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By Helen Ross
PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- The average score on that cool, breezy Sunday 14 months ago was a hefty 75.378. That's what made Stephen Ames' sizzling 67 all the more impressive.

Stephen Ames destroyed a star-studded field to win the 2006 PLAYERS by six shots. (WireImage)

He had started the final round of THE PLAYERS Championship with a one-stroke advantage over Vijay Singh. When he was done with that brilliant and brazen round of 5 under, he had won the PGA TOUR's signature event by a whopping six shots.

"I was, what you call, in the zone -- slightly," Ames recalled recently, his tongue practically bulging out of his cheek. "My recollection of that day is shaking Vijay's hand on 1 and shaking his hand on 18. I can't remember where he was after that.

"That's how much of a zone I was in."

Now, Ames has shot lower, plenty of times, most notably a 61 in the second round of the 2000 Doral-Ryder Open. Still, given the situation and the significance of the event, was the 67 at the TPC Sawgrass the best round he ever played?

"Considering what we were playing for, yes, without a doubt," Ames said firmly.

Ames had narrowly missed winning THE PLAYERS in 2002 when he shot another 67 on Sunday. He was on the range, playing with his children, when Craig Perks did his best Houdini impersonation -- chipping in for eagle at the 16th, making a long birdie putt at the 17th an chipping in for par at No. 18.

The Waterford crystal went to the affable New Zealander and his amazing short game. But last year Ames finally got the title that had eluded him that cruel Sunday -- and this time his performance assured there would be no anxious moments spent on the range.

"Tough golf courses I tend to step up a bit and play better -- this one here, especially," Ames said. "Over the weekend it's ridiculous, to some extent borderline unfair. I tend to enjoy that more, I don't know why.

"It's just me, my nature itself. When my back's against the wall I tend to step up more. But I've always done that throughout my life on different occasions too, not just golf."

Ames was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, where his father, who is of English ancestry, worked for Texaco. The family lived in a gated camp that was more like a country club for employees of the oil giant -- complete with tennis and squash courts, pools and a golf course.

""It was nice," Ames said. "It was a good place to grow up. Everything was enclosed away from the rest of the world."

Ames started playing tennis, but his dad, who was a single-digit handicapper in his prime, suggested his son come out and caddy for him. Ames was hooked "instantly."

When he was 13, Ames stopped playing tennis and began to concentrate on golf. He still remembers what he shot the first time he played 18 holes -- 105. Two years later, he played off scratch.

"I just liked the feeling of when you had a solid shot -- right off the club face, up the shaft, into the hands, and the ball goes where you intended it to go," Ames recalled. "And also the game wasn't about you competing against another person like in tennis. In this case it was you (that) you were competing against.

"You're the only person you have control over. You don't have control over Tiger (Woods) or any of those other people you're playing. It's just you and the golf course. And that's the part that I liked and that battle, and I still battle today."

When Ames was 23 years old, he decided to turn pro and go to the United States. His father gave him some seed money to start what was an improbable quest. Ames would become the first -- and remains the only -- PGA TOUR player from Trinidad and Tobago, although his brother and former caddy, Robert, has now turned professional, as well.

"I'd had enough and didn't want to work behind a desk," Ames remembered. "(My dad said) what do you want to do? I wanted to play golf. That's fine, go play golf. Here's some money. I got my bag and some clothes and left for the States at 23."

The four golf courses on the two sister islands in the Caribbean -- two on each, to be exact -- left Ames unprepared for what he would soon encounter. "When I first came to the States I felt they all were like Augusta," he said. "It was a big learning step."

Ames thrived on the challenge, though. He spent several years playing the Florida mini-tours and quickly was about $25,000 in arrears to his folks. Once he found some financial security on the Nationwide Tour, Ames wrote his parents a check.

"There, are we done now?" Ames said. "I didn't owe him a cent. So I think my low points were back then. We were looking for success. It was tough. I didn't have the financial backing. My father and mother were backing (me). I wouldn't say it was a low point, (but) it was a learning experience.

"I never look back at those kinds of things. I always look at now and tomorrow."

Ames went on to play three full seasons on the Nationwide Tour, winning the 1991 Pensacola Open. He also won twice on the European Tour in 1994 and '96 before earning his PGA TOUR card with a tie for third in the 1997 qualifying school.

"I wasn't the superstar coming out of college," Ames said. "We had to fight our way to get here and we just appreciated more that we are here right now. We worked off our butts to get here and it wasn't all hand me downs. We had to work, and work we did and now we appreciate it more the more we achieved."

Ames can be brutally honest, and his candor can sometimes get him in hot water. He provoked the wrath of none other than Tiger Woods at the 2006 World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship when he suggested the game's No. 1 player wasn't swinging particularly well.

Woods went on to beat Ames 9 and 8. Four weeks later, the Canadian from Trinidad and Tobago blitzed the strongest field in golf on one of the game's toughest tracks at THE PLAYERS.

He's also a devoted father, who played Mr. Mom while his wife was battling lung cancer. Immediately after his PLAYERS victory, Ames waffled on whether to accept the Masters invitation that was icing on the cake since it conflicted with a family vacation. For the record, he ended up playing at Augusta National and tied for 11th.

Ames, who has made more than $11 million on the PGA TOUR, has also started a foundation to help promising junior golfers in Trinidad and Tobago. He is now a Canadian citizen, but has never forgotten his homeland.

"I don't want to be recognized as winning 12 majors or even winning a major," Ames said. "I want to be recognized as a player who has given to others. I've always been inclined that way in playing and what I'm trying to do right now, especially with my foundation, is giving the kids at home an opportunity to come here and play.

"Before, these kids didn't have a chance. A lot of them don't have a chance."

And Ames, more than anyone, knows how far you can go when you get that chance.