Filed under: PGA
WINTER GARDEN, Fla. -- Billy Hurley III, a golfer with exceptional skill and significant credentials, is 28 years old and playing this week for the very first time in the final stage of PGA Tour Qualifying School.So what took him so long?
The call of duty.
Just 16 months ago, Lt. Hurley was aboard a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Persian Gulf, entrusted to help defend Iraqi oil platforms. Wednesday he was 1-over-par at Orange County National, where he is attempting to prove golf can be a lot like riding a bicycle.
"Except I had to get back on the tricycle first," he said. "I wasn't ready for the two wheeler."
Maybe he still isn't. After one round of the six-day, 108-hole competition that sends only the top 25 finishers from a field of 166 to next year's PGA Tour, Hurley already is eight shots back of leader Kyle Stanley and in a tie for 65th.
Or maybe he's just getting started.
"2010 is my first full year of just golf," Hurley said. "There's not a whole lot of people here who have played five competitive days from June 2007 to June 2009."
That would be true -- and the reason Hurley deserves a robust "Go Navy!"
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