Quinney expects success, not just cuts made  PGATOUR.com Contributor Those looking for finite evidence that a season on the Nationwide Tour is a grueling marathon rather than a lickety-split sprint should take a quick glance at Jeff Quinney's results in 2006. Quinney, the 2000 United States Amateur champion, basically got left at the post at the beginning of the year. Such is life for a player who owns conditional, rather than exempt, status.  (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Although Quinney was able to gain entry into the first three events of the year because of some player's reluctance to travel -- the events were played in Panama, Australia and New Zealand -- to such faraway places, he missed two cuts and finished in a tie for 42nd, hardly the kind of start you'd find at the apex of a conditional player's wish list. Shut out of entry into the Chitimacha Louisiana Open, Quinney was forced to bide his time, sitting for more than a month between competitive Nationwide Tour rounds. Turned out the wait was worth it as his season took serious flight in the Livermore Valley Wine Country Championship. He grabbed a share of the first-round lead and was alone in first at the halfway point. Quinney faded with rounds of 74-75 on the weekend, but he held on to a third-place finish, making more than enough cash to move out of conditional limbo and into the exempt category on tour. While Quinney has sprinkled in a few clunker tournaments between then and now, life on the Nationwide Tour has been one very large bowl of cherries ever since for the 27-year-old Eugene, OR. native. Quinney has found his game and located his comfort level, facts made crystal clear by his position on the all-imporant Nationwide money ladder. Climber that he has become, Quinney stands an impressive fourth with $230,584 after a tie for sixth at last week's Xerox Classic. It was his second consecutive top 10 and his tour leading seventh overall. A very strange bolt of money list lightning would have to strike to keep Quinney out of the top 20 and deny him his very first PGA TOUR player's card. "I've found a swing that works,'' Quinney said, simplistically explaining the difference in his game in 2006 and the other four seasons he toiled in golf's minor leagues, each played with the great expectations placed upon the shoulders of a former U.S. Amateur champs. Quinney laughed when the amateur angle was broached. Many are of the opinion that it is a stepping stone to immediate success on the PGA TOUR. "I've been hearing a lot of that lately,'' he said. "I can't speak for anyone else, but for me it has been a matter of experience. I've learned so much in the last two seasons. To be honest, I wasn't quite ready to go out there (the PGA TOUR) and compete.'' Others believe the nation's biggest amateur prize is something of a jinx, considering only two winners -- Hank Kuehne and Bubba Dickerson -- since Tiger Woods' record run of three straight titles are currently playing in The Big Show. Quinney bristles at the suggestion. "Look at Hank and Bubba,'' he said. "Kooch (Matt Kuchar) and (David) Gossett have won on the PGA TOUR. Kooch is out here with Ricky (Barnes), Nick (Flanagan) and myself. There may be a little luck involved in winning a match-play tournament, but it's no fluke.'' Quinney, armed with the kind of confidence and experience necessary to compete on the world's largest outdoor stage, plans to prove his point in 2007. He has been close to achieving every Nationwide Tour player's ultimate goal before this season, especially in 2004 after he won his native state's Oregon Classic, his second victory (he also won on the Canadian Tour) as a pro. But he made only one of the final five cuts and bottomed out with a tie for 55th in the Nationwide Tour Championship. Instead of taking the next step, that faltering finish begat what Quinney calls "a lousy year'' in 2005 when he simply spun his wheels and got into a perplexing rut. He participated in 24 events, made 10 cuts and had a solitary top 10 and a little more than $50,000 in earnings to show for it. Quinney went to work with his swing coach of the past 2½ years, Mike LaBauve, Scottsdale, AZ, where he now resides. With LaBauve's help, he has ironed out the kinks in his game, returning to the Nationwide Tour as a better driver of the ball in 2006. "Mike knows what to look for, what works and what doesn't,'' said Quinney, who always has had a wonderful short game. "And I feel like I finally have a good understanding of the principles. I'm keeping it fairly simple and I've been driving great and that sets up everything. I'm now taking advantage of the par 5s and making lots of birdies whereas before I was taking 3-wood off some tees.'' The bottom line is, he said, he arrives at the office these days expecting to play well, expecting to contend rather than merely survive the 36-hole cut. "That makes all the difference in the world,'' he said. And it shows. |
