Stanley: "I'm still the same guy."
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Rich Lerner sums up Kyle Stanley's Sunday as "breezing across Torrey Pines in all his Camilo-ness, like a movie star – trim, fit and cool as if in an Esquire fashion shoot – and then in five agonizing minutes he’s a 15 handicap making triple. What a brutal game."
But as Steve Elling notes, Stanley showed up in the Waste Management Open media center Tuesday in a "soul-venting" session.
Instead, to his credit, Flat Stanley got up, dusted himself off and took his case to the media in person. Unlike with the watery wedge at the 18th, he's controlling the spin on this one.
Probably a great idea that will endear him to fans everywhere. Especially since most of us lowly civilian hacks have melted down under duress plenty of times ourselves.
"I'm still the same guy," Stanley said in his low-key, low-decibel voice. "Unfortunate circumstances there, but we'll get back in the saddle, and I think I'll be better for it."
Doug Ferguson talks to Robert Garrigus about his own on-course collapse and contrasts it with Stanley, who Ferguson reports is handling the tough loss with grace.
His family was with him Sunday night, along with a close friend and his agent. He managed to eat. The sun came up the next day. He just signed up for Twitter a few months ago and picked up about 4,000 followers in 24 hours, those who felt badly for him or were impressed how he handled himself in defeat.
He received text messages from Steve Stricker, who beat Stanley with a birdie-birdie finish at the John Deere Classic last summer, and from Gonzaga basketball coach Mark Few, whom he doesn’t even know personally.
“That’s why I thought that was so cool,” Stanley said. “I’ve been watching Gonzaga play basketball since I was 3 feet tall. I live and die with every game they play. I try not to miss any of them. So that was real special to hear from him.”
