At long last, Molder's time may finally have come

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Bryce Molder was a four-time NCAA All-American at Georgia Tech.

He was born in Harrison, Ark., so Bryce Molder knows a little bit about what the wilderness looks like. But no one who saw Molder play for those awesome Georgia Tech teams in the late 1990s could have imagined it would take him so long to reach the promised land of the PGA TOUR.

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Finally, eight years after graduating from Georgia Tech with his degree in management, it looks like Molder has arrived. His performance on the TOUR over last two months may be a sign that his time has come.

Last week he finished fourth at the AT&T National. Three weeks earlier he tied for second at the St. Jude Championship. He's not been outside the top 25 in any of his last four events and brings some nice momentum into this week's John Deere Classic.

So what happened? What enabled a guy who missed the cut in five of his first seven events to turn the corner?

"I get that question a lot," Molder said. "What's going on? Why are you playing so well? I started playing well about a month and a half ago. I started to settle down. I found a little mental game that I can kind of play out there that gets me in the right frame of mind."

Molder has now won $970,085 in 11 starts and is almost assured of keeping his card for 2010, something he's never been able to accomplish. His struggles certainly surprised anyone who saw him emerge as a dominating player at Georgia Tech, where he became only the fourth four-time All-America in NCAA history, joining David Duval, Phil Mickelson and Gary Hallberg.

Molder was the college player of the year in 2001 and played on the 2001 Walker Cup team. The only thing Molder failed to accomplish in college was to win a national championship; Charles Howell III and Oklahoma State robbed him in 2000, and Florida deprived him with a great run in 2001.

Molder turned pro in 2001 and made enough money to become a Special Temporary Member in 2002. But he failed to earn enough to keep his card and spent three years on the Nationwide Tour before reclaiming his TOUR card in 2007. Again he failed to retain his exempt status and spent 2008 playing Nationwide events, where he finished 23rd on the money list and earned another promotion.

This time it looks like he's going to stick.

The reason: Molder has relocated his putting stroke. He had misplaced the one facet of his game that distinguished him from his peers. Generously as being 6-feet, 180 pounds, Molder has never been a big hitter, but when it came to the flat stick he was above most others. Molder was capable of making some impressive birdie runs and always seemed ready to flip the "Go Low" switch. He shot 60 one day while playing with President Bill Clinton. (It was Bubba who took the mulligans that day, not Molder.)

Look at last week's putting numbers from the AT&T National. Molder tied for fifth with 28 putts per round. He tied for eighth with 17 birdies. He finished seconds in putts per green in regulation (1.66). His ability was obvious from his opening nine at Congressional, when he shot a 5-under 30 on the front nine.

"I kind of forgot that the best part of my game was my putting," Molder said. "And there's a lot of people that would be very envious of that. At one time I would have almost felt bad about making a run of decent-sized putts, and now I don't because that's the best part of my game."

Molder gained further understanding of the need to focus on his own game by playing a round with Brian Gay, a non-bomber who has used accurate iron play and good putting to win twice in 2009.

"He putts so well and he keeps the ball in play," Molder said. "I think the biggest part of playing with him, what meant so much, was just seeing that he's extremely comfortable with who he is as a player, as a person out there.

"I think it's more important how you see yourself than what type of player you really are. And I think that's a big part of it. I've been able to take whatever shots I can play with at that time, take it to the golf course and try to score. When I've played my best golf, that's what I've done."

Molder has scored in the 60s in 12 of his last 16 rounds. He's jumped from nowhere all the way to No. 64 on the FedEx Cup points list and to No. 53 on the money list.

In doing so Molder has reaped the benefit of qualifying for the British Open next week in Turnberry. He qualified under the Open's exempt players criteria, which compiles the earnings from THE PLAYERS through last week's AT&T National and slips them into the field. It will be the first time he's qualified for the Open Championship.

"I didn't really know what to expect," he said. "I knew I was fairly close. I know it was a lot of factors going on; it wasn't just me playing well, it was other people, if they played well. I happened to play really well. ... I'm looking forward to it."

The way Molder is playing, it may be the first in a long line of major championships as a professional golfer. He definitely belongs.

Stan Awtrey is a freelance columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily reflect the views of the PGA TOUR.