With his second win, Trahan proves he belongs

text size

PALM DESERT, Calif. -- Maybe it should have been expected. Maybe we should have looked past the world ranking, 217th, and last year's PGA TOUR putting statistics, when he was mystifying 170th, and considered what D.J. Trajan had done as an amateur, and what predictions were made about his future.

D.J. Trahan and caddie Todd Sunderland celebrated a victory in Trahan's third start in the desert. (Laberge/WireImage)

Inside the Numbers

Trahan So Far in 2008

Starts 2 Wins 1 Top-10s 1 Scoring Average 69.18 Money $927,805 FedExCup Points 4,546 FedExCup Ranking 3

There was no question the kid could play. He won a U.S. Publinks, didn't he? Was on a Walker Cup team, wasn't he? Became the No. 1 player on Clemson's NCAA Championship team, didn't he?

"Yeah,'' said Trajan, "with my college career obviously I felt like my game matured and blossomed to the point where I felt like ... well I was disappointed when I didn't make it through q-school. I felt like I belonged out here and could play out here.''

He belongs. He can play.

Sunday he came from four strokes behind to finish three strokes in front in the 49th Bob Hope Desert Classic. Overtook Justin Leonard, a veteran, a major champion. Won his second tournament in a little more than three full years on the PGA TOUR.

A beautiful day Sunday. Sunshine and temperatures around 67. Or more than 60 degrees higher than Green Bay.

A fine day Sunday, if you were D.J.(for "Donald Junior") Trahan, who shot a 7-under-par 65 at The Classic Club to take the five-round, 90-hole Hope with a 26-under-par 234.

A tough day Sunday, if you were Leonard, who no one, most of all Trahan, figured would stumble down the stretch.

Trahan went from 170th in putting overall last year to first in putting in the Hope. Of course he would win.

This isn't the U.S. Open. It's a tournament with wide-open fairways, because the first four days there are 384 amateurs, some of whom carry 18 handicaps.

To be in contention, Trahan emphasized, you have to putt. And he putted.

"Champions win because not only do they hit the shot and make the shot when they have to,'' said Trahan, "they make the putts. Tiger Woods is obviously the greatest example of that. When he needs to make a putt, he makes a putt.''

What Trahan may have made is a leap forward. To a place he believes he should have been.

"When you have a career like I did in college, my thoughts are, OK,''I'm playing against the best Division l players in the country,' '' he said. "Mickelson played college golf. Tiger played college. Almost everybody.

"When you reach the top level, you've got to believe you're good enough to get to the next level, so, yeah, I had high expectations, and you can't meet higher expectations than winning. That's pretty awesome.''

Awesome, yet not quite as meaningful as his other victory, in the Southern Farm Bureau Classic at the end of 2006. That one insured he would retain his playing privileges.

That one, as Trajan explained, "It's like saying , OK, here I am. I belong.''

No question about that now. He was still four behind Leonard through seven holes. Trahan had four birdies and a bogey, Leonard three birdies.

Suddenly, Trahan, playing with Justin, birdied nine and 10 and Leonard three-putted 10. The differential was one shot.

When Leonard followed with a bogey on 11, the two were tied. And Justin was fit to be tied, finding solace later only in the fact he was playing better than a year ago when he missed the cut in the Hope -- and in five successive tournaments.

Trahan talked about maybe buying farmland near his Charleston-area home, a place to hunt. Not long ago, before the TOUR started anew, he looked like a woodsman, with a full beard, now trimmed to a mustache and goatee.

George Lopez, the comedian who hosts the Hope, and who was on the winning amateur team with fellow celebrities Samuel L. Jackson and Luke Wilson, showed up at the post-match media conference.

"Are you prepared to shave like I did on Friday,'' said Lopez, who did just that at the 10th tee during the third round.

"I saw that on TV,'' Trahan said with a laugh. "I'm not going to dry shave, though. I've got an electric razor. I might do it, yes.

"Ironically, I had a goatee when I won my other tournament, so I don't know if I should. I don't particularly like facial hair, but if I'm going to win it, then you know . . .

What we do know is D.J. Trahan, who birdied all the par 5s Sunday, who had 23 putts Sunday, the same as he did in the second round Thursday, who came back from a big deficit is a golfer of the future. As well as of the present.

"It's easy to get down on yourself on this TOUR because you're playing against thre best players in the world," mused Trahan, "because if they're not beating you up, you're beating yourself up.''

No longer. Sunday, at the Hope, D.J. Trajan was beating one and all.