Professional golf, especially for the young player trying to make it in the game, isn’t for the faint of heart.
Unlike the PGA Tour or even Nationwide Tour player who has a pretty good idea where his next stop — and where his next meal — will be coming from, for new- comers to the ranks, “tournament” golf is a never-ending series of mini-tours and Motel 6s, of counting pennies for fast food and hoping for a stretch when you catch lightning in a bottle with your 6-iron and putter.
Many quickly grow tired of the grind, wondering why they would choose to continually get their brains beaten in for an endeavor that offers no guarantee whatsoever of success. But there are a few, including Derek Tolan, who have managed to embrace the life.
“When you’re home, you’re waking up trying to figure out where you’re going to play and when you’re on the road, you’re competing. So it’s a blast, pretty much fun nonstop,” Tolan said Tuesday afternoon during a practice round at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club.
Thursday begins the closest thing Tolan gets to a “home game,” teeing it up against John Elway, 1998 British Open runner-up Brian Watts, 2010 U.S. Open qualifier Jason Preeo and about 150 other players as the defending champion of the HealthOne Colorado Open.
Tolan, 24, freely admits that his game currently may not be up to the lofty standards he displayed a year ago, when he set the Colorado Open record with a 22-under-par 262, but that’s not to say that another win is entirely out of the question.
“Guys get some confidence, catch a break here or there and take advantage of it — that’s basically all I’m trying to do right now,” Tolan said. “I’d be willing to bet that Tiger (Woods) isn’t nearly as confident now as he was six years ago, but he knows that when he does get right he’ll be as dangerous as he ever was.
“That’s how I feel too. It’s been a rough year, but I’m starting to play better now.”
Touring the country
In some ways it’s a miracle that Tolan can find the wherewithal to even want to pull out a club, let alone hit it well.
These days, life is closer to that of an itinerate gypsy — Tolan can basically only try to plan out a schedule about a month at a time, and oftentimes that means jumping in a car and touring the country.
In the last month alone, Tolan has tried in Illinois and Tennessee to Monday qualify for a PGA Tour event and the U.S. Open. He missed out on a Nationwide Tour event in Ohio, but played in the Waterloo Open in Iowa.
“At some point in there, I was in New Mexico, I’m pretty sure,” he said.
Over the course of the 2010 season, Tolan figured he has tried to qualify for 10 events on assorted tours and played in another eight or so. All told, he thinks his best finish in any tournament is 13th place — but that doesn’t count the fact that he earned a spot in the PGA Tour’s Valero Texas Open in May via a Monday qualifier. Tolan shot 76-74 there and missed the cut.
Tolan said he has no idea how much money he would need to earn to make the year a success, adding that trying to crunch numbers is an enormous energy drain anyway.
“If you’re trying to make money, this isn’t the avenue to go,” he said. “But I haven’t been worried about that; I’ve been thinking about increasing my opportunities, maybe accomplish something big on a level I know I can play at.”
Others choose a different path. On Tuesday, Tolan played with Kenny Coakley. A former teammate of Tolan’s at the University of Colorado, Coakley also is trying to make it in the professional ranks; however, he’s spending most of his time playing on a mini-tour in the Carolinas.
“He does a lot more Monday qualifying than I do,” Coakley said. “I like to do a lot more tournaments. In my eyes, Mondays are too much of a crapshoot. You’re putting all your eggs in one basket when you really should be learning how to play three- and four-round tournaments.”
Plenty of patience
But Tolan doesn’t mind. Even before his first taste of the big time, qualifying for the 2002 U.S. Open at age 16, Tolan has wanted to be on stage with the best in the game. If that process includes putting a couple of hundred thousand miles on his car, so be it.
“I’ve waited a long time to do this, 10-plus years, so knowing it’s finally here is extremely exciting,” Tolan said. “One thing I’ve learned doing this is that I have an absolute ton of patience: round by round, shot by shot, month by month, year by year. I know you’re not going to play well all the time, but I’m preparing myself well for every event I’m going to . . . whether it’s an event I’m trying to get into, or being out here trying to defend, or going somewhere where I’ve never played before.
“You don’t know what’s going to happen and for me, that’s the fun part, it’s what makes it so special when you do do something well. Whether I win this week, or whether I finish dead last, I’m going to go into next week excited at the opportunity, because I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
True touring pro
Some of the stops on golfer Derek Tolan’s schedule this year:
May 13: San Antonio, Texas Open
May 16: Westminster, U.S. Open qualifier
June 7: Memphis, Tenn., U.S. Open sectional
June 16: Salisbury, N.C., Bolle Classic
June 24: Farmington, N.M., San Juan Open
July 5: Silvis, Ill., John Deere Classic
July 14: Waterloo, Iowa, Waterloo Open
July 22: Denver, Colorado Open
