PACIFIC PALISADES >> Billy Hurley III certainly put himself out there before ever starting Thursday’s first round of the PGA’s Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club.
The 34-year-old out of the Naval Academy wrote a letter through The Players Tribune website that posted Tuesday an emotional, cathartic message to his deceased father, who had committed suicide in 2015 and had been missing for a long time until his body was found.
In the final few lines of the letter of more than 4,300 words, Hurley wrote: “I miss you, Dad. I love you. And one final thing I need you to know: I forgive you. Your legacy will live forever.”
Hurley then went out and shot a 4-under 67, taking an early lead for a few holes and talked about how it impacted his play.
“Actually I thought I was going to play poorly as a result of that,” he said. “Frankly it was quite an emotion couple of days for me within that letter and the response was overwhelming.”
Hurley said The Players Tribune, the online athlete’s website started by Derek Jeter, approached him back in October and he first declined. After a few drafts, it was finally ready to publish.
“It was an important step in the overall healing,” Hurley said. “I wanted to show the world who he really was and too often in tragic situations and suicide, it becomes just about how they died. I wanted to highlight how good of a dad he really was.”
Hurley said “unfortunately” he does think about his dad when he’s out on the course but “thankfully I’m pretty good at departmentalizing. But I think that definitely currents of my life and currents of my golf game are from my dad. That’s what’s always there.
“My dad was a very black-and-white kind of guy, which serves you really well in a lot of arenas but at the end of the day that’s one of the things that led to his death, not being able to deal whatever gray was going on inside his head.”
A stinger
On the way to shooting a 5-under 66 that put him into an early tie for second, Dustin Johnson dealt with a bee sting while putting on the first hole, which was his 10th hole of the round.
He followed the par putt with birdies on the next two holes.
“It (the sting) didn’t help the golf swing, but I did make too putts,” he said. “The golf course gave me a little love back after I got the bee sting.”
Johnson was not specific about where on his body he had been stung.
A fill of Mickelson
Two-time Riviera winner Phil Mickelson somehow converted an eagle-3 on the par-5 17 hole after his second shot bounced off the grandstand and he lofted a high wedge shot from about a 30-foot that bounced into the hole.
That moved him from 1-under to 3-under after his first eight holes. Two birdies and two bogeys on his last nine, including a bogey at No. 9, took some of the steam out of his round of 4-under 67, tied for seventh.
“As the round wore on, I thought I got a little bit tired and didn’t strike the ball as well as I did earlier,” said the 46-year-old, who shot a 77 in the final round at Pebble Beach last week after a third-round 69 and finished with the highest four-round total of 288, 1-over and 20 shots out of the lead.
Mickelson jetted out of Santa Monica Airport on Thursday afternoon as per his usual routine in L.A., returned home to Rancho Santa Fe and will await word if there is a second round played Friday before flying back.
“With the way it’s set up, we’re going to have 72 holes,” he said. “We may have to finish Monday if that’s the case, but I don’t know if it’s critical to finish high (early), but we had great conditions to score well today and it was important to take advantage of that because it will be a little tougher this weekend,” he said.
Into the Woods
While there was no sign of Tiger Woods at the course on Thursday, there was a food stop called The Woods near the 10th hole and driving range willing to take the gallery’s money.
It’s described as a “pop-up restaurant” — what other kind would there be on a golf course during a top-flight PGA event? — with the proceeds benefitting the Tiger Woods Foundation and local charities. The menu is similar to what is served at The Woods Jupiter, a restaurant his company runs: Bison burgers, lollipop lamb chops and truffle fries.
Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, appeared at Riviera on Wednesday and said that doctors have told Woods to “just stay horizontal” as he works through back spasms. Woods flew to L.A. to see one of his doctors, Steinberg confirmed, but has been relegated to his hotel the whole time he has been here. Steinberg said it was just better to avoid any sort of press conference because there would be “a lot of questions and no answers, frustrating him. But he has given full, maximum effort to get back out here.
“The goal is to get everything to calm down, have it calm down for a while, continue to get treatment and get back to a place where he’s chipping and putting and hitting balls. We’re not talking about an extended break.”
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