At Honda, club pro Collet parlays new belief into opening 68

Good golfers never stop learning, and young club professional Tyler Collet continues to progress as a tournament golfer.

Thursday at The Honda Classic, the 2022 PGA South Florida Section Player of the Year from John’s Island Club had one of the rounds of the morning until he was slowed by a couple of late bogeys. Still, Collet’s 2-under 68 left him in great position to make Friday’s cut and to potentially earn his first PGA TOUR paycheck on the weekend.

Collet, 27, had it going nicely in the opening round at PGA National’s Champion course, making five birdies and stretching his score to 4-under par through 15 holes. His highlights included 9-iron that finished inside two feet at the par-4 16th, in the middle of the dastardly Bear Trap (Collet's seventh hole of the day). Having started on 10, he made the turn and added birdies at the first, third and sixth holes, the final birdie arriving when he holed a tricky chip over a slope at the 482-yard sixth.

“Got lucky,” he said. Collet made bogeys at the long seventh (232 yards), where he missed the green left, and the par-4 eighth (three-putting from 42 feet) before finishing up with a par at the ninth. His 68 was a solid beginning. Even on calmer days, breaking 70 on the Champion is a heady accomplishment.

Through his success at the national PGA Professional Championship, Collet earned appearances in the PGA Championship in each of the last two years, competing at Kiawah Island and Southern Hills, big stages. Each time he plays, his poise inside the ropes seems to grow.

Collet shot 88-82 at the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course, beating only one player (John Daly) who finished 36 holes. It was a huge disappointment for Collet, but he leaned from the experience. Mostly, he was placing way too much pressure on his own shoulders. The young pro with roots in Kentucky reminded himself that golf, after all, is a game, and he needed to start treating it as such.

He bounced back last May at the PGA Championship in Southern Hills where he failed to make the cut but managed to shoot 71 in the second round, a score many of the highly ranked PGA TOUR pros in the field could not match. It’s all about growth.

“I feel a bit more comfortable,” Collet said Thursday at Honda. “I feel like I belong out here, so that definitely helps.”

Collet is an assistant professional at John’s Island, a private member-owned facility in Vero Beach, about an hour north of PGA National. As a club, John's Island has a strong reputation for its resident professionals, and encourages its young pros to get out and compete in bigger events, even providing their pros the financial support to do so.

Collet has hired a coach, former PGA TOUR competitor Sal Spallone, who hopes to join him at Honda on the weekend, and continues to work as much on the mental side of the game as the physical part. Growth. Even Collet’s family has grown, as he and his wife welcomed a newborn son who “watched” his dad play for the first time.

“Really special,” said dad.

Beyond family, Collet boasted one of the morning’s bigger personal galleries, too, as 60 members from John’s Island were on property not only to see him play, but see him play very well. Clearly, the “new” Tyler Collet is riding a nice wave of confidence. It will serve him nicely as he looks to work his way toward the PGA TOUR in more permanent fashion in the future.

“Self-belief is huge,” Collet said. “If you don’t believe in yourself then there’s no reason to be out here, and you’re not going to succeed. I think having self-belief really counts, and really matters.”

Thursday at Honda, that self-belief added up to a 68. Collet looks to carry more of it into another tussle with the Bear Trap on Friday.