Club Pro's Goals Higher Than Just Making PGA Championship Field

Thursday, August 9th 2007, 5:19 pm

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Brad Lardon was only moments removed from getting within a stroke of the PGA Championship lead when the manual scoreboard at the 17th green was updated to show he was approaching.

There it was, in giant capital letters: LANDON, followed by a big red 2. Through 16 holes at the year's final major, he was 2 under par.

Pardon the scoreboard operator -- and everyone else at Southern Hills, for that matter -- if Lardon's name wasn't familiar. After his birdie at the 16th, an alert went out to fans carrying new handheld electronic scoreboards explaining that Lardon had qualified for the PGA through a tournament for club professionals and was using a local caddie.

Just don't expect Lardon to be pleased by one good round.

"I like to put some pressure on myself to play well," Lardon said Thursday after finishing at even par 70. "I'm ecstatic to be at the PGA, but that wasn't the goal. This was about playing well at the PGA, and that's what I'm trying to do."

A former PGA Tour regular, Lardon was one of 20 club pros who earned a spot in the field through their finish at a tournament in Sunriver, Ore. Lardon just barely made it, tying for 16th with five others. He survived a playoff that eliminated one of the pros.

That put him in position to go up against the world's best, and he was one stroke better than Tiger Woods on Thursday. History is against a charge from Lardon. No club professional has won the PGA Championship, and Chip Sullivan's 31st-place finish in 2004 was the highest in the past decade.

"It's certainly different than it used to be. There's younger, better athletes," Lardon said. "But I think venues like Southern Hills create opportunities for us to play well because you don't have to hit 350 yards out here. Experience means a lot, strategy means a lot, execution means a lot. I think any one of the 20 of us that are out here, if we play well we can be competitive. The biggest parts of it for us are just kind of keeping your nerves calm and keeping your anxiety under control because we're not in this environment every day."

That was evident on the first hole, when club pro Ryan Benzel nearly smacked Brian Bateman in the face while warming up for his opening tee shot. Moments later, he glared at a photographer who started snapping shots about halfway through his backswing.

Other club pros in the field included Tim Thelen from a club near Lardon's in Bryan, Texas, and Kevin Burton, the head golf coach at Boise State University. Mike Small, the University of Illinois golf coach, caught a flight late Wednesday after winning the Illinois Open and birdied three of his first six holes to get to 3 under early in his afternoon round.

Lardon backed off professional golf in recent years. He qualified for the tour in 1991, 1994 and then for four straight years from 2002-05. He had only one top 30 finish, and that came in his first year on the tour.

"I just didn't shoot the numbers I needed to shoot when I was out there. I didn't play consistent enough, enough of the time," Lardon said. "I have four wonderful kids, a beautiful wife and I'm glad to be home for a little while."

For Lardon, preparing for the PGA Championship meant a minor deviation from his routine of playing golf about twice a week at the Miramont Country Club in Bryan, and practicing chipping and putting about twice as often.

He played Saturday and Sunday at Miramont and then the next three days at Southern Hills -- the two, he notes, are not remotely similar -- and called the five straight days of golf "probably more than I've played in a year"

"My practice rounds were my practice," Lardon said. "I joked a lot about it as I was sitting behind a desk doing
e-mails a few days ago: 'I'm sure Tiger's preparing a little bit better than me."'

Lardon was able to provide a few thrills for the 45 or so family and friends who traveled to see him, including a wedge shot that he holed from 108 yards on No. 1 to start his day with a birdie. He also birdied the second, fourth, sixth and 16th holes. He bogeyed the third hole and the last two on the front and back nine, ending his round in greenside bunkers on the 17th and 18th.

"I love coming out and doing this a few times a year, but I also love being a club pro and being with my members," Lardon said. "I kind of feel like I have the best of both worlds. I can do that, and I can still play."