At 50, Justin Leonard Is Back On the Course and Trying to Dial Up the Old Intensity

The 1997 British Open champ and '99 Ryder Cup hero has held more microphones than golf clubs in recent years, but that's changing this week in St. Louis.

ST. LOUIS — No question about it, things have changed.

The last time Justin Leonard felt the need to be “golf intensive” was almost seven years ago. At the time he was many years removed from his British Open win, his spectacular Ryder Cup putt, the last of his 12 PGA Tour wins and a place among the elite players in the game.

But as 2015 began, Leonard was still more into playing golf than talking about it. Things flipped, times changed.

After moving his family to Aspen, Colorado, after making 13 PGA Tour starts without a top 10 during the 2015-16 season, after missing the FedEx Cup playoffs, Leonard tried a new grip. He quit holding a golf club and started clutching a microphone, becoming an analyst for Golf Channel.

The work is rewarding, the compensation reliable and he has no regrets. What he does have, however, is the itch, the sensation that grabs everyone who ever hit a green in regulation, drained a putt for birdie and cheated par. The fascination that never—entirely—goes away.

So, having turned 50 in June, Leonard is in St. Louis this week, hitting balls, rolling putts, checking yardages, getting sweaty. He is preparing to compete in the Champions Tour Ascension Charity Classic, poised to turn back the clock, getting golf intensive.

“I worked the three FedEx Cup playoff events (on TV),” Leonard said. “I got home for a couple days in between, right before the Tour Championship, and basically drove from the airport, dropped my suitcase off, kissed my wife and went to the golf course.

“And then the last 10 days or so, I was home working really hard but also trying to play, get out on the golf course. I think that was one of the things I wasn't able to do as much in my lead-in for my first event. So (I’m trying) to get on the golf course and hit different shots and those kind of things, and kind of get back into the mindset of what I need to do to get my game ready.”

Leonard’s “lead-in” was sticking his toe in the waters at the Senior Players Championship in early July. He tied for 61st in Akron, Ohio, then went back to his regularly scheduled programming and the PGA Tour’s season-ending playoffs. Now that he has crossed that bridge, and completed those television responsibilities, he is ready to embrace the game he put behind.

Justin Leonard finished 61st in July at the Senior Players Championship, a lead-in back to competition :: Phil Masturzo/USA Today

That said, no question, things have changed. To harness the tempo, to wear out the sweet spot, to dial in the distances—that’s one thing, and not an easy thing. To know when and where, and to have that on retainer … another thing altogether. The instincts that separate pretenders from contenders is a mojo one loses when one doesn’t often use it.

Leonard had the knack when he won the 1997 Open Championship at Royal Troon and delivered his memorable speech. He had the competitive karma when he drained a 45-foot putt on the 17th green at Brookline to cap the improbable USA Ryder Cup comeback.

He knows what it feels like—he just has to be reminded.

“You don't necessarily do that on the driving range,” he added. “So trying to … think more instead of just golf swing and technique, think more ‘OK, how am I going to score?’ That's something I didn't do very well the first couple days in Akron.”

“Then on Friday night I had a little ‘come-to-Jesus’ with myself. Talking with my wife and my kids there at the dinner table, I said, ‘You know, it's a game; it’s a game I've played all my life. Yeah, I haven't played it a lot recently but still, just go out and play.’

“And I did play better. It kind of has to happen in phases, certainly to compete at this level.”

Things have changed—again. Leonard, along with his wife Amanda, moved the home base to Jupiter, Florida, a location teeming with golf courses, talented peers and accommodating weather. He can now practice as much as he is able. And right now, as Ringo Starr might say, he has the “blisters on my fingers” to prove it.

At the same time, Leonard has no intention of giving up the TV gig. The challenge is to find a happy medium.

“It's a little bit of a juggling act,” Leonard said. “But I knew that going in and I enjoy both things. It's a great crew at NBC, but I've really enjoyed also getting back into playing and practicing and putting the work in myself on a golf course. It's something that I didn't really know I had missed until I jumped back in here in the last few months.”

The golf environment Leonard once knew is changing as well, undergoing a seismic shift. The Saudi-backed LIV is seducing PGA Tour players with lucrative guarantees, 54-hole events, no cuts and no conscience. Leonard was in shorts as he spoke on a practice day at Norwood Hills Country Club, attire that is not acceptable once the championship begins. Players can wear shorts to their hearts’ content in the LIV Golf world.

That said, the differences and divisiveness taking place in golf is off-putting to Leonard. He was only the fourth player to go straight from college (University of Texas) to the PGA Tour without competing in Q-School. LIV trailblazer Phil Mickelson is among the others.

There are relationships with players on both sides of the split, associations now torn by litigation and harsh words. “I hate to see what it’s doing in fracturing the game,” Leonard said. “I hate to see—as great as the PGA Tour is—that it has to defend itself in these lawsuits and everything.

“You know, I don’t fault players for going to make money. But then don’t turn around and try to sue your way back in. You make your decision—just go. I know I’m contradicting myself a little bit, but if you make the choice, you know the consequences, just go down the path.”

Leonard chose a different path a few years ago, In a sense, he’s trying to retrace his steps. But there are no guarantees. “I think the biggest challenge is, yes, trying to be good at two things at the same time,” he added.

One thing seems certain, litigation isn’t going to do it for him. He’s going to have to get “golf intensive.”