Chattin' with Chatty: Journal No. 3

Editor’s note: Attleboro’s Davis Chatfield, a first-year pro on the Korn Ferry Tour, will share his experiences throughout the season with RIGA senior writer Joe McDonald. He’s played two tournaments since his last journal. He shot 14-under to finish T-18 in the LECOM Suncoast Classic April 20-23 at Lakewood National Golf Club in Lakewood Ranch, Fla. He then shot 1-under to finish T-61 in the HomeTown Lenders Championship April 28-30 at The Ledges in Huntsville, AL.

I packed up my apartment in Ponte Vedra, Fla. and I’m coming home for the summer and fall. I’m driving home solo, so I’m breaking it up into two days. I just crossed the border into South Carolina and I’m stopping in Washington, D.C., Wednesday night and probably do some sightseeing Thursday morning and finish the drive in the afternoon. I’ve been to D.C. but it was a long time ago and I have a couple of friends there, so I’ll say “hi” to them and maybe go see some museums and monuments.

The LECOM Suncoast Classic was great. It was nice to have a tournament in Florida that I could drive to. It was about four hours from (Ponte Vedra) so I felt more at home. I’ve been playing in Florida a lot this winter, so it was nice to have what felt like a home tournament for me. We had good weather the entire week. The course is very gettable as long as you hit the ball straight off the tee and its mainly a second-shot golf course. You could see from the scores you can take it pretty low.

That first round everything was really going well. I had one bad shot that led to a double, but I still made nine birdies. That was a good week, and it was good to cap it off with a good weekend, too. That’s something that I’m working on and getting better at, but it was a great experience and I need more of those weeks coming up.

The HomeTown Lenders Championship was great. It was interesting with the weather delays. We were up in the mountains, and it was its own weather system up there, so whatever the Weather Channel said you couldn’t really believe. The fog was crazy. You couldn’t see 20 feet in front of you during the fog delays in the first round. Even into Friday morning we were delayed four hours. We were very fortunate to get 54 holes in. On Saturday I had to play 32 holes. I started at 6:45 a.m. and went to about 5 p.m., so ball in the air at 6:45 is an early morning for anybody. That was a long day, but I was fortunate to play another weekend, make another cut and earn some more points.

We experienced every kind of weather – rain, a lot of wind the last round, fog, cold, warm – we got everything in that event, so that was a grind. I’ve been in these types of situations before and it’s tough.

The first round I didn’t tee off until 6 p.m. on Friday, so there’s a lot of downtime. You need to rest and conserve a lot of energy because you’re going to spend a lot when you get out there on the course. You also need to find things to do outside the course just to kill time, so I was able to do that and looking back I wouldn’t have changed anything. With how much time I had I liked how I prepped for the tournament. I wasn’t wasting too much time at the course, but those are long days, and everybody goes through it. You’re going to have a lot of those in pro golf with it being an outside sport. You’ve just got to find things to do. Hopefully the upcoming tournaments are a little more consistent with the weather, but it was still a great week.

We have two weeks off and then we play seven weeks in a row before we have Fourth of July week off, and then seven more weeks. Right now, I’m committed to playing in all of them, but realistically I’m probably not just because that’s a lot of weeks. It’s tough to play your best golf after Week 5 because you’re mentally and physically pretty drained. We just had three in a row and it’s a lot on the body, so it will be dependent on how I play.

The next tournament is in Kansas City and the other after that is in Knoxville, so I’m definitely playing in those, but the rest will be based on how I play.

It’s good to take some time off. I’m going to take this week pretty easy. I went to the course a little bit Tuesday, but I was packing my apartment. I used Ship Sticks to send my clubs home, so until those arrive in Massachusetts, I don’t really have a choice, I can’t play golf. Once we hit that tournament in Kansas City it will be 14 of the next 15 weeks on the road, hypothetically, because I don’t know if I’ll get to all of those. I’ve realized how valuable off weeks are and time away from golf is just because when you’re prepping for a tournament, or at a tournament it’s all you’re thinking about, it’s all you’re doing and it takes up your entire day. I got to realize I’m still a 23-year-old and I have to enjoy life a little, so it’ll be nice to get back home and see some friends and family for the next week, or two, and reset mentally for the rest of the season.

I’m very happy I get to spend some time at home. I don’t get to see friends and family much now, so anytime I can spend time with them, being at home will be really nice. I know it will fly by, and I’ll do a lot of stuff the next two weeks with them, but I try to take advantage of every second I get at home. It’ll be a great time being back.

I’m probably going to sit on the couch all day Friday and then I’ll probably meet up with my brothers and a bunch of friends in Boston Friday night and I’ll spend the night up there. My dad has a twin and it’s their birthday Thursday, so we’ll celebrate that this weekend. We’ll have a lot to do, so it will be a fun couple of weeks.