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By Dave Lagarde
PGATOUR.com Contributor

A strong sense of renewal, optimism and hope accompanies the dawn of any new season.

So it is with the advent of the bigger-and-better-than-ever 2007 Nationwide Tour, which travels south of the United States' borders down Panama way this week to begin a record 32-tournament trek across four countries and 23 states that offers record purses of nearly $18 million, an increase of more than $1 million over 2006.

The $550,000 Movistar Panama Championship will throw out the first pitch for the fourth consecutive year and every card-carrying member enters with the same annual goal -- to finish in the top 25 on the money list when the last putt drops at the Nationwide Tour Championship at Barona Creek in November to earn playing privileges on the PGA TOUR.

Notice the number? That's 25 spots in The Big Show, up from 20 a year ago as the Nationwide Tour provides the best proving ground available for everyone with higher aspirations.

Scott Sterling is looking forward to the new Nationwide Tour season. (WireImage)

"Good performance over an entire year is so much more creditable than going low one week,'' said Scott Sterling, 34, who returns to the Nationwide Tour in '07 after spending a year in the minor leagues in 2006.

"You make it here and you've got to be more prepared than the guys who come through qualifying school. You have to feel battle tested.''

Sterling, a regular on the NGA and Tight Lies tours, wants to experience that feeling. Thanks to an uncooperative putter, the former LSU golfer basically shot blanks and bogeys in 2005 as he lost his playing privileges on the Nationwide Tour and failed to gain any status through q-school.

Although '07 will not be his first Nationwide Tour rodeo, Sterling has reason to believe it could be his best.

That's because Sterling serendipitously solved his putting problems on a visit to the TaylorMade testing facility in Carlsbad, Calif. early last year. He went to get fitted for a driver and irons, but also made a stop at the putting lab and came away a different man on the greens, something that allowed him to abandon the putter-du-jour approach he adopted as things rapidly and frustratingly deteriorated in 2005.

"I probably used about 15 putters and would change from week to week,'' he said of a season in which he missed 20 of 27 cuts and made the majority of his $37,000 in the first three events. "I know you can't do that, but it was a total guessing game for me. It was all about putting for me.''

After testing at TaylorMade, Sterling discovered he was best suited for a center shafted, face-balanced flat stick. He dug around in his closet and pulled out an old model.

"That was what I used during the year I played really well (in his Nationwide rookie season of 2002, when he made more than $112,000),'' he said, laughing at the irony. "It kind of reaffirmed that I could putt after all and I did not have many major mess ups.''

Except for one, that is. Things did not change for the best overnight. Playing in an NGA Tour event in Guatemala, Sterling said he putted about "the worst ever.'' But things began to improve in a Monday qualifying round for the Chitimacha Louisiana Open in March, where Sterling made it into the field and made the 36-hole cut.

"I had a couple of good putting rounds,'' he said. "But the main thing was I didn't have any really bad ones. Even the ones where I didn't necessarily have good putting stats I was hitting good putts.''

That was a welcome change from 2005 when Sterling's misery on the greens crept into other aspects of his game. He simply put too much pressure on himself to hit the ball close to the hole and he could hear the air escaping his confidence balloon each time he knocked it stiff -- and missed.

"I was trying to hit shots too good if you know what I mean,'' he said. "I felt like I had to hit it close to have a chance. And then if I missed a green, it was, Oh gosh, here comes another bogey.''

Sterling made a decision early in '06 to stay close to his Baton Rouge, La., to spend more time with his wife Stephanie and 2-year-old son. That led him to the Tight Lies Tour, where he played -- and putted -- like a demon. He won twice in 10 starts and never finished outside the top 10. He led the tour in earnings with more than $72,000.

Although he failed in the finals of PGA TOUR Qualifying School by six shots, Sterling finished high enough to gain a full Nationwide Tour exemption and he is stoked about the opportunity.

Sterling knows others his age -- players like Ken Duke and Wes Short -- have re-invented their games at the midpoint of their careers and doesn't see why he can't as well.

"This is the best way to reach my goal,'' Sterling said. "Going to 25 improves my chances and I have high hopes considering the way I played last year.''

And Sterling will not be the Lone Ranger in that regard when the Nationwide Tour begins its 2007 season Thursday.