At 43, Aaron Baddeley hopes to still soar as eagles do

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Sometimes you follow golf’s hard numbers, diving head first into all the data you can find. Other times, it can be far wiser just to listen to a little well-meaning advice from your wife.

Aaron Baddeley’s scoring numbers on par 5s last season were abysmal: He ranked 156th on the PGA TOUR on the holes where many of his peers do their damage. Sure, it caught his attention, but he didn’t quite know the reason for his struggles. Was he missing too many fairways on those holes? Was he taking on too much risk in going for the greens in two and playing the par 5s too aggressively?

Rachelle Baddeley isn’t a golfer, but she certainly is an interested witness to many of her husband’s rounds. She offered him her two cents on the matter, an observation from afar.

“It seems that when you ‘press it’ – going for the green on par 5s in two – it doesn’t work out that well,” she told him. “When you lay it up and use your wedges ... well, it just seems to work out better.”

At this point, Baddeley is telling a reporter this story and nodding his head in affirmation. Sage advice, indeed. He had just finished off a round of 4-under 67 at the Valspar Championship that was posted on the strength of how effectively he’d played the par-5 holes at Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course. Baddeley made two eagles and two birdies on them at Copperhead, playing those holes in 6-under.

It was the fourth time in his career that Baddeley, a four-time PGA TOUR winner, had made two eagles in a single round. But 6-under? Could the 43-year-old Baddeley remember a time he’d ever done that previously in his 21-year PGA TOUR career?

He didn’t have to think for long. “Um, probably never,” he said.

Baddeley’s early 67 put him in good shape through 18 holes at the Valspar Championship, one off Adam Svensson’s early lead and three-back of afternoon leader Kevin Streelman. His usually steady short game was there to bail him out when his sometimes erratic ball-striking reared its head. He missed eight greens on a day when the Copperhead was giving up some scores, and saved par on six of those holes.

Baddeley would have collected two beautiful crystal goblets had he made those eagles at Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters. At Valspar, he walked away with a heart filled with satisfaction. On the 600-yard fifth hole, he laid up to 69 yards – probably a little closer than he wanted, frankly – but lofted a soft wedge that pitched, rolled to the hole and vanished for eagle. He knew the shot was good the moment his ball left the club.

“It’s perfect,” he said to his caddie, watching the ball in flight. It was.

A double bogey at the par-4 seventh was a temporary setback – he drove it poorly, his tee shot finding trees just 207 yards off the tee and tumbling into the right rough – but got one shot back at the par-5 11th (18-foot birdie putt) and saved some late magic for the 579-yard 14th. He had about 270 yards to the front edge on his approach, and ripped a 3-wood that bounced up to 8 feet from the hole. The PGA TOUR’s leader in Strokes Gained: Putting – Baddeley always has been able to roll his rock – buried the eagle attempt. A bogey at 18 left him with 67.

“It feels like the game is sort of right about there,” said Baddeley, who rolled into Valspar coming off recent top-25 finishes at the Mexico Open at Vidanta and Puerto Rico Open.

“Just need a little something just to kick it over the edge. Hopefully, today’s round will be a nice little start for that.”

Baddeley started appearing in PGA TOUR events before the turn of the century after winning the first of his two Australian Open titles (1999 and 2000) as an amateur. So he has been at this a while, even if he still appears quite youthful, his long hair covering his shoulders.

Baddeley missed the cut at THE PLAYERS Championship last week, but stayed in Ponte Vedra Beach and celebrated his 43rd birthday with the family on Sunday. You know when the Baddeleys are in town. On weeks he misses cuts, he has no trouble straying busy. He and Rachelle have six children, ages 4-15. The two oldest are girls; the four youngest are all boys, and they love to play golf. So right about the time Scottie Scheffler and others were heading out for the final round at TPC Sawgrass, the Baddeleys first ventured to TopGolf, and then stopped off and enjoyed lunch at their favorite spot in town, TacoLu. From there, Baddeley drove to the airport and put the family on the plane to fly home, and soon he headed off toward the Valspar. Back to work.

He has been at this a long, long time, and with all those kids at home, you’d think by now he might have had enough of the road life, and more than enough of the grind. Fortunately, he still carries the fire not only to compete, but to play well. Having not won in nearly eight years, he longs to win again before he is done, and fully believes it’s possible.

“There is definitely a love for the game. There’s a love for wanting to do well,” Baddeley says in a quiet moment after his round. “I don’t feel like, ‘Oh, I have to go practice today.’ If anything, it’s the opposite. With my boys playing, we often practice together, or have putting competitions. I feel there’s a lot of pressure there – I mean, you can’t lose to your kids.”

Valspar marks Baddeley’s 510th career start (he has $23.6 million in career earnings) and his eighth start of 2024. He is asked about that young Australian teenage amateur who showed up to Bay Hill Club & Lodge all those years ago at the invitation of the tournament host, Arnold Palmer, who loved talented young ams in his field. Baddeley could putt the lights out, even then, and had a great future ahead of him. Just being out on TOUR in his early 40s is an accomplishment, given that there are impressive new power players showing up out of the college assembly line just about every week.

Has he accomplished what he set out to as a golfer?

“To be honest, no,” Baddeley says. “I feel like only winning four times (on the PGA TOUR) ... I would say no. Up to this point, I would say that I’ve underachieved.

“These next bunch of years will be key to really press on and try to achieve some of those goals that I’ve always wanted to achieve. That’s what I’m still working hard to do. I definitely still feel that I have the game to do that.”

There was lots of daylight left in his Thursday, and Baddeley holds onto hope that this day, this special, two-eagle day, can be the start of something good.