CARMEL, Ind. – Billy Hurley III is in his fourth year on the PGA Tour, but he feels like a rookie again.
His victory this summer at Congressional presented a series of firsts: His first WGC event. His first PGA Championship. And now, his first BMW Championship, after a T-8 finish Monday in Boston pushed him into the third stage of the FedEx Cup playoffs.
It seems there’s a bigger adjustment than just getting to know new cities and courses.
“You pull in the parking lot this morning and you don’t know where you’re going,” he said. “You’re like, all right, that looks like the clubhouse, I’ll go over there. And then on Sunday, you learn that, oh, there’s like this cool shortcut over here that would have saved me 15 minutes every day.”
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In that respect, at least, he’s very much like a first-timer: learning where to stay, how to avoid the traffic, which restaurants to frequent.
“It’s just a little bit of everything that makes it, not hard, but it’s just a little bit more difficult,” he said.
The newness will continue next season, when he plays in the Masters for the first time and returns to Maui (he spent two years there when he served in the Navy).
“It’s always kind of a homecoming-type tournament for us,” he said, “and next year getting to go there for two weeks will be awesome.”
