Resurgence at the Rocket Mortgage Classic: Andrew Landry's journey to contention

DETROIT -- Andrew Landry couldn’t figure it out. The doctors couldn’t either.

MRIs of both his shoulders showed no torn labrum and no rotator issues, yet every time Landry swung, he felt pain in both shoulders. The left shoulder hurt during his backswing; the right shoulder flared as he followed through.

Three months of rest in the middle of the 2021-22 season didn’t help. Neither did various swing coaches.

Friday’s round provided the most compelling reason for the two-time TOUR winner to believe he’s on the right path, a second-round 63 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic that tied the course record at Detroit Golf Club and vaulted him into contention. He's 10-under for the week, three shots back of leader Taylor Moore.

“Yeah,” Landry said, pausing for just a split-second to collect himself after the round, “I’ve been needing this one.”

The 35-year-old made only two cuts in his shortened 15-event season a year ago. He took a month's break after shooting 77-74 to miss the cut at the 2022 Genesis Invitational. After one event, the Valspar Championship, he took another three months off. He withdrew from the John Deere Classic later that summer, just his second event back, because of the shoulders. The injury plagued him into this season, too. He pulled out after one round at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

His search for a solution led him to his old assistant college coach at Arkansas, Layne Savoie. The two met up before the AT&T Byron Nelson, fresh off four missed cuts in a row. He went on to miss the cut in Texas, but he felt things finally going in the right direction.

He’s made his last two cuts, albeit the best of the two was a T57 at the Canadian Open. Still, it’s progress.

“It was a tough go. I've been fighting a lot of mental battles,” he said, “… just trying to overcome all that.”

The mental side has been the latest hurdle. The pain subsided as he “tucked (his) pelvis a little bit more at address” which took pressure off his shoulders. The emotional anguish of rebuilding a golf swing and struggling to implement it effectively became the next challenge.

“It's one of those deals like you literally can just see different shots come out and you're like, wow, what is that? Then it starts to just creep on you, it starts to wear on you mentally. Then you just start to lose trust in your game and start to lose trust in your golf swing,” he said.

It compounded even more because Landry felt he was putting well enough to be in contention. “If I could just hit 15 greens every single day, I’d win the tournament,” he thought. He had been far away from it though, ranking T180th in greens in regulation this season (60.54%). Add in that his tournament winner exemption from the 2020 American Express ends after this season and his mind became a cauldron of doubt and angst.

Even still, he always left space in his mind that a round like Friday was attainable. He just needed to see it. That would give him the confidence required to contend. He made nine birdies, no bogeys and hit 16 greens. He focused on “coming over the top” off the ball, which is a “crazy feeling” but is keeping his clubface square through impact and eliminating high blocks out to the right.

And, like he thought it would, the putter cooperated. Through the morning wave, he ranked inside the top-5 Strokes Gained: Putting for the week and drained birdies of 31, 22 and 19 feet in his second round.

“I've been saying for a long time, if I could just get the ball on the green and let my putter go to work, it will be there, and that was a perfect example of a day like that,” he said.