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By Melanie Hauser
PGATOUR.com Correspondent

SAN ANTONIO -- He finally got sick of standing on a par-5 and leaving with a par. Maybe even a double-bogey 6.

Of missing a green and wondering if he'd get it up and down. Not how close he could stick it.

Of not really being in the hole. Period.

Thanks to a late-season lesson from Stan Utley, Robert Gamez is on track with his short game. (Ehrmman/WireImage)

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So Robert Gamez fell on his sword. He flew to Phoenix during the FedExCup Playoffs and asked Stan Utley to his magic.

"Stan, just teach me like a beginner,'' Gamez said. "Like I've never chipped before."

Three hours later, Gamez was well on his way. His tendency was to bring the club inside, but he had been forcing it outside. Utley got it back inside.

That, combined with a little work on his putting and... Can you say opening 5-under-par 65? Gamez did and found himself sharing the early first-round lead at the Valero Texas Open with Justin Leonard, Mattias Gronberg, Bob Tway and Matt Hendrix.

Not bad for a player who has struggled all season; a player who won here in 2005. A player who ranks 171st on the money list and would definitely like to avoid another return to Q-School.

"I had to fill out my Q-School application the other day,'' said Gamez, who had to go back in 1998 and 2001 said. "This is no big deal. If I have to go, I have to go. I'm going to give it my best shot. I'm playing well enough to do what I have to do and I love this place.''

Yes, you have some funky holes. And a view of the Fiesta Texas roller coaster -- The Rattler -- just across the rather large parking lot. And some serious elevations. The course is, after all, on the edge of the Texas Hill Country. And, thanks to the rain that's put almost every Texas city way over its rainfall average for the year, a soft course that's turning into a birdie fest.

"You know, I don't like walking it so much but I love playing it,'' Gamez said. "I think it's -- I know it's wide open and you know the greens are big but you have to hit good golf shots. You can't go around and bomb it everywhere, just hit greens because these greens are tricky.

"You get in the wrong place and you can get downgrain, crossgrain, downhill, sometimes even uphill but downgrain. Just kind of have to know where you're going. In order to do that, you have to be in the fairway and I think that's why I love the golf course so much.''

Gamez isn't a long hitter, but he does rank 34th on the TOUR in driving accuracy and he hit 10 of 14 in the opening round. But the key for him was pulling it back together -- twice.

He let a missed 30-inch putt at the third hole bother him on the 444-yard fourth tee where he lost his drive left. He had to lay up and put Utley's lessons to work, getting it up and down for par. Then he missed a 5-footer on the fifth and wasn't sure of himself until he dropped in a putt on the seventh hole to get to 2 under at the turn.

Another key came on the 14th when he hit a bad tee shot, laid up and wedged to 10 feet for par.

"There are certain shots and holes around a golf course that keeps a round going..." he said.

And those two up-and-downs were the ones Thursday. Before his visit to Utley, those holes might have turned the round in a different direction.

"I've been working so hard on it because I knew it was something that was hurting me,'' he said. "I've been working with a bunch of different people and everybody is telling me something a little bit different so I had all these thoughts going through my head.

"... It's an easy theory that he teaches and what we worked on, it's easy for me to do so I really haven't had to work that hard. It's more just getting a feel for it each week, getting the different grasses you're playing on and the different greens and trying to just get a feel for speed once the ball lands on the green to see what it's going to do.''

Now, well, he's not thinking hole out like Tiger Woods or Vijay Singh, who chipped in four times at The Presidents Cup. But he said he's a lot better than he was.

"I feel more comfortable with it,'' he said. "I actually had a chip on 17 today I thought I was going to make. I just haven't had that, which is nice. It's a nice feeling to have a certain shot you know you're going -- you have that feeling you're going to make it.''

That nice feeling.

Gamez has missed the cut in 14 of his 25 events so far and has just one top 10 -- a tie for ninth at the AT&T Classic. He's been playing well, just not scoring. Thursday's 65, in fact, was just his 18th round in the 60s this year.

"This is the first round and I feel pretty good about my game and, you know, I've just got to get in position,'' he said.

For making the top 125, not a third return to Q School.