Hicks hopes to bring roller-coaster ride to end

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Justin Hicks is currently 31st on the money list heading into next week's season-ending Nationwide Tour Championship.

Justin Hicks hit his 52-week high twice this year. He's looking for a hat trick next week.

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Hicks was the first-round co-leader at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in June. Two weeks later, he broke through for a stirring victory on the Nationwide Tour.

Hicks won the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic Presented by Samsung in a playoff against Casey Wittenberg. Hicks shot 16-under-par 269 to win $144,017, moving him from 160th on the money list to 13th.

Then came a low point. He missed the cut in four straight Nationwide Tour events.

"Probably if you track it and put it on paper, it looks like the stock market," Hicks said. "There are going to be times when I feel it and times when I'm not going to feel it."

Hicks, a Michigan native who lives in Florida, is preparing at his home course, Bear Lakes in West Palm Beach, for next week's season-ending Nationwide Tour Championship at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas. He knows what he has to do.

For the first time since his victory, Hicks slipped out of the top 25 last week when he failed to make the cut at the Miccosukee Championship. He is No. 31 with $179,861 in 15 events. Chris Tidland is on the bubble at No. 25 with $199,130.

Hicks must move up six spots, to 25th, to earn his PGA TOUR card. He likes his chances following two recent top-15 finishes.

After his victory in June, Hicks was upwardly mobile and a spot on the TOUR in 2009 appeared to be likely.

That's when his season began to resemble the stock market. Things got wobbly.

Hicks tied for 57th in his next event, the Nationwide Tour Players Cup, then missed his next four cuts. For the rest of July and August, he earned just $4,600.

A downturn? Not exactly.

"I missed three cuts by a shot," Hicks said. "When all is said and done, only 60 guys make the cut. It's more difficult from a numbers perspective to make cuts on our tour than the PGA TOUR.

"Missing cuts by a shot on the Nationwide Tour is not exactly playing bad golf. It's really a fine line some weeks between playing well and scoreboard reading. The same can be said for that (down) stretch."

This month, he tied for 15th at the WNB Classic and then tied for 14th at the Chattanooga Classic. Once again, Hicks has the results "going in the right direction, hopefully" at the most important time in the season.

"Knowing the purse is $1 million and first prize is around $180,000, if you do a little math, that probably means I'm going to need a top 10," he said. "With a field of only 60 players, a top 10 is a lot more achievable than a usual tournament playing against 144 or 156, even if those 60 are guys who have been playing the best all year.

"I have to go out and play a good, solid tournament and hopefully have a few putts drop. I'm definitely excited about getting out there and getting after it."

The purse distribution for a $1 million event is $27,000 for 10th place down to $21,000 for 13th.

Hicks references Tiger Woods as someone who understands what goes into winning and narrowly missing the winner's circle.

"As players, we get caught up more with process," Hicks said. "Talk to Tiger and he'll sit there and say he's doing good things even when some can't see those good things. He can kind of sense just because he's not winning doesn't mean he's not doing right things or playing good golf."

Hicks knows exactly where his game is today as a result of the experience and confidence that came from Torrey Pines and his other good play this year.

"My ball striking in fairways hit, driving distance and greens in regulation has gone straight toward top of the tour," he said. "I don't even need to see those statistics to know I'm playing good golf."

Hicks is 21st in driving accuracy at 71.52 percent, tied for 70th in distance (293.9 yards) and 14th in total driving. His greens-in-regulation stat is 72 percent, good for a tie for 12th.

Hicks shot a first-round 68 at Torrey Pines to share the lead with Kevin Streelman. It was a steady decline for the next three rounds and he finished in a tie for 74th. He built on that experience to win two weeks later.

The U.S. Open, he said, was "a big eye-opener." As an example, Hicks recounted dealing with the media.

"I had never had reporters from all over the world coming up to me wanting more time after the time I spend in the press conference," he said. "It helped me appreciate the pressure that's involved in my job. I think I was able to handle that pressure two weeks later in an easy perspective, and maybe down the stretch not feel as much heat. It certainly helped from that standpoint."

Hicks, who celebrated his 34th birthday Tuesday, will apply those lessons at the Nationwide Tour Championship.

"I'll go out and try to treat it like another tournament," he said. "I had the whole year to make the money I need to make to get to the next level. Granted it's a big week, at the same time if I finish 12th and miss out by a spot, I won't feel bad.

"I don't have anything to lose, only things to gain. It's not like I had a card and lost it. I'm the guy going out to play as hard as I can. And I'll try to keep things as simple as possible. I've got to remind myself of what I just told you."

Swing thoughts

• Nice gesture by Sergio Garcia to dedicate his win in Spain last week to ailing countryman Seve Ballesteros.

• A couple of thoughts occurred while watching El Nino -- is he now too old, at age 28, to call him El Nino?

• Garcia appeared more mature in his approach and more dominant. Of course, the competition had something to do with both factors.

• At one point, the Ryder Cup singles match at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville between Garcia and Anthony Kim flashed by. Given that result -- Kim's overwhelming victory -- who would you pick to win a major championship first? Kim or Garcia?

Vartan Kupelian is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.