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 When this week's PGA Tour event began, if I were to tell you that John Merrick, Kevin Kisner and Kris Blanks would have a share of the lead, you would most likely have said, "Who, who and who?"
For the 357th, 304th and 301st ranked players in the word respectively, being in contention in a PGA Tour event comes nothing short of hard work, preparation and perseverance. Yes, the life of a professional golfer can be one that many of us only dream about. But there is also the time away from home, friends and, most importantly, family that no one ever considers. Kris Blanks is no stranger to being away from his family to play on the PGA Tour. This week will be his ninth straight week teeing up on the road on the tour. Away from his family and friends. “I told my wife it was going to be a tough stretch,” Kris said. “Best case scenario I played early, had a couple of good finishes and could have taken a couple weeks off. Worst case, I missed a few cuts and home on the weekends. “It has been a grind. I didn’t do the Monday qualifier for the [U.S.] Open basically for that reason. After playing the Memorial and being pretty down on myself, I decided I would forego that.” From personal experience following Kris this year on the PGA Tour, mostly through twitter (@krisblanks), I found that Kris is just one of the many grinders out on tour. As many players not named Mickelson, Donald or McIlroy can attest to, they don't get flown around in private jets to this tournament or that tournament of their choosing. They are going from event to event. Town to town honing their craft into a better state. Blank's first-round 66 at the Fed Ex. St. Jude Classic was his best opening-round score since the Bob Hope Classic where he opened with another 66. Kris finished in a tie for 42nd in that event. His best finishes on tour in 2011 were a tie for 26th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and top-10 finish at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. What would a victory mean for Blanks here at the Fed Ex. St. Jude Classic? Well, for starters, it would vault him up from 141st to around 31st in the FedEx Cup standings. As well as earn him a cool $1,008,000 for the win. But for the man from Warner Robins, GA, this is just another round under his belt to take his golf game to the next level. “I’ve been trending towards starting to play good again, which is why I’ve been playing a lot of weeks in a row trying to get some rounds under my belt,” Blanks said. “Today just kind of all came together and hopefully get three more days.”
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