Piercen Hunt took fine-tuning his golf game to a new level this past off-season, getting as granular as possible.
Hunt spent two and a half months at Golf Canada's house outside Phoenix, Ariz., working on his game through December and January. The 24-year-old Calgary native even bought himself a launch monitor so he could dial in his distances on the PGA Tour Americas, where the elevation of different courses week to week drastically changes how far the ball travels.
"You go from soft to firm golf courses quite a bit. It's really important to know exactly where you're at with distance control and how spin affects everything when you change elevation," Hunt said. "It's ridiculous to see an eight iron fly 200 yards some weeks, and then the next week you go to sea level, and it's only 165 yards.
"So for me, I think that's been a tool that I've been able to use really effectively in the off-season to just sharpen up a little bit here with the season coming up."
Hunt also spent much of his winter working on his putting, consulting with several coaches to see if there was commonality in their assessment of his issues on the green.
"I just wanted to gather some information, see how it worked, really try it out myself," he said. "Maybe some people would dive all into a singular first idea that they come across, but I am a bit more into data collection and sorting through it.
"I was very pleased this off-season with my putting, I just found out a few things about myself and how I read greens, my stroke, my tendencies, from the different people that I worked with and I really enjoyed setting about improving those and becoming a better green reader."
Hunt's hard work paid off on Friday when he earned conditional status on the third-tier Americas Tour with a tie for 14th at a qualifying event in Dothan, Alabama, at RTJ Highland Oaks.
"I think I'll be on the outside looking in for the first couple events in South America, but my intention is still to go there, and if needed playing the Monday qualifiers," said Hunt, referring to the first swing of the Americas Tour that begins April 16 at the 71st ECP Brazil Open in Rio de Janeiro. "These early season events are so important for conditional status guys like myself, heading into this year, where the earlier you can get into events and earn points, the better.
"Then you can reshuffle up once the reshuffles do happen."
DP WORLD TOUR — Aaron Cockerill of Stony Mountain, Man., is the lone Canadian in the field at the Hero Indian Open. He's 124th in the European-based tour's points list heading into play at DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon, India.
KORN FERRY TOUR — Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., is the top-ranked Canadian heading into the Club Car Championship at The Landings Golf & Athletic Club this week, with seven of his countrymen joining him in the field. Sloan is ninth on the second-tier tour's points list heading into play at the event in Savannah, Ga. No. 11 Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., Vancouver's Stuart Macdonald (41st), Matthew Anderson (51st) of Mississauga, Ont., Myles Creighton (61st) of Digby, N.S., Edmonton's Wil Bateman (96th), Drew Nesbitt (T114th) of Hockley Valley, Ont., and Ben Silverman (134th) of Thornhill, Ont., are also teeing it up.
CHAMPIONS TOUR — Calgary's Stephen Ames and Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., will be in the field when the Hoag Classic begins on Friday. Ames is 20th on the senior circuit's points list heading into play at the Newport Beach Country Club in Newport Beach, Calif., and Weir is 55th.
LPGA TOUR — Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., is the top-ranked Canadian playing in this week's Ford Championship. Henderson, ranked 18th in the Race to CME Globe standings, will be joined by Vancouver's Leah John and Maude-Aimee Leblanc of Sherbrooke, Que. John is 127th in the standings and Leblanc is unranked.
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