Almost exactly four years had passed since I last teed-up in a PGA Tour event, but when I drove off the 1st tee at the Barracuda Championship in mid-July it was, in many ways, as if I had never been away.
Turning up at the course, registering, seeing the equipment representatives on the range, practising Tuesday and Wednesday; it felt like I hadn’t been gone more than a week. In that respect at least, the Tour is like riding a bike; you never forget.
In other ways, of course, my time away from the competitive element was all too evident. As we all know, golf with a scorecard in your pocket is a lot different from playing a casual game with your mates. So, for me, everything had changed and nothing had changed.
What did strike me almost immediately was the number of new
