, who also claimed the Deutsche Bank Championship two weeks later in the PGA Tour playoffs, took control of the tournament by shooting 65-64 in the middle rounds, including a five-hole stretch that he played in 6-under through No. 17 in round three. He made it fairly stress-free on Sunday, even though McNeil closed with a 64, by shooting a flawless 67 to win about 30 miles from his alma mater, Wake Forest.

CHAMPIONS TOUR: Dick's Sporting Goods Open at En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott, N.Y., Friday through Sunday.

TV: Friday, 12:30-2:30 p.m. EDT; Saturday and Sunday, 3-6 p.m. EDT, on the Golf Channel each day.

LAST YEAR: John Huston, who turned 50 only 25 days earlier to become eligible for the Champions Tour, opened and closed with rounds of 7-under-par 65 to claim his first Champions Tour victory, by three strokes over Nick Price. Huston, who captured seven titles on the PGA Tour, pulled away with four birdies in a span of six holes through No. 17 in the final round. Huston, who was playing in his third tournament on the senior circuit, captured his first victory since the Southern Farm Bureau Classic on the PGA Tour.

LPGA TOUR: Safeway Classic presented by Coca-Cola at on the Ghost Creek Course at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains, Ore., Friday through Sunday.

TV: Friday, 6:30-8:30 p.m. EDT; Saturday, 6:30-9:30 p.m. EDT, and Sunday, 7-9:30 p.m. EDT, on the Golf Channel each day.

LAST YEAR: Suzann Pettersen of Norway came from nine strokes behind in the final round and claimed her eighth victory on the LPGA Tour with a five-foot par putt on the first playoff hole when Na Yeon Choi hit her approach shot into the water and made a double-bogey 6. Choi started the final round with a three-stroke lead but closed with a 2-over-par 73 as Pettersen torched the course with a 64. Choi struggled all day but regained a one-stroke lead with a birdie on the 17th hole before giving it back when she missed a five-foot putt for par on the final hole of regulation that would have won the tournament.