Las Vegas, Nevada (September 12, 2010 UPDATE 9/13)–At the time, several years ago, the wrist injury that Las Vegas golfer Ryan Moore suffered probably didn't seem like something that would have such a long and lingering impact. But now that Moore, a 4-time All-American at UNLV, is a PGA Tour champion and has a chance to win the BMW Championship today in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, he can clearly look back with perspective and see how tough getting over it was. Moore has been around the lead for most of this tournament, and is looking to join fellow UNLV Rebel Charley Hoffman as a winner during the 2010 FedEx Cup Playoffs. Hoffman won the Deutsche Bank Championship last week. Moore finished in a tie for 3rd while Dustin Johnson won. —By Brian Hurlburt.
Moore, who stood at 8-under par and was the leader entering the final round, looked back at this path today during his post-round press conference following his third round. " I mean, looking at it now, it's taken — it took at least three years to feel somewhat normal standing over the golf ball again," said Moore. "And I would say I'm very sensitive as far as the touch and feel and whatnot, so I think it took me maybe a little bit longer than it might take most people. But it's hard when it's the connection to the golf club. It was my left hand, and I have a very strong grip with my left hand. I have a very left-hand, left-side-dominant golf swing. It was really hard when you're standing over every golf shot. I think Anthony (Kim) is kind of struggling with the same thing. When it's your connection to the golf club and from the second you put your hand on the club it doesn't feel right, it's really hard to stand over it and pull the trigger and hit a shot confidently. It takes longer than you think it's going to, that's for sure." Moore had wrist surgery in 2006 to fix a broken hamate bone.
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Troy Denton, a former UNLV teammate of Moore's, deserves some of the credit for helping get Moore back healthy. Last year, Denton and Moore started working together on the swing and some ancillary drills, and Denton suggested to Ryan that he should start practice chipping with only his left hand. The drill helped strengthen his wrist, and led to Moore earning his first PGA Tour victory at the 2009 Wyndham Championship. That win helped validate his PGA Tour career, one that started with great hoopla after Moore won nearly every major amateur tournament during the summer of 2004. Moore says he has had a good feeling back for the last year or so, but he still is works on the process everyday.
"The last year and a half, maybe two years, I've started feeling a lot closer," said Moore. "But then it's getting back the confidence side of it, too, because you've hit a lot of really bad golf shots for a long time, and you're standing over every golf shot, and you know what you're capable of, and you hit a shot, and you look up, and you think, I have no idea how it even went there. So it's getting all that stuff back out of your system and starting to see better golf shots more often, so on and so forth. It's not easy."