Insider: Staten aims to avoid bubble spot like last year

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Staten has finished in the top 25 seven times on the Nationwide Tour this season.

Nobody has to remind B.J. Staten that it's getting late in the season on the Nationwide Tour.

Staten, like many others fighting for their future, is hoping to make a late-season push and says now is the time to make up ground.

"A lot of it has to do with having that sense of urgency," said Staten, who is coming off one of his best showings of the season. "With it being this late you want to obviously compete to win every week. You want to secure your place in the Tour Championship so that sense of urgency is really out there."

Staten had everything working right in the first three rounds at the WNB Golf Classic last week. He was leading going into the final round, but struggled to a 77 to wind up tied for 10th. It wasn't what he wanted, obviously, but just finding his swing again has been a lesson in perseverance.

Earlier this season he missed valuable time with a neck and knee injury. He joked that he was more beaten up than an NFL player. "I just turned 34 and I'm falling apart in my old age," he said.

Staten, who played the PGA TOUR in 2006 and some in 2007, had a disappointing end to 2010 when he came into the Tour Championship inside the top 25 on the money list. He was in solid shape to get his PGA TOUR card again, but then couldn't get it done in the Tour Championship and fell out of the top 25.

"I got bumped out on the last week and was like 22nd or 23rd and I wound up 28th but it was my fault," Staten said. "I just didn't play well and you have to tip your cap to the guys who played better than you."

Staten, a left-hander from Nashville who graduated from Houston in 2000, has had a busy year off the course with his impending marriage to fiancée Alisha Reverman, who he met last year at the Utah Championship. The couple has plans for a wedding in Colorado on Nov. 5, the weekend after the Nationwide Tour Championship. (Read about how they met here.)

"I owe the Nationwide Tour and the tournament in Utah big time because what a blessing to meet her out there," Staten said. "If I didn't do this for a living I wouldn't have been able to meet her."

While the wedding plans do take up a lot of their conversations of late, Staten says that staying focused when he's on the golf course is a priority.

Once he became healthy again he said that work with his instructor, Randy Smith in Dallas, and his experience on the Nationwide Tour have come in handy.

He heads into this week ranked 53rd on the money list.

Staten admits that last year's Tour Championship was tough because he was on the bubble heading into the tournament.

"It can be a gut-wrenching week when you know you have to play well in that Tour Championship to get inside the top 25," Staten said. "With a million dollar purse a lot can happen in that last tournament so you want to breathe a little easier when you get there."

Staten is hoping to move up enough on the money list so he won't have to worry about being on the bubble.

"I'm going to play them all," Staten said about his schedule for the rest of the season. "You want to try and be secure in that top 25 when you get to the Tour Championship. It's a luxury I didn't have last year."

One thing that Staten has that a lot of others on the Nationwide Tour don't is experience on the PGA TOUR. While he says 2006 seems like a long time ago, he admits that being on the PGA TOUR was a thrill. He wants to get back.

"Obviously the Nationwide Tour is fantastic and a great way to work on your game," Staten said. "But there's nothing better than being on the PGA TOUR and I was out there in '06 and got injured some and took a medical and I think I played seven tournaments out there in '07."

Staten figures he's got the best of both worlds because he's got experience on both tours.

"You have to look at it as being on the Nationwide Tour you are getting great experience in learning how to win and learning what golf's all about," Staten said. "Winning breeds winning and you look at a lot of my peers who I played with in amateur golf and a lot of them are out there on the PGA TOUR. I want to get back out there to join them."

One of Staten's strengths is his putting, where he's fifth on Tour in putting average.

He likes to the tell the story about how he became a left-handed golfer and it has to do with his father being a right-handed player. When B.J. started playing at an early age he wanted his father to see his swing.

"My dad played weekend golf and I went out and I wanted to hit balls in front of him so he could see how I hit," Staten said. "He was a right-handed player and when you are 6 or 7 years old you look up to your father and I wanted him to make sure he saw me make contact."

Staten does most everything with his right hand from eating to bowling, but he throws left-handed.

"Golf just came more naturally left handed but it had more to do with my dad giving me tips as we both hit balls on the range," Staten said. "He kind of pointed me in the right direction."

The next direction Staten hopes to go is up on the money list.

When reminded that there aren't a lot of left-handed golfers on the PGA TOUR, Staten said: "I would totally agree that there should be more lefty's on the PGA TOUR. Hopefully I'll be one of them next year, but if not, I'll keep working."

John Dell has covered golf for the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina for the last 18 years. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR. You can reach him at johndell@triad.rr.com.