Ryan Moore coming off breakthrough season

Ryan Moore would have had a heck of a time getting a holiday letter onto one page.

It was a year that began with the PGA Tour player from Puyallup getting more attention for how he looked than how he played, and ended with Moore as a Tour winner for the first time — and one of the hottest players in the world.

How he got there was anything but typical, but the 27-year-old Moore is not the typical player.

His swing isn't conventional, nor is the big beard he often sports. His attire is often unique, as was his decision to become the first Tour player in years to shed himself of nearly all sponsors.

And that is where this success story begins.

On his own

When Moore's contract with Ping ended after the 2008 season, his decision to go sponsorless, save for his glove and ball, drew quite a roar in the golfing world. After all, it was a decision that likely cost Moore hundreds of thousands of dollars, at least in the short term.

A Tour golfer not adorned with logos is like a stock car without ads. But for Moore, who enjoys being different, it wasn't about setting himself apart. It was purely a golf decision.

"Absolutely, I am happy (I did that)," said Moore, who signed a deal with Scratch Golf this fall that makes him a part-owner of the relatively small company. "I wouldn't have been able to play some of the equipment that I ended up playing for the most part this year (a mishmash of clubs from several manufacturers). Everything in my bag was there because I wanted it there. It wasn't a requirement that I had to have it in my bag because of some contract."

And Moore didn't have to justify himself to a billion-dollar marketing firm. He is managed by his father, Mike, who owns the Classic Golf Club in Spanaway, and his older brother, Jeremy.

His younger brother, Jason, has caddied for Ryan. Jason gets some of the credit for the tie, vest and painter's cap Ryan wore at the FBR Open early last year, an outfit that CBS broadcaster Gary McCord said made Ryan Moore look like a cross between Ellen DeGeneres and Justin Timberlake.

"(Jason) might have helped me out with that one," said Moore, who paid for everything he wore. "He has a little more say with that stuff. There might be a little different look next year. It's hard to say."

The breakthrough

When Moore turned pro in the summer of 2005, expectations were sky high — and for good reason. During his junior year at UNLV, he won the U.S. Amateur, U.S. Public Links, NCAA Championship, Western Amateur and Sahalee Players Championship. In the spring of 2005, he was 13th at the Masters at 1 under par (the lowest score by an amateur in 27 years) and was named college player of the year.

Buoyed by a second-place finish in the Canadian Open, he made enough money in 2005 to become the first player since Tiger Woods in 1996 to go from college to the PGA Tour in the same season without going to qualifying school.

But 2006 was hampered by surgery on his left hand, and the pain he felt before and after affected his swing. While he easily retained his PGA Tour card from 2006 to 2008, with one second-place finish each year, it wasn't quite what he or the golf world had expected.

By this past June, Moore was gaining attention for his play, finishing in a tie for 10th in the U.S. Open, then in mid-August he won the Wyndham Championship in a playoff, with a sigh of relief that was audible after so many close calls.

"Yeah, it was a big sigh," he said. "None of it was conscious. It's kind of how I feel at the end of every golf tournament. I just happened to make five birdies on the backside and the other guy (Kevin Stadler) crumbled a bit (with a bogey on the final hole of regulation)," Moore said. "I got into a playoff, and that's how golf works sometimes."

The typical thing would have been for Moore to bask in the victory. Instead, his thoughts were on what was wrong with his game.

"The funny thing is, winning showed me how far off I was from where I wanted to be, rather than making me more confident," he said. "I wanted things more consistent. I wanted to feel comfortable and confident standing over the golf ball again. I didn't want to feel like I was trying to make little adjustments on the fly all the time, which is what I was doing. It was temporary fixes to feel good for a round or for a week.

"So I started really looking at where I wanted to be by January 1st, and what needed to change to get me there."

The confidence returns

Ryan Moore decided he needed some help. His father, Mike, was the only swing coach he'd ever had, "but he can't be out there all the time, and I wanted someone who was ready to devote his time and energy and be there anytime I need him."

So Moore called his best friend, Troy Denton, a teammate of Moore's at UNLV. And the two went to work in September.

"He understands the golf swing very well," Moore said. "He's someone who has a very good eye for it, and I've played with him so much so he knows my swing very well. My swing is different, and if I went to a lot of swing coaches, they'd probably want to change 100 things in it."

The two worked on Moore's setup, balance and body motion. And one simple drill that Denton gave Moore worked wonders.

"He had me chip, one-handed, left-handed, and all of a sudden that started making everything else make sense," Moore said. "My full swing started to make sense, too. It took two or three weeks of doing that, just left-handed, just getting that power, that strength and that control back in my left hand to where it used to be (before the injury forced surgery in 2006). I've been able to work it out, get my balance right and it all started to make sense to me. And it's a drill I hadn't even thought about."

After the FedEx playoffs, Moore decided to play a few of the Fall Series events just to test what he was working on, and to use his irons from Scratch Golf, which he had just signed on with (becoming the company's first PGA Tour player under contract).

"It wasn't about trying to do something that got me to feel good for those weeks," Moore said. "The goal was to be playing well by January 1st. The fall events were not the priority."

Success came despite that, as he recorded a tie for seventh and a tie for eighth, and was then third in his final event of the year, a World Golf Championship tournament last month in China. He was in position to win each of those three tournaments entering the final round.

"I didn't win them, but I was right there," said Moore, who has moved up to 51st in the world and was 47th on the PGA Tour money list with more than $2.2 million. "It's great knowing that if you play a great round on Sunday, you really have a good chance to win."

Looking forward

Armed with restored confidence, Moore couldn't have been more content while talking about his game at the Classic, the course where he honed his skills. Posters from his victory and other memorabilia attest to the fact that this is his home course.

Moore, who plans to split time between residences in Tacoma and Scottsdale, Ariz., begins the PGA Tour season in two weeks at the SBS Championship in Maui, Hawaii. It is the first time he will have played in the event, which is for winners from the previous year. It will be first of 22 PGA Tour events he plans to play.

"I am not going to play five or six in row, and hope that maybe I can play good in just one or two of these," he said. "I'm spacing out my schedule more, giving myself some two-week breaks, where I can take a week off, then begin practicing the second week to get ready for the next tournament. I played a lot last year (27 PGA Tour events), and it was so much."

Moore said he doesn't like to set numbers goals, finding them too restrictive.

"What happens if my goal is to win twice, and I win my first two events?" he said. "Well, OK, there is my goal. Who knows what might happen?"

His goals are to be comfortable, confident and prepared.

"I just want to be ready to play every tournament," he said. "I want to make sure that every tournament I am going to, I am excited to go play. And I want to be in contention. Winning golf tournaments is obviously something I love to do, but that's just a product of being in contention and giving yourself opportunities."

Scott Hanson: 206-464-2943 or shanson@seattletimes.com