Tommy Gainey’s promising week at RBC Heritage dealt cruel blow

Tommy Gainey emerged Friday from the physio trailer near the Sea Pines Racquet Club, gingerly made his way down the steps and across the parking lot to a waiting car.

Drew Hinesley, Bryson DeChambeau’s caddie, caught his eye and frowned as the Bishopville native explained what happened: His back locked up.

“I’m feeling like an 80-year-old man here,” Gainey said.

“You’re looking like it right now,” Hinesley said sympathetically.

Golf can be such a cruel game.

This isn’t the saga of Jordan Spieth, shellshocked after two bad swings last Sunday took him from the Masters lead to putting the green jacket around Danny Willett’s shoulders.

In a sense, Gainey’s fate was a tougher punch to absorb.

One minute the 40-year-old favorite son is two shots off the lead at the RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing, a personally meaningful tournament on multiple fronts. The next he’s hardly able to bend over to even place a coin behind his ball on the green.

And 40 minutes later, his name falls all the way to the bottom of the leaderboard, followed by the letters WD.

“I’m devastated right now,” Gainey said after easing into the passenger seat of his vehicle. “I was playing...”

Pause. Deep cleansing breath.

“I was playing so good, then to have an injury like this,” he continued. “This is a huge setback for me, because this week meant so much in so many different ways. A top-10, possibly a win, that goes a long way for me.”

It’s been 3 1/2 years now since “Two Gloves” scored his lone PGA Tour win, flirting with a Sunday 59 on a dream November afternoon at Sea Island. It was the crowning achievement for the former factory worker who once made $9 an hour wrapping insulation around hot water tanks between days honing his game.

“Two Gloves” traces back to his baseball-playing youth, when he wore batting gloves on both hands and transferred that to drivers and wedges.

But it’s also been almost two years since Gainey has held full PGA Tour status, now trying to regain his form on the Web.com Tour. He made only nine PGA Tour starts last season, never finishing in the top 30, and the RBC Heritage was just his fourth this season.

He was the final man into the field at Harbour Town, accepting the final sponsor exemption handed out at the entry deadline. He’d just missed the cut at a Web.com Tour event in Cartagena, Colombia, when his wife phoned him with the news.

“If I had to pick one tournament on the schedule to play in, it would be this one,” he said. “In my home state, with all the crowds, and on this golf course.”

Gainey was third at Harbour Town in 2011, one shot out of the playoff that saw Brandt Snedeker outlast Luke Donald on the third extra hole. And magic seemed possible again this week, keyed by a new putter in his bag and fueled by the energy from the home-state crowd.

“It started the first day when they saw me walk out on the putting green and on the range,” he said. “I could hear it. ‘Go Tommy!’ ‘Go Two Gloves!’ Even ’Go Cocks!’ I’ve heard it all week, and it’s been awesome.”

It wasn’t exactly a smooth start, with two bogeys in Gainey’s first five holes. But he birdied five of his last 12 holes Thursday and three of his first eight on Friday, reaching 4-under when his 6-footer at No.8 found the bottom of the cup.

That left him two shots behind world No.1 Jason Day and Kevin Chappell, who were already off the course.

“We had it going there,” caddie Scott Feaster said.

And then calamity. Hitting his second shot at No.10, Gainey’s iron caught the ground a tad heavy. Stepping out of his follow-through, the left side of his back locked up.

“I’ve had back spasms before,” he said, “but not this bad.”

Considering what this week means to him, Gainey tried to play through it. But a weak drive at No.11 shot well left into a pond. He bunted back to the fairway, found a greenside bunker and wound up with a quadruple bogey.

It was about that time that a physical therapist arrived on site, and Gainey’s day was done. He spent more than an hour in the physio trailer, with plans to stay and get worked on again in the morning before the long drive home.

“This was the week,” Gainey said, a hint of resignation in his voice. “The way I was playing, the way I was scoring, the way I felt about the week at the start – I felt like it could be special.”

Another pause. “I guess it was just in God’s plan for me not to finish,” he concluded. “I’m not going against Him.”

This story was originally published April 15, 2016 at 7:30 PM with the headline "Tommy Gainey’s promising week at RBC Heritage dealt cruel blow."