NATIONWIDE TOUR FORT SMITH CLASSIC : Adapting to adversity
Posted on Saturday, May 10, 2008
FORT SMITH — What’s another comeback for Darron Stiles ?
After failing to hold on to his PGA Tour card this year, Stiles is on track to get it back this season with solid play on the Nationwide Tour. He continued that with another comeback Friday, shooting a 7-under-par 63 to tie for the lead with Rich Morris at the Nationwide Tour’s Fort Smith Classic at Hardscrabble Country Club.
“I’ve had some pretty good looks at birdies both days and capitalized on most of them,” Stiles said. “I pretty much got everything I was supposed to today. The ones that I didn’t make it was more because of a lackluster iron shot, not because of the putt. If I hit it to within 15 feet today, I made it.” Stiles, 34, has promoted himself to the PGA Tour twice before with his play on the Nationwide Tour. And the 2006 Fort Smith Classic champion is on pace to do it again this year. But those comebacks are nothing for Stiles, who has the scars of his biggest life comeback still present to prove it.
He grew up in Florida and aspired to become a professional golfer. But that dream dissipated in 1989, just before his 16 th birthday, when he started to shave.
Stiles’ mother noticed a tumor in the jaw area and asked him about it. Stiles said it had been there for months and that he didn’t know any better.
“At the time, I had no clue. My parents didn’t tell me a lot of the information, probably for my own good,” Stiles said.
They first visited a dentist, who sent them to a specialist. A biopsy determined it was cancerous. The surgery was complex. After removing the cancer, surgeons used a bone graft from his right hip to repair his jaw.
Doctors told him he likely would never play competitive golf again. That lasted all of two weeks when he celebrated his 16 th birthday by playing golf.
“It took me a good two years to finally get back to where I was before my surgery,” Stiles said. “From there, I finally could start getting better and stronger.” He started out on the Hooters Tour, the Tight Lies Tour and anyplace he could get in. That meant playing Monday qualifiers on what was then the Nike Tour, then trying to get in someplace else when he didn’t. His first big victory in the United States came in 1997 at Monroe, La.
“I was playing Hooters events, Tear-Drop [Tour ] events, whatever I could play in,” Stiles said.
The following year he played 26 events on the Nationwide Tour but only made eight cuts and finished in the top 25 three times.
He continued to scrap on the Nationwide Tour through 2002. He won the Dominion Open in 1999 when he holed out on the 18 th hole in the final round. He also won the Tri-Cities Open in 2000 and the Knoxville Open in 2002. That year he finished ninth on the money list and graduated to the PGA Tour.
Life on the PGA Tour was tough. He made 17 of 29 cuts but finished only 151 st on the money list and was relegated back to the Nationwide Tour.
In 2004, he made 21 of the 27 cuts on the Nationwide Tour, finished 15 th on the money list and earned promotion to the PGA Tour again.
Again, Stiles didn’t play poorly. He finished 143 rd on the money list, but fell outside the top 125 to keep his Tour card. He played a split PGA / Nationwide Tour schedule in 2006 and won the Fort Smith Classic. Last year, he played 24 PGA Tour events, finishing 192 nd on the money list and sending him back to the Nationwide Tour again. “I’ve been on a little bit of a yo-yo,” Stiles said. He won on the Australasian Tour in February but set new goals for himself after missing the cut at the Livermore Valley Wine Country Championship. He wanted to both win a tournament and get to the top of the Nationwide Tour money list in five weeks. Since then he has a ninth-place and 51 st-place finish, along with a missed cut, coming into Fort Smith. “A win [this week ] would accomplish both of those,” Stiles said. He was at his best on Friday, shooting a 5-under-par 30 on the front nine, which he finished by holing a flop shot for birdie from about 10 yards. He had to carry the front edge of a bunker, land the ball on the fringe and hope it would stop once rolling on the green.
“I got fortunate to have a good lie over there in a rough. I hit it in a perfect spot and killed it just enough that it went in,” Stiles said. “I knew all I had to do was get it over the bunker. The fringe is hard enough that even with a 60-degree wedge the ball was going to release.” After getting to 10 under, he saved par on his final two holes to take the tournament lead. He hit into the sand in front of the green on No. 8, but made an 8-foot par putt. Then after missing the green on No. 9, he chipped up and made par.
“The few fairways that I did miss today I was fortunate to not have mud on the ball,” And now his only problems going into this weekend surround golf. Cancer is no longer an issue for Stiles. He still returns to his doctor in Tampa, Fla., each year for X-rays. He’s done it so many times that he can read them before the doctor even takes a look at them.
And other than a limp, caused by the bone being moved from his hip to jaw, he has no more issues.
“Everything’s fine,” Stiles said. “As long as he keeps telling me see you in a year, I’ll be happy.”
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