After wife's scare, a big change of Hart

PGA Tour veteran has game in perspective

Despite a 3-over 73 in the first round of the Tour Championship, Dudley Hart feels blessed just to be playing again. (Scott halleran/Getty Images)

ATLANTA - Given the challenges that can come your way, having your golf ball sitting down in Bermuda rough with a sidehill lie and some 200 yards needed to carry a water hazard hardly ranks as stress.

That's golf.

Getting word that your wife has been diagnosed with a non-smoking tumor on her lung?

That's life.

Nothing could have prepared Dudley Hart for such news, but there was no mystery as to what he needed to do. Suzanne would get proper medical attention, while Rachel, Abigail, and Ryan - their 5-year-old triplets - would get their father back on a full-time basis. Hart left the Wachovia Championship in Charlotte, N.C., in May 2007, called an end to his golf season, and returned home. Nothing about golf mattered - not the birdies or bogeys, the missed cuts or practice sessions, the money lists or world rankings.

"My priorities were elsewhere, obviously," said Hart, who played occasional casual rounds with friends a year ago, just to "get ready."

And now, as he stood beneath a blue sky with warmth pouring forth yesterday, just where is Hart?

He smiled and said, "A long way from a year ago."

Which would be East Lake Golf Club, where Hart took part in the opening round of the $7 million Tour Championship. One of just 30 players to qualify, Hart's inclusion in the smallest of all PGA Tour fields is the culmination of the most successful of his 18 years out here - money-wise, that is. He may point to 1996 and 2000 as better seasons, because he won tournaments, and while he appreciates the $2,029,163 he has piled up in 2008, the competitor in him still embraces those wins.

What provides an even warmer feeling is knowing that things have gone well for Suzanne following her surgery. "Everything," he said, "looks great. We're real happy."

A solid player but never a star, Hart has had issues with back pain, but save for two years (1994 and 1995), the former University of Florida standout has maintained his position inside the top 125 on the money list. For obvious reasons, he didn't in 2007, but his family situation afforded him a major medical exemption for 2008. He had made just more than $200,000 when he left the Tour in May last year, which meant in 2008 he'd be given 15 tournaments to earn $485,931 and get to where No. 125 on the money list was.

Helped by a share of third at Pebble Beach and a tie for seventh at the Byron Nelson, it took Hart just eight events to pile up $575,482, so his card was set. Credit that security or point to a perspective that was the byproduct of the family's medical situation, but Hart at age 40 has put together his richest campaign. One year after withdrawing from Wachovia, Hart finished tied for fifth at Quail Hollow, then notched a top 10 at the Buick Open. When he finished T-12 at the Barclays and second at the BMW Championships - the first and third tournaments in the playoffs - Hart's earnings had broken $2 million for the first time in his career, he moved to 14th in the FedEx Cups standings to nail down a spot in the Masters, and he got to tee it up in his first Tour Championship.

All of which brought him to that predicament at the ninth hole, his drive hung out to the right at the dogleg left, downhill par 5. It hit a bank, but came down only halfway. He could have hit a wedge to get it back into play - as Kenny Perry did from the left rough - but Hart played it aggressively, trying to rip a long layup shot over a large pond and into short-iron range.

But the ball hit hard into the bank on the far side of the water and caromed in. No, he didn't fume like a younger Dudley Hart might have, but neither did he whistle his way down the fairway, thinking it was no big deal.

"I'm not happy to play bad. That's not enjoyable," he said. "I still have that competitive spirit and that fire in me."

He paused, then smiled again, because while he had been 2 under through four holes, only to finish at 3-over 73, Hart feels blessed to be where he is.

"I don't think [the anger] lasts quite as long after a bad shot or a bad round," he said. "Every day, I think about what could have happened and how the scenario could be a little bit different."

On a day when Anthony Kim carried over the dazzle of last Sunday's Ryder Cup performance, making eight birdies in a scintillating 64 to open a four-stroke lead over Ernie Els, Trevor Immelman, and Phil Mickelson, Hart was able to salvage bogey at the ninth, then avoid an even higher score by making a brilliant up-and-down after going long and left at the 235-yard, par-3 18th.

Tied for 17th, Hart couldn't match Kim's sizzle, though he did come home with the same score as Vijay Singh, whose four days here will culminate with a $10 million bonus for winning the FedEx Cup, even if he fails to break 100 in his next three rounds. Yes, the big Fijian has built that comfortable a position to take all the drama out of this Tour Championship.

That's all right, because Hart has more than replaced it with a good dose of human spirit. Enveloped by a perspective that tested his and his family's resolve, Hart at any time during his 18-hole walk could look over and draw strength from a young man named D.J. Gregory. Born with cerebral palsy, Gregory - a native of Savannah, Ga., who received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Springfield College - picks out a different player every PGA Tour week and goes the distance with him, all 72 holes. If all goes well, his travels will make for a terrific book some day, but first things first. Week 38 is here and Hart is Gregory's man this week.

Correction. Gregory is Hart's man this week.

"That's inspirational," said Hart. "How he gets around walking 18 holes and what he does. It's impressive."

So with thoughts of Suzanne and views of Gregory, Hart signed for 73, took a deep breath, and shrugged.

"It's hard to complain," he said.

Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com.