Clark’s record 58 boosts confidence

By Marty Kirkland
martykirkland@daltoncitizen.com

May 15, 2008 10:17 pm

— For most golfers, securing a course record — any course record — would be reaching the peak.
But when Michael Clark II shot a 14-under-par 58 last Saturday at Dalton Golf and Country Club, surpassing David Noll Jr.’s previous course-best 61, securing the record was secondary.
More important to the professional golfer, who grew up in Dalton and estimated he’s played at the local country club “thousands” of times, was the fact that after watching his career slide in recent years, a round like Saturday’s might be a sign that he’s finally ready to climb once more.
“As a kid growing up, one of the goals I wanted was to win a (PGA Tour) event and I did that,” said Clark, whose victory at the John Deere Classic was the high point of his 2000 Rookie of the Year season on the PGA Tour, which also included tying for 15th at the PGA Championship. “And as I’ve gotten older and have been playing a lot, I’ve wanted to break 60. Now I’ve done that.
“Hopefully, I’m starting to play well again.”
There’s no question he played well Saturday.
In preparation for his attempt to qualify for the AT&T Classic, this week’s PGA Tour event being played at Atlanta’s TPC Sugarloaf, Clark got in on a dogfight event at DGCC, playing in a foursome with Pete Ware, Joe Markham and Howell Kerr.
Clark’s round started with four straight birdies and he made 10 more from No. 8 to 17. The rest of the foursome — combined — had six birdies. How’s that for perspective?
He carded par on every other hole, including the 18th, where the extra stroke cost him what became his goal along the way.
“When I birdied 15, I knew I had a shot at 57,” Clark said. “Then I hit it really close on 16 and made it, but to be honest, I didn’t really give much thought on how many birdies were behind me, I just focused on how many were ahead.”
A “bad putt” from 10 to 12 feet on No. 18 cost him the 57, but that was a minor disappointment with his sub-60 round finally in hand. His previous best was the 62 he shot in the second round of the 2004 FedEx St. Jude Classic.
“I had opportunities all day long to birdie every hole,” Clark said. “The holes that are more difficult out at the club, I happened to hit a couple 5-irons or rescue clubs, which are like a 2-iron, really close. There wasn’t anything I did that was really lucky. I was just real solid, hitting it close, and I made three putts outside of 10 feet. Other than that, I hit it close all day.”
Saturday marked one of the best moments on the course for Clark, but those have been hard to come by in recent years for the former Dalton High and Georgia Tech golfer, who last made the cut at a PGA Tour event in 2006 at the B.C. Open.
After his victory at the John Deere — which gave him lifetime membership on the PGA Tour — he missed that tourney’s cut the next six straight years. He missed the cut at his only PGA event last year, the Mayakoba Classic in Cancun, Mexico, and since 2005, he has spent more time on the minor league Nationwide Tour than the PGA.
He even briefly retired last year, though that had less to do with frustration about his results than what he believes was one of their root causes — the painful headaches and dizzy spells that had plagued him since the late 1990s, but were not properly diagnosed until this past winter.
A physical with a new doctor finally linked the condition with high blood pressure and a prescription for beta blockers has all but eradicated the headaches. He once averaged between 13 and 19 per month, but has had only four since he began taking the medication — for which he had to receive special permission from the PGA and Nationwide Tours, as a result of the rigorous drug testing programs they’ll begin later this year — on Feb. 18.
“I had always managed it by taking four Advil and drinking a cup of coffee,” Clark said. “That’s how I lived for about 13 to 15 years.”
He managed to have his greatest golf success during that period, but the condition caught up with the 39-year-old Clark over time.
“Last August, I went to hit a putt and when I went into my stroke, I got so dizzy it felt like I was pushed backwards,” he said. “I decided I would start teaching full time and trying to establish my academy.”
Clark has put other irons in the bag over the years, developing a Web site that touts an upcoming DVD of learn-at-home lessons and the Better by Design golf mats he field-tested. And he has a few clients for in-person lessons as well.
But “lessons were spotty” last fall, said Clark, who found a traditional job hunt difficult as well and decided to come out of retirement in December.
His play in recent years makes getting into PGA Tour events difficult. His age and nationality make most exemptions hard to come by, he said, and it generally takes “mass withdrawals” to open a place for Clark. It took a personal connection to secure a sponsor’s exemption at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open last month, where he shot rounds of 75 and par 71 before missing the cut.
His attempt to qualify for the AT&T Classic earlier this week was unsuccessful as a double bogey on the final hole put him at 69, but Clark found a spot at the Nationwide’s BMW Charity Pro-Am. He shot a 73 on Thursday and was tied with 14 others for 122nd in the 165-player field.
Happy to be healthy again and with a round like Saturday under his belt, Clark spoke honestly but confidently about where his golf career stands on Wednesday afternoon, not long after a practice round for the BMW. He knows that consistency — the good kind — is what it will take to get back to regular PGA Tour appearances.
“If I shoot four rounds in the mid-60s, I don’t have to explain anything,” Clark said. “I just go play.”

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