In 2011, Abilene native Harrison Frazar had well over 300 starts on the PGA Tour, without a win to his credit. And after battling injuries Frazar was granted a Medical Exemption giving him 11 starts to make over $600,000. But after missing five straight cuts, Harrison had come to grips with the fact that his golf career might be coming to an end.
"I had made my decision, I was ready to move on, I was at peace with it," he said. "You know, I wanted to play for the enjoyment of the game. I wanted to play to have that feeling of being nervous and being scared, one more time. I just wanted to play for me and because I love the game, instead of worrying about what people were thinking or worried about the money."
With only 3 events remaining on his Major Medical Exemption in 2001, Harrison Frazar came to the Byron Nelson, thinking it might be one of his final events as a professional player. but as fate would have it, this would only be the beginning of his journey over the next year.
"Well the wind was howling," Frazar recalled, "It was very familiar to me, I was comfortable. I knew i didn't have to go shoot 65's to have a good week."
But after a brutal U.S. Open Monday Qualifier, the week prior, Harrison, strongly considered skipping the next PGA Event, the Fed Ex St. Jude Classic in Memphis.
"I was exhausted," he said "And I was spent, so my wife tried to convince me to stay home and rest and don't go and my caddie told me I was crazy, he said, You're hitting the ball too well, you're playing well. You need to suck it up and go get some pedialite and let's go."
But after a rough start in Memphis, Harrison decided to let everything go and back to treating golf like a game.
"Knowing where I was in my life, knowing that i was going to walk away from the game, instead of getting mad and getting angry, I just stopped, " he said. "Just stopped the noise, stopped the craziness, and just played golf like I was a kid again, I played from a deeper spot and we stopped worrying about yardages and stopped worrying about wind direction and results, and everything else, and we just played golf."
And that strategy would certainly serve him well, as he would go on to defeat Robert Karlson on the 3rd playoff hole, to get his first playoff victory in over 350 tries.
And As for now Harrison is just trying to enjoy the game that he loves once again.
"I had made my decision, I was ready to move on, I was at peace with it," he said. "You know, I wanted to play for the enjoyment of the game. I wanted to play to have that feeling of being nervous and being scared, one more time. I just wanted to play for me and because I love the game, instead of worrying about what people were thinking or worried about the money."
With only 3 events remaining on his Major Medical Exemption in 2001, Harrison Frazar came to the Byron Nelson, thinking it might be one of his final events as a professional player. but as fate would have it, this would only be the beginning of his journey over the next year.
"Well the wind was howling," Frazar recalled, "It was very familiar to me, I was comfortable. I knew i didn't have to go shoot 65's to have a good week."
But after a brutal U.S. Open Monday Qualifier, the week prior, Harrison, strongly considered skipping the next PGA Event, the Fed Ex St. Jude Classic in Memphis.
"I was exhausted," he said "And I was spent, so my wife tried to convince me to stay home and rest and don't go and my caddie told me I was crazy, he said, You're hitting the ball too well, you're playing well. You need to suck it up and go get some pedialite and let's go."
But after a rough start in Memphis, Harrison decided to let everything go and back to treating golf like a game.
"Knowing where I was in my life, knowing that i was going to walk away from the game, instead of getting mad and getting angry, I just stopped, " he said. "Just stopped the noise, stopped the craziness, and just played golf like I was a kid again, I played from a deeper spot and we stopped worrying about yardages and stopped worrying about wind direction and results, and everything else, and we just played golf."
And that strategy would certainly serve him well, as he would go on to defeat Robert Karlson on the 3rd playoff hole, to get his first playoff victory in over 350 tries.
And As for now Harrison is just trying to enjoy the game that he loves once again.
