At the 14th hole following his tee shot, Kevin Tway called out to Cullen Carstens, a friend who walked by him alongside the rope.
“You want to play?” Tway asked jokingly.
Carstens responded, “You have an opening?”
The company would have suited Tway well Saturday. As the last-place golfer out of 63 participants, he played TPC Southwind solo during the third round of the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.
Tway’s 13-over score after two rounds usually would have meant he missed the cut and wouldn’t have been playing Saturday. But because the WGC field is so small, there is no cut.
So when the third round switched from threesomes to twosomes, Tway, who is ranked 99th in the world, was the odd man out. So at 7:45 a.m., he was the first golfer on the course with close to 30 fans watching at the first tee.
Soon his following dwindled to a faithful few.
The silence was jarring, save for birds buzzing overhead and random fans saying, “Go Cowboys,” a nod to Tway being an Oklahoma State alum.
He said it was the first time since he turned pro in 2011 that he played a competitive round alone, so he treated it like a practice round.
“I was trying some (stuff) I wouldn’t try in a normal round,” Tway said. “Just trying to work on my swing and stuff.”
On the 12th hole, where he had a quintuple bogey 9 on Thursday, Tway’s second shot from the fairway bunker sailed over the green and bounced on the walkway near volunteers.
He took a drop and made a bogey. After picking his ball up, he tossed in it the water.
Tway shot a 74 with five bogeys but he found brief joy on the ninth hole. His second shot went over the water and landed three feet from the pin. He made the putt for a birdie.
The shouts of “nice shot!” and “Good job, Kevin” added much-needed chatter to the sound of Tway’s clubs and muted golf claps that dominated his day.
Watching it unfold was Ron Mears and his son Cooper, two of the few who walked throughout most of Tway’s round. Mears chose to wake up early to watch a fellow OSU alum but also teach his son how a professional handles adversity.
“It’s a life lesson you can learn on a golf course,” Mears said. “He can’t give up and he has to play 18 holes.”
The only others who followed Tway each hole were his father, Bob, and girlfriend, Andi. Bob Tway is no stranger to Memphis, having played the FedEx St. Jude Classic often during his pro career.
Bob Tway, the 1986 PGA Player of the Year, said he played a few rounds alone before but didn’t speak to his son about how to approach the weekend.
“There’s really no advice. You have to just go play,” Bob Tway said.
So on Kevin Tway walked. He heard more cheers as he approached the 17th green and at No. 18, he heard more claps from fans.
At 10:53 a.m., Tway sank his par putt on No. 18 to complete his round. Three hours and eight minutes after starting, he survived his solo walk, but at 17-over, he’s still in last place, and he’ll do it again Sunday.
“It’s a little bit of a death march,” Tway said. “I’m just trying to learn a few things that’ll maybe help me down the road.”
