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Indiana native Patrick Rogers’ whirlwind year on PGA Tour

(Provided Photo/Getty Images)

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — For the PGA Tour’s slender striker out of Avon, Indiana — 2020 meant business.

Patrick Rodgers opened the PGA’s latest season — everywhere. Rebounding from an injury-plagued 2019, Rodgers played 10 consecutive tournaments in just 10 weeks time before the tour halted play due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Where is Rodgers currently? In his garage. Pounding golf balls into a net. 

“So far, so good,” Rodgers joked on the makeshift home driving range. “I was so antsy to hit golf shots, I found some foam golf balls back in the storage space in my house…It has been a very different and surreal time for sure.”

Unlike some pros, Rodgers is completely refraining from any course action around his home in Jupiter, Florida.

“I think it is a little different in every community, but I personally don’t think it is the most responsible choice to get out on the golf course — even with social distancing.”

The major void this month are the roars from Augusta, Georgia. The Masters, golf’s first major of the season and always the most anticipated tournament of the calendar year, has been tentatively rescheduled for early November.

“As strange as that sounds to have a Masters not in April, I think it would be a beautiful time of the year in Augusta, Georgia,” Rodgers said. “It just takes me back to the fall time in Indiana, which was one of my favorite times to play golf. I would compete no matter when it (The Masters) was. I would play in the snow to try to win the Masters.”

The earliest live golf may return to your television is late May at The Colonial. Until then, Rodgers is giving himself a personal pump up speech. 

“I love being out there (PGA Tour), I can’t get enough of it. I am in year six of my professional career and I have as much passion and fire burning in me as I ever have.”

When the tee boxes re-open, keep an eye on the Indianapolis comeback kid. He is ready to win.