Island Packet Verizon Heritage 2008 Coverage | Harbour Town, Sea Pines Resort, Hilton Head Island, SC

By JUSTIN JARRETT
jjarrett@islandpacket.com
843-706-8120

Somewhere between the ninth and 11th holes at The Classic Club, it came back.

And Don Trahan saw it — the look his son, D.J., had lost somewhere between his days as the nation’s top amateur golfer and his fourth year on the PGA Tour. The look Don Trahan felt his son needed to recapture to move up in the cutthroat world of professional golf.

“When he was in junior golf, he was pretty fiery and feisty, really an aggressive player, and he’s mellowed out the last three or four years,” said Don Trahan, the former director of instruction at Harbour Town Golf Links. “I’ve been on him about it, I said, ‘Deej, you’re too mellow, man.

You’re a mellow mushroom. I’d like to see you get your fire back.’ And he didn’t want to do it. ... I said, ‘Deej, this is war out there, man. You’ve got to get your fire back.’ He kind of fought it and fought it, and then all of a sudden ...”

All of a sudden, there it was. And there was D.J., hunting down and catching Justin Leonard, a veteran with 11 PGA Tour victories, including a British Open and Verizon Heritage title. There was D.J., blowing a two-time Ryder Cup player off the course on the back nine to win the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic by three shots. There was D.J., looking like the golfer who once was the top-ranked amateur and one of the best college players in the nation.

“I keep telling people, you’ve never really seen D.J.,” Don Trahan said. “He’s never really been in the zone since he’s been out here. The putting and that were the missing ingredients, and I think it’s all together now.”

Ah, yes, the putting.

The flat stick has been the bane of Trahan’s career. He ranked 171st on the tour in putting last year, down from 108th in 2006. But earlier this year at The Classic Club, where Leonard said it can become “a putting contest,” D.J. was the best putter in the field.

“Pardon me for smiling like that,” D.J. said when it was pointed out that he ranked first in putting that week, “but I’ve never heard anybody tell me that before.”

When nothing else helped solve the problem, Don Trahan, who is also his son’s swing coach, introduced D.J. to Jack Moore. Moore has been working with D.J. for nearly two years, and for the entire time he has encouraged his pupil to switch from his cross-handed grip. D.J. finally obliged.

“Jack’s been trying for two years now to get him to switch from cross-handed to right-hand low,” Don Trahan said. “He finally did it at Bob Hope and finished No. 1 in putting.”

And earned his second PGA Tour victory in the process.

“Hopefully I can use this as a stepping stone to take my game to where I feel like it can be,” said D.J., who grew up playing Harbour Town and attended Hilton Head Island High School until his family moved to the Upstate after his sophomore year.

At the very least, D.J. is reaching the potential he knew he had when he was winning prestigious amateur and collegiate tournaments and awards. It hasn’t come as soon as he would have liked, but he made it back to the Masters this year, where he missed the cut, and he will surpass his best single-season earnings on tour the next time he makes a cut.

Perhaps most important, D.J. has that look again, so his dad says his boy is back.

“I think people are going to start seeing D.J. closer to where he was in college and when he was a top amateur,” Don Trahan said. “You’re going to start seeing him up there, playing much more consistent golf and contending a lot more often, if not winning.”