The Tarheel Tour Interview with Reid Edstrom

Reid Edstrom has been one of the most consistent players on the Tarheel Tour in 2007. In 19-events the Auburn, AL native his amassed just under $43,000 including seven top-10 finishes with only one missed cut. Despite being a veteran mini-tour player, this is Edstrom's first season on the Tarheel Tour. We caught up with Reid after his fifteenth place finish at the Stonebridge Classic to discuss the season and his preparation for PGA Tour Qualifying School.

You have been playing professionally for a number of years, but this is your first season on the Tarheel Tour. What made you choose to play the Tarheel Tour and what are your impressions so far this season?

Reid Edstrom: Well my impressions are very good. I decided to play, due to the fact that I moved to Auburn and had been in Alabama and had been playing down in West Palm Beach and living down there, playing the Gateway Tour and decided that I wanted to travel around a little bit more. I didn't want to get stuck in one location and thought the Tarheel Tour would be a good choice.

You have recorded six top-6 finishes in 19-events this season and have missed only one cut and that was back in March. What has been the key to your impressive play this season?

R.E.: I have been a lot more consistent this year ball striking wise. The reason I haven't won or finished a little bit better is due to my putting. But ball striking seems like every day, I wake up and everything is pretty much the same, which I have been happy with.

Reid, you and your wife Stephanie, like you said, live in Auburn, Alabama with your one-year-old son Reece. How much more difficult is it to travel twenty or thirty weeks a year with a child at home, compared to before?

R.E.: To be honest, I have been more motivated I think, since he has been born, to travel and play. I don't have a sponsor, so I am doing a lot of it on my own. So I am more motivated, I believe, since he has been with us, to get out and play and get after it. It hasn't been that hard.

A lot of the guys out there are playing with sponsor's money, playing for results and experience. You play with your own money, and compete to support your wife and family. How does this affect the way that you try to accomplish your goals?

R.E.: You are playing with your own money. So it's a little tougher. You can't have a tournament where you kind of kick it to the side and think, I'm not too worried about it. So I think it keeps you a lot more focused week to week, knowing that you are giving up a grand every week to play and you need it back. I think it is good for me, to be honest.

You have a runner up finish at the Match Play Championship and have had several other close calls. It seems like you play in the final group or thereabouts in the final round every week. What do you think you have to improve about your game to be able to seal the deal and win one of these tournaments?

R.E.: It's funny, in the many top finishes that I think I have had, it seems like two, maybe three guys, every week, kind of separate themselves from the five through ten guys, running away with it. And I think the big difference is, making a lot more putts. I'm hitting the ball well; I have just got to make more putts.

Do you think that having played most of your professional career on Bermuda greens down in Florida, has made it a little bit difficult to adjust to playing the predominantly bent grass greens in the Carolinas?

R.E.: I don't think so. I think that the greens have been more consistent up here, speed-wise and grain-wise. There is more slope, a more natural slope, but other than that, no I don't think that has been the difference. I just think it is one of those things. I just don't think I have made as many as I would like to.

Thus far you haven't been able to successfully advance to the final stage of PGA Tour Qualifying School. Why do you think that is and where are you planning on going to Q school this year?

R.E.: I am going to Treyburn Country Club for the first stage and then signed up for second stage at Deerwood in Texas, where I have been twice before. That is a good question; I don't know why I haven't gotten through. I have been successful getting through the first stage and either didn't have the game at the time or freaked out at second stage.

What are you going to do this year, to try and prepare yourself for Q-school a little bit better than you have in the past?

R.E.: I haven't thought about that a whole lot. I don't think I am going to change what I have been doing. I have got a pretty good routine here. During the off weeks, I have some good guys around to play with. I like the fact that the Tarheel Tour plays all the way up to the first stage of q-school. I have always taken like a month or a month and a half off and have struggled to find places to play up to Q school. I think the Tarheel Tour has set up the schedule very well.

What are your favorite golf courses that you have played on the Tarheel Tour and what kind of a golf course set up do you think favors your game?

R.E.: I think all the golf courses have been pretty good. Everything has been very consistent. The tour gets with the greens keeper and puts together a good set-up each week. I would have to say, Musgrove Mill, would be my favorite golf course that we have played. It just seemed like it wasn't overly long, but there was definitely plenty of trouble to get into. They had good green complexes that allowed for some really good hole locations, I thought.

Of all of your top-6 finishes this year, which is the one where you felt like you let a win get away from you?

R.E.: I think the only one where I really feel that way is Musgrove Mill. I got within one of the lead, with three to play and I felt like I had a decent chance to pick up a couple of shots coming in with a reachable par-five. I had a reasonable chance of winning that one and I was upset walking away from that golf course after that tournament, more than any other. That was the one where I really felt like I had a chance to win.

Reid, you are an astute student of the game of golf, what is your opinion of the Fed Ex Cup Playoffs? If you were the commissioner of the PGA Tour what would you change?

R.E.: I think what Phil Mickelson said, play every other week and then you can work in the tournaments that the top guys that aren't in the FedEx Cup could play. It would give Tiger and Phil and those guys a week off. I think that is what they want, every other week. And I don't see any problem with doing something like that.

With all the great players that you have played with on the Tarheel Tour this year, who do you think has the best chance to earn their PGA Tour and Nationwide Tour card? Give us a couple of names.

R.E.: Will McGirt has been playing awfully well and he seems to be on top of his game. I haven't played with him, but the other guy that who always seems to do well and is ahead of me on the money list, without a win, is Andy Bare. I would say that those two guys have as good a chance as anybody, and I would like to put myself right in there as well.

What kind of advantage does your experience give you over some of the younger players that are straight out of college, and what is some advice that you would give to some of those players who might be struggling to compete at this level?

R.E.: I just think consistency and finding out what works for you as far as working on your game, playing a practice round, playing with the right people. That is a difficult question. I think the best advice you could give a young guy, would just be to stay patient. Because I know I have throughout the years. It hasn't paid off to the level that I want, but I know that I have been able to hang around and play some good golf.

Thanks for joining us today, Reid.

R.E.: Thanks for having me. Take care.