'Birdie king' de Jonge aims for more discipline
Brendon de Jonge has been the undisputed 'Birdie King' on the PGA Tour for the last three years but that is a label the burly Zimbabwean would happily trade for a maiden victory on the US circuit.
More often than he would like, de Jonge's aggressive power game has cost him 'soft' bogeys and he readily accepts he needs to add a greater sense of discipline to his on-course strategy.
"Obviously it's nice to know that you can make a lot of birdies but in saying that I need to be a little bit more disciplined," de Jonge told Reuters ahead of this week's Phoenix Open. "I know that. I need to play a few more clean rounds.
"I remember talking to (fellow Zimbabwean) Nick Price about it and Nick said: 'You know what, once you start playing a few rounds where your birdies actually count, they're not cancelling out bogeys.'
"And that makes perfect sense. Often making a big par save keeps your momentum going more than a birdie does. It's taken me a little while to learn that but I am figuring it out."
Since the start of the 2009 season, no player on the PGA Tour has made more birdies than de Jonge who has totalled 1 225 in that time. Next best, 80 birdies adrift, are Americans Webb Simpson and Bo Van Pelt.
Tiger Woods, who typically plays fewer events each season than most other players on the PGA Tour, has totalled 529 birdies over that period.
"I've always been a guy who's made a fair few birdies," smiled de Jonge, who earned second-team All-Americahonours at Virginia Tech university. "I go at a lot of flags, and at times I'll make a lot of soft bogeys because of that."
Since he first competed on the PGA Tour in 2007, de Jonge has piled up earnings of $4 653 873 but the closest he has come to winning a tournament has been with three third-place finishes.
LET SLIP
Of those, the one he feels he really let slip was last year's Greenbrier Classic where he missed a putt from five feet on the 72nd hole that would have put him in a playoff eventually won by American Scott Stallings.
"I was just one putt away from getting into that playoff, but I played a really good round on Sunday and I didn't get much out of it," de Jonge said of a closing four-under-par 66.
"That was probably the most comfortable I've felt in that position as well, so that was the one that I let get away more than any other."
Asked what he needed to clear that final hurdle and land a maiden PGA Tour victory, he replied: "A little bit of everything, and mainly a little bit of luck ...
"But in saying that, I have put myself in position a lot of times and haven't quite finished the job on Sundays. So just keep on learning on Sundays and hopefully one time I will feel really comfortable out there and play one good round."
De Jonge, who counts Price and fellow Virginia Tech alumnus Johnson Wagner among his main mentors in the game, has no doubt about the biggest lesson he has learned over the last year.
"Simply knowing that I am good enough to be out here," the 31-year-old said. "I think everybody comes out here with that question, barring a few players. You can tell yourself as many times as you want to: 'I'm good enough to be out here'.
"But until you prove it to yourself, there is always going to be a little bit of doubt.
"Now it's a matter of telling myself I can win out here and then proving that to myself as well," added de Jonge, who tied for 10th in his first PGA Tour event this season at the Sony Open in Hawaii. "So I am excited about this year."