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By Brett Avery
PGATOUR.COM Contributor

Let's say it's your second full season on the PGA TOUR and all the promise anticipated during your amateur career comes to fruition. You win THE PLAYERS Championship and the PGA Championship and earn more cash than anyone else, just shy of $427,000.

What the heck do you do for an encore?

Hal Sutton's win in Memphis in 1984 proved to be a turning point early in his TOUR career. (Grayson/WireImage)

If you're Hal Sutton you flounder, come close to winning several times and learn about how the expectations held by others can skew your own outlook.

"I needed a win more than anyone out here," he said in July 1985 after making the St. Jude Memphis Classic his first triumph in nearly two years. "I was struggling and there sure were doubts."

Sutton shot 65s at either end of the tournament over the South Course at Colonial CC, the latter good enough to catch David Ogrin at the end of regulation. It took only one extra hole, the 16th, to dispatch with Ogrin as Sutton drained a 30-footer for 4 while Ogrin pitched from the back of the green to seven feet and missed.

"I know I can play well with the heat on," a philosophical Ogrin said. "It took 65 to catch me. And I've got $54,000."

Sutton's $90,000 made for plenty of happy spending, too, but the episode spelled more relief for the then 27-year-old pro in his fourth year.

Sutton hadn't experienced such a profound stretch of losing since playing middle linebacker and center for his high school football team in Shreveport, La. The son of a wealthy oilman won the Louisiana Amateur at age 16 and decided to steer toward golf.

His presence at Centenary College practically validated the Louisiana school's golf program overnight when he won the 1980 U.S. Amateur at Pinehurst No. 2. Among his preliminary victims that week were Willie Wood, Jim Gallagher Jr., Jodie Mudd, all dispatched before a 9-and-8 pasting of Bob Lewis Jr.

"When I won the U.S. Amateur, I was still undecided about turning professional," Sutton admitted in 1984. "I didn't know if the TOUR life was what I wanted to lead. It is a very difficult life. I knew it was going to be a difficult life, and I wasn't sure I wanted to cope with that.

"There is loneliness and all that travel. You can have millions of people around you and still be lonely."

It might come as quite a surprise, then, to learn Sutton became the TOUR's rookie of the year in 1982. He finished second at the Tallahassee, Canadian and Pensacola Opens before breaking through in his 32nd start of the season, taking the Walt Disney World Classic in a playoff against Bill Britton.

The next season was nothing short of astounding: a dozen top 10s in 30 starts, including solo sixth in the U.S. Open at Oakmont CC and the PGA Championship crown at Riviera CC.

Sutton's season scoring average of 70.94 trailed TOUR-leading Raymond Floyd by a shade over three-tenths of a stroke and underscored a maturity that showed when he began the PGA Championship with a 65 and ended the week spurning an onrushing 66 by Jack Nicklaus to win by one.

"Congratulations," Nicklaus told Sutton, placing a hand on his shoulder behind the green after waiting out the chance for a playoff. "That's the first of many majors for you."

And then 1984, not exactly a black hole because of 11 showings in the top 10, including some snazzy places: the Crosby at Pebble Beach, Bay Hill, Heritage, Tournament of Champions, Memorial, Canadian, PGA. He shot 68 or better in only four final rounds, hardly the dominant closing flair he'd shown in '83.

The high finishes continued in 1985, although not as furious a pace. He won the race for second in the Los Angeles Open at Riviera when Lanny Wadkins ran away and hid from the field by seven, then missed a Bernhard Langer-Bobby Wadkins playoff by one at the Heritage. Sutton cracked $1 million in career earnings but hungered for a fourth title heading to Memphis.

Sutton wowed everyone with the first 65 but a 76-73 run in the middle put him at 214, eight shots behind George Burns and looking to lock up another decent-sized check. But while Burns crumbled early and often in a 76, Sutton began reeling off birdies and made a three-putt par at the last.

The 73rd hole tilted in Sutton's favor and erased the pressures he'd felt during the winless streak. He would capture the Southwest Classic later that year and eventually raise his TOUR victory total to 14, tacking on the 1998 TOUR Championship and 2000 PLAYERS.

Not bad as far as encores are concerned.