If you look at the places he has won this year; Memorial, Bay Hill and now Congressional in DC, they are all places he is comfortable playing. Seen the course plenty of times and previous wins too. That makes a lot of difference in golf, especially when trying to come back.
So - because I know you want to hear this - is he back? Who cares! He looks plenty back. What does it mean to be back? You tell me? Is it winning a major? Is it winning five times? You tell me, because to me he is back to winning PGA Tournaments and thats all that matters to me.
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Joe Daley hadn't won on any professional golf tour or circuit since he won in 2005 at the Wichita Open.
Now, he can say that he is a Champions Tour winner, birdying the 18th hole to beat Tom Lehman by two at the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship. That's a major tournament on their schedule.
Daley was more famous for a putt lipping out in Qualifiying School and missing his PGA Tour card by one stroke. He wasn't even fully exempt on the Champions Tour this season and got into the Players from his T4 finish at the Senior PGA. But with a win now, he has a job for the rest of the season and next year, too.
Amazing what a win can do. Going back through the stories from '05, he was so humble and happy with his win in Wichita. It was a moment of levity for the former Marine, and the win today was just the same. It just goes to show you that if you want to be successful on the other Tours in golf, play or win the Wichita Open.
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I collected one of those QUIET Please cards the volunteers carry as a souvenir from the Wichita Open. It has Nationwide Tour on the top of it. Turns out it's even more of a collector's item with that little logo on it.
Next year's Wichita Open will be played on the Web.com Tour. No the Nationwide Tour didn't dissolve, it became the Web.com Tour, changing nearly a decade of title sponsorship for the PGA's development tour.
By the name alone, a lot of people thought the Nationwide Tour was called the Nationwide Tour because they played Nationwide. Clever, really. But the Tour was sponsored by Nationwide Insurance and the named was clever and it just went together. Before it was called the Nationwide Tour, it was the Buy.com Tour and before that the Nnike Tour and before that the Hogan Tour. This isn't new territory for the Nationwide. It doesn't affect the Wichita Open at all, so wipe your brow, ok? Things are all good, Web.com just take a little longer to get off the tongue...
