Former Ellington Golf Standout Returning For Connecticut Open

ELLINGTON, CT — An Ellington High School graduate whose golf career has been beset with numerous injuries over the past few years is returning to Connecticut in three weeks to compete in an event he has won twice, the Connecticut Open.

Jeff Curl, who led the Knights to the 1997 CIAC Div. III championship before playing at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and then turning professional, will be among nearly 150 players competing for the $14,000 winners' check out of a total purse of $60,000. The tournament is slated for July 26-28 at the Country Club of Darien.

Curl, 42, is a son of Rod Curl, a PGA Tour veteran who became the first full-blooded Native American to earn a Tour victory when he captured the Colonial National Invitational by one stroke over Jack Nicklaus in 1974. The younger Curl became involved with the game at an early age, and flourished upon moving to Ellington with his mom.

In 1994, he won the Connecticut Jr. PGA Championship. Three years later, after the Knights won the team title and Curl had earned co-medalist honors with a 72, he was off to Bretwood Golf Course in Keene, N.H., where he parred the first hole of a sudden death playoff to win the New England High School Championships. After college, he turned professional in 2001, and experienced some success on various mini-tours.

His first professional victory came at the 2004 Emerald Lakes Classic on the Tarheel Tour, holing a 70-foot eagle putt on the final hole to win by five strokes. In 2007, he won the Connecticut Open at Lake of Isles in North Stonington, but the injury bug began affecting Curl's play, as he suffered from problems with both shoulders which required surgery, as well as a torn ankle ligament and a cracked vertebrae in his back.

"I'm known as the Bubble Boy," he quipped at a news conference Thursday.

He recovered sufficiently to qualify for the 2012 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, where he made the cut and finished tied for 56th place, earning $21,995. Notables who either finished behind Curl or missed the cut entirely include Jason Day, Phil Mickelson, Keegan Bradley, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Rory McIlroy, Vijay Singh and Brooks Koepka.

A week after the U.S. Open, a meniscus tear sent Curl back to the sidelines. He recovered in time to play in the 2013 Connecticut Open at Torrington Country Club, where he drained a 35-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a 4-man playoff to capture his second state title.

The following year, he experienced what he called his greatest thrill in golf, when he was invited to Fort Worth, Texas to play in the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. Organizers of that Tour stop brought Curl in to help commemorate the 40th anniversary of his dad's historic victory. The younger Curl made the cut, finishing tied for 63rd.

As he prepares to compete in Darien in three weeks, the current resident of Alabama had some words of advice for young players, based on his experience.

"Make sure you take time off," he said. "I'm 42 but I still feel 20, but now it takes me an hour and a half to get ready."

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