golf
A WINNING
MENTALITY
PGA golfer Tyler Hall puts his faith in hard work and looking ahead
WRITTEN BY GREG MATTURA
22
BACK TO SCHOOL 2019 WAYNE MAGAZINE
FORE! Tyler Hall plays
his shot from the 11th
tee during the first
round of the 2019 PGA
Championship at the
Bethpage Black Course in
Farmingdale, New York.
T
yler Hall’s vision is focused sharply on
returning to the PGA Championship next
year, after he reached the pinnacle of
professional golf this year.
The North Jersey native wants to
re-join the world’s finest in May in San
Francisco, one year after posting identical scores to Tiger
Woods and missing the cut by just one shot in front of
dozens of family and friends on Long Island.
Hall continues to recover emotionally from a “really hard fall”
triggered by his finally fulfilling his dream of competing on golf’s
biggest stage – a major championship – and showing in May that
he belonged. He is battling back from a psychological slump.
“The beginning of the year was really rocking and rolling,
played really well, feeling pretty good about my game,” says Hall,
37. “And then after the PGA, there was a pretty hard letdown, a
pretty hard fall.”
Hall, a Wayne resident and director of instruction at nearby
Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, began to regain his
form in late July at the 99th New Jersey Open Championship.
He finished sixth at that State Open at Trump National Golf
Club in Bedminster, site of the 2022 PGA Championship. During
the three-day event conducted by the New Jersey State Golf
Association, he shot 1-under-par 212 and finished seven shots
behind collegian Chris Gotterup of Monmouth County.
“From a physical and mental standpoint, everything kind of
came crashing down,” Hall says, “and it felt pretty good to get
back into a good frame of mind at the State Open [July 22-24].”