THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: With first PGA Tour event on the horizon, Bayley stays in the present

What Derek Bayley gets to do this coming week — play in a PGA Tour event for the first time — is something the rest of us can only dream of.

Something that might keep the rest of us up at night with excitement.

He might feel that way, too, in a few days. Or he might not.

Either way, the Rathdrum native views it as just another step along the journey as a professionial golfer.

And besides — first things first.

“I’m treating it just like another golf tournament,” Bayley said earlier this week, during a break in play in the tournament he’s currently playing in, the Colorado Open in Denver. “I’m more focused on the one I’m playing in right now, and even though it’s a bigger one next week, one thing we strive toward is trying to make it feel like normal, and the way to do that is, you focus on it when it’s your next tournament. So I’m really trying not to focus on it; I’m trying to keep my eyes on this week, and this day and this round, and the shot that I’m hitting right now, and when I get to it is when I’ll have to focus in.

“As far as nerves or anxiety, I definitely don’t have any yet,” he added. “I’m sure I’ll have some on the first tee on Thursday, but I’m really not thinking about it at all.”

THURSDAY IS the first round of the Barracuda Championship, an alternate PGA Tour event which runs through Sunday at Old Greenwood in Truckee, Calif. The tourney uses a modified stableford scoring format, which awards 2 points for a birdie, 0 for a par, 5 for an eagle, 8 for a double eagle, minus 1 point for a bogey and minus 3 points for a double bogey or worse.

The Barracuda is known as an “opposite-field” event, as it is held the same week as a World Golf Championship event, which draws a limited field of the sport’s elite. This week’s WGC event is the FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis.

All four rounds of the Barracuda will be televised on The Golf Channel.

BAYLEY, WHO played at Lakeland High and Washington State, qualified for the Barracuda by winning the Reno Open, a Golden State (now Golden Cup) Tour event, on June 27.

He returned home for a few days, then headed out to play three tournaments on the Dakotas Tour, posting a pair of top-10 finishes.

Then it was back home for the wedding last weekend of his sister Chelsea.

Sunday morning Bayley, 24, flew to Missouri to try to qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour event this week. The Korn Ferry Tour is considered just one step below the PGA Tour. On Monday, in Ozark, Mo., he shot a 5-under 66 and missed making a playoff to qualify for the Price Cutter Open by one shot.

“We kinda knew you had to go pretty low,” Bayley said. “I didn’t putt it quite well enough, 5-under’s a pretty good score anywhere else, but you have to do better than that when you play in those.”

BAYLEY SAID he’ll head to the Barracuda tonight, after today’s final round of the Colorado Open.

He said he’s reached out to a few folks to find out what to expect this coming week. One of those was Steve Prugh, his swing coach. Prugh’s son, Alex, has experience playing on the PGA Tour.

“I talked to my swing coach last week when I was back home, and kinda planned my week out from Monday to Wednesday,” Bayley said. “Get a little practice in on Monday, and get used to the environment so when I get to the course on Tuesday I’ll be a lot more dialed in. I’ll play 18 holes on Tuesday, I think, and Wednesday treat it as a small practice day, and maybe try to get out and play 9 more holes and get some final preparations in.”

He’ll get his first look at the course when he arrives on-site.

“I’m not a guy that looks at anything online; I’ll see it when I see it,” Bayley said. “I feel if I look at stuff online or ahead of time, I get some unforced anxiety going, and I don’t like it. So I’ll see it when I see it.”

Since spectators are still not allowed due to COVID-19, the surroundings might resemble what he’s already seen at tournaments since turning pro in March 2019.

His PGA Tour debut won’t be in front of a gallery of thousands.

“I think it’ll make it a little bit easier,” Bayley said. “I’m pretty indifferent about it (not playing in front of a gallery). It’ll make it a little bit easier mentally; to not have anyone there might make it feel more like normal, but, at the same time, you go there and you have a job to do. The amount of people that’s there doesn’t really affect anything, I don’t think.”

Derek’s dad Mike, who has caddied for him a few times in the past, will caddy for him this week at the Barracuda. Mike Bayley, a former St. Maries High athlete, is a former coach at Lakeland.

“When he was younger I was a bit too much coach/dad and not enough ‘caddy’,” Mike Bayley said. “I’m getting better ... I really should have little or no trouble stifling ‘coach’ because his game has advanced way beyond what I can relate to. I have zero input with his golf swing — I mostly confirm wind direction and give a smidge of input reading greens — mostly just confirming what he already sees and feels.”

The downside to no spectators — other family members can’t watch him play in person. Nor can friends who may have wanted to travel down from North Idaho.

One other thing will be different — players in PGA Tour events are tested for COVID-19, and he said he’ll be tested Monday. It’ll be his first COVID test.

WHILE MOST of the sports world was shut down for months due to the pandemic, many golf tournaments, because of the low-risk nature of the sport, continued. Bayley said golf “feels a lot more normal than when we first started.”

Besides, he said as golfers, their No. 1 goal is to treat golf as normal as we can.

“I’m just trying to get my ball in the hole; I’m not really worried about anything else,” Bayley said.

Mike Bayley, his dad/occasional caddy, said many people ask him if he’s surprised how well his son plays.

“I always think back to a guy in Spokane named Mike Mengert, who made custom clubs for Derek growing up,” Mike Bayley said. “Mike told me one day on the range at Indian Canyon, ‘Mike, nothing Derek does in golf will ever surprise me, he’s so fundamentally sound.’”

Derek was 12 or 13 at the time, his dad said.

“So, it’s pleasing to watch. The only thing surprising to me is how he ended up with a great golf personality — nothing really gets to him. He can keep his heart rate down in the midst of mishaps,” Mike Bayley said.

“He did not get that from me.”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.