Ken Tanigawa, 51, has come a long ways in a short time.

Two years ago he wasn’t yet convinced he’d even make a run at PGA TOUR Champions. Now, he’s a two-time winner, including a major – last week’s Senior PGA Championship.

“I think it has sunk in. But maybe it hasn’t. I’m not really sure,” Tanigawa said Tuesday. “It’s still a little bit surreal. But it’s pretty cool.”

Tanigawa has taken only 33 events to announce his presence with the ultimate authority of winning a major, at venerable Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York. Oh, and his first win on PGA TOUR Champions came at a fairly decent track, too – Pebble Beach, where the Los Angeles native claimed the PURE Insurance Championship.

The only other players to win twice since Tanigawa’s first victory on Sept. 30 are the two dominant forces on PGA TOUR Champions – Bernhard Langer and Scott McCarron. So he’s keeping quite good company.

McCarron and Tanigawa were teammates at UCLA in the late 1980s, along with fellow PGA TOUR Champions player Brandt Jobe. McCarron finished one stroke behind Tanigawa at Oak Hill; Jobe tied for 18th.

“He talked about going to Q school with Brandt and I, and we both said if he gets through he’ll be one of the best guys out here,” McCarron said. “He was playing with a bunch of PGA TOUR guys and taking their money at Whisper Rock (a private golf club in Scottsdale, Arizona, where Tanigawa makes his home). We knew he can flat-out play.”

The question for Tanigawa was whether he wanted to give professional golf another try. After UCLA, he bounced around various tours in Asia and Australia. He played one full season on the Web.com Tour, in 2003, where he made four cuts in 22 tries. He earned $7,399 and decided to apply to regain his amateur status.

Thanks to family business ventures overseas, Tanigawa was able to play plenty without financial worry. He won the Arizona state amateur championship in 2015 and 2017, and he was runner-up in 2016. His games at Whisper Rock with the likes of Paul Casey, Kevin Chappell, Martin Kaymer, Geoff Ogilvy and Kevin Streelman continued to prove to him that he had enough game to play with anybody PGA TOUR Champions had to offer.

“If not for Whisper Rock I might not be hear talking to you,” Tanigawa said. “It was a huge part of getting back into the game for me. I could only get better playing against those guys. I felt comfortable with them. That made it easier when I came out here. I wasn’t intimated by the players. The overall environment has taken some getting used to, but I figured if I was OK playing against those guys nobody out here could be that much better than them.”

Tanigawa decided to go to Q school in late 2017 as much because it was at TPC Scottsdale the year he turned 50 as anything. Had it not been so close, he can’t say for certain he’d have attempted it. But he made it through to secure his PGA TOUR Champions card for the 2018 season. He posted seven top 25s before his breakthrough victory at Pebble Beach, which assured him his spot in the Charles Schwab Cup playoffs and in the 2019 season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai.

In 11 events this year Tanigawa has 10 top 25s, including three top 10s. He ranks third in greens in regulation and 14th in driving distance, a lethal combination. And his putting is improved over his rookie year, from 57th to 27th.

Tanigawa, McCarron and Jobe play practice rounds together on Tuesdays. Jobe, 53, has become a confidant.

“He has helped me out a lot,” Tanigawa said. “He has just helped me get my feet wet out here. Being a familiar face and being comfortable out here, he has taken me under his wing, He knows where to go, and he’s somebody to hang out with. He took a potentially uncomfortable situation for me and has made it a lot more comfortable. I trust him, and I can ask him anything.”

Jobe said they have discussed a little bit of everything. He told Tanigawa when to arrive for which tournament, which flights to take, places to eat, doled out course knowledge.

One of the biggest pieces of advice Jobe gave his old teammate, though, was to be himself. Don’t try to fit the mold of what people think a player on PGA TOUR Champions should be. Do what got him this far.

“His biggest thing was when to play,” Jobe said. “His day used to be get up and go play. But when he got out here everybody he sees is on the range beating balls. He was hitting a ton of balls. We sat down at dinner one time and I said, ‘You know what works for you. You’re a play guy. Play the Tuesday pro-am, the Wednesday pro-am, find a great course to play on Thursday, and we’ll go play. Don’t change your routine.’

“You see guys beating balls and you feel like you should. That’s not his personality. He’s laid back. It’s go do things his kind of way. Be laid back. Don’t worry about things. He has understood. I’m out hitting balls, and he’s like, ‘I’m outta here. I’ll call you for dinner.’”

Now Tanigawa is eating up the competition. He knows when his game is right he can contend any time he tees it up, and McCarron and Jobe agree.

“I do expect him to win more,” McCarron said. “Once you get in the mix and play well and have a chance, it gives you more confidence. He knows he can get the job done. He know knows he can win majors in very tough conditions and handle the pressure.”