Insider: Hicks looks back on his long road to PGA TOUR

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Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

Hicks got his second-career title this season on the Nationwide Tour at the BMW Charity Pro-Am.

Justin Hicks doesn't mind recalling the days when he worked at various resort golf courses shagging range balls or helping out in the pro shop.

Q-SCHOOL

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Hicks, now 36, was fresh out of the University of Michigan in the late 1990s, but was adamant about chasing that dream of being a pro golfer. So Hicks, who was born in Wyandotte, Mich., which is about 11 miles south of Detroit, moved to Florida and started out the long journey that will continue next year on the PGA TOUR.

"It's not something I have ever forgotten about," said Hicks, who spent six years working at courses to help pay expenses as a pro golfer. "I guess you could call it the school of hard knocks because what I was doing is what high-school kids were doing."

Hicks would come into work early so he could hit range balls at dawn. After a long shift in the pro shop, he'd hit the course at 6 p.m. to play.

"I used to have to wait until the last carts were in so I also spent more time on the range then," Hicks said about those early years where he worked at places such as PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens. "I knew the dream was there and basically I needed to work and that's how I did it.... It wasn't the easiest of roads."

All that persistence has paid off. When he finished at No. 25 on the Nationwide Tour money list this past season he got his PGA TOUR card for 2011. He's only played in three PGA TOUR events, but in one of those tournaments, the 2008 U.S. Open, he opened with a 68 and was tied for the lead.

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This past season, Hicks' fourth full year on the Nationwide Tour, turned out to be his best thanks to a steady diet of consistent golf. He won his second career title in May at the BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by SYNNEX Corporation. That victory, along with a stretch of eight straight made cuts to end the season, gave him enough money to earn the 25th spot by just over $2,000.

"I definitely think overall I improved in every category whether it was putting or iron play or driving," Hicks said about improving from 52nd place on the money list in 2009. "Every year I've gotten more confident in myself as a player and as a golfer so I think that at this point I'm certainly more ready for the PGA TOUR than maybe I would have been earlier in my career."

A little over a year ago Hicks changed his putting grip to cross-handed and that's helped him get a better feel of the greens.

"I've also worked on my bunker game a lot and I've learned you must have the goal of being strong in every aspect," he said. "You can't have any weaknesses out there. You might be average in a few areas, but you can't have any weaknesses."

Hicks isn't about to sit around and rest on his accomplishments. He's competing in the final stage of q-school this week trying to improve his status.

"It's a way to stay sharp in that regard but I'm definitely in position where I can improve my status if I play well," Hicks said. "I haven't played either of those golf courses, but I look at it this way if you win the q-school tournament you are fully exempt on the PGA TOUR so that's certainly a bonus."

The bonus that Hicks is already looking for are the bigger purses on the PGA TOUR and the different courses. He says that the experience he's gained on the Nationwide Tour (106 tournaments with 58 cuts made) can only help.

"I actually thing the traveling is going to be easier because we played all over the world this past season on the Nationwide Tour," Hicks said.

For as long as he can remember the dream of playing on the PGA TOUR has come with a lot of perks but one of them has to do with course conditions. He loves the fact that the PGA TOUR plays on some of the best conditioned courses anywhere.

"It's funny but even in junior golf when we played on some really great courses I always seemed to play pretty well," Hicks said. "On the PGA TOUR the courses are in unbelievable shape and they take care of your every need out there. I'm going to be like a kid in a candy store and I'll be smiling a lot."

Now that Hicks has made the PGA TOUR maybe he can separate himself from another Justin Hicks, who is an accomplished teaching pro in San Diego. When Justin Hicks of Florida was tied for the lead after the first round of the U.S. Open in 2008 at Torrey Pines there was a lot of confusion.

The two Hicks have gotten to know each other through that confusion but have still had their mail mixed up from time to time.

The Justin Hicks who will be playing on the PGA TOUR in 2011 calls himself a late bloomer. With so many players winning in their 40s and even 50s, he thinks he's at a perfect age to still make his mark on the PGA TOUR.

"I haven't been a front runner in any of my stages of my career and I'm just on my own learning curve," he said.

What sets him apart from others is his passion for the game, Hicks says. During his long climb up from the mini-tours he saw former All-America players trying to get to the next level but couldn't do it.

"I've seen a lot of 'can't-miss' guys who came out of college and were on the mini-tours and couldn't break an egg," Hicks said. "It wasn't something that they wanted as badly but for me I really wanted to make it work and I've always had that passion for the game and have been raring to go every day.

"I think you really have to have that if you want to succeed."

John Dell has covered golf for the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina for the last 17 years. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.