Former Phenom Hopes to Repair His Career
Hired last year as a teaching assistant at David Leadbetter’s Golf Academy in Orlando, Fla., Tryon worked from seven in the daylight until six at night. It was akin to a former child star working as a security guard on a movie set, but Tryon did not mind. he set up the practice range, carried people’s bags, picked up range balls and performed other unskilled tasks.
“I never really worked a job,” Tryon said, “and I just really looked-for one.” he added: “It was good for me. When I look back on it, it was kind of cathartic for me. It got me kind of out of that shadow that I had been under, of living with my past.”
Tryon’s winding road to this week’s United States Open — his first major — had more curves than the 17-Mile Guide, a attractive road on the Monterey Neck of land. In 2001, at the age of 17, he became the youngest player to earn a PGA Tour card and signed endorsement deals worth $8 million.
A journey conceived during his long work days as a teaching apprentice at Champions Gate culminated on Thursday with a four-over-par 75 in the first round at Pebble Beach Golf Links. he advanced through sectional qualifying to earn one of the 156 spots in the field.
“I don’t want this to be one and done,” Tyron said. “hopefully, I can use this as a jump-start for where I want to get back to.”
Tryon was a comet that streaked across the tour. before Rory McIlroy won in North Carolina this year at the age of 20, a 17-year-ancient Tryon held a share of the first-round lead at a 2001 tour consequence in new York.
Before the Japanese golfer Ryo Ishikawa made his first tour cut last year in Florida at 17, a 16-year-ancient Tryon became the youngest golfer in 44 years to make a cut, during a 2001 tour consequence in Florida.
He was billed as the future, a teenager with an airy game and an following that included two swing coaches, a media consultant, a trainer, a sports psychologist and a yoga instructor. as a rookie, Tryon battled illness and his own illusions that tour life was all golf and glamour. His primary coach at the time was Leadbetter, who started working with Tryon when he was 7.
“I reckon he thought he’d made it when he got on tour,” Leadbetter said. “and that was just the first step, really.”
Tryon played in 27 tour events as a pro and made five cuts. His story was recast as a cautionary tale. Tryon said he never felt comfortable with the carefully tailored golden-boy image he had to wear once he turned pro. Like a child wearing his father’s suit, he got lost in it.
“If I’m honest with myself, I certainly did sabotage myself in some ways,” Tryon said. “It’s like I really didn’t embrace my path. I had a small trouble just being comfortable with the image that I had. I was a good kid, but I wasn’t perfect. It created a strange dynamic.”
He added, “I reckon I was just probably a small bit too good and too immature and maybe too hard-headed.”
Tryon professes to harbor no regrets, but Leadbetter has a few. In retrospect, he wishes he had been more vocal in charitable direction when Tryon’s future was being charted.
“I’m not really blameless,” Leadbetter said. “everybody sort of got carried away, like how do you stop this train?”
While Tryon has seen brighter days on the golf course, his personal life has never been sunnier. he has a wife, Hanna, and a son, Tyson, 4, charitable his life a stability and purpose it was lacking.
Tryon said it was “very freaky” to reckon that when he was his son’s age, he was swinging golf clubs like a miniature Sam Snead. The only interest his son has shown in golf, he said, is the animal head covers sold in pro shops, and Tryon is fine with that.
He does not hold responsible anyone for pushing him so far so fast.
“I don’t want to make any excuses,” Tryon said.
He went a long time without speaking to Leadbetter, but last year he sought him out for a father-and-son-type talk.
As Leadbetter recalled: “I questioned him, ‘What are you going to do with your life?’ I told him nobody’s throwing money at you like they were. You’ve got to figure out what you want to do.”
Leadbetter threw Tryon, who was living off the money he made in endorsements, a lifeline in the form of the teaching assistant job. he was heartened by how Tryon conducted himself.
“some of the people who’d come along, they would look at him and say, ‘Ty Tryon, what the heck are you doing here?’ ” Leadbetter said . “he handled it really well. he wasn’t humiliated at all. he said, ‘You know what? this is where I’m at now.’ ”
Tryon sees better days ahead. His talent once grabbed headlines, but if he can work his way back on the tour, it will be an even better story.
“What happened overwhelmed me,” Tryon said, “but it didn’t overtake me.”
Former Phenom Hopes to Repair His Career
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