Klauk ready to take the next step after hard-earned win

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Klauk sank a 12-footer for birdie on the final hole for the win at the Melwood Prince George's County Open.

If you watched the weekly changing tides on the Nationwide Tour over the course of the last 10 months you could see this one coming, slowly, but surely.

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Klauk: "I think I'm a different player than I was last year. Out here, it's all about improving. If you keep improving, that's all you can do."

Jeff Klauk was a player whose game, after six consecutive seasons of trying hard with marginal results on the highly competitive circuit, was on the rise. The undeniable proof was in his numbers and the absolute dedication to improvement.

There were those six top-25 finishes in the final seven events of 2007, when Klauk was steamrolling to a place in 'THE 25' but simply ran out of events, finishing a respectable 34th on the money list, matching his personal best.

There were the long hours Klauk put in on the range during the off-season, addressing the shortcomings in his swing and underscoring his appetite for success.

There was the continuing work he did on his mental approach to the game with instructor Cody Barden.

There was the confidence-boosting start in Panama, a tie for second in 2008's first event that touched off another run of five top-25s in 10 starts that pushed Klauk into the 12th spot on the '08 money list.

And if that wasn't enough, there was Klauk's opening salvo in the Melwood Prince George County Open. In what easily could be the round of the year so far, Klauk shot a bogey-free, course-record 8-under-par 64 in trying conditions that included a swirling two-club wind that bedeviled the majority of the field.

So the tournament was Klauk's to win from the get-go. Although he opened the door with a third-round 73, he was cruising Sunday until the 16th and 17th holes, when things became very interesting thanks to an up-close and personal encounter with back-to-back bogeys that dropped him back into a tie with Jeff Brehaut.

"I knew they weren't going to help,'' he said, chuckling.

Enter all the mind games Klauk had played on how to soothe his psyche on the course. It involved believing in and trusting himself when things got sticky. And for a guy who hadn't won in nearly five years, someone coming off consecutive bogeys who suddenly found himself tied for the lead with one to play, things couldn't have been much stickier.

So Klauk manned up. He told himself to follow his first instinct and go for it. A good drive down the right side left him with an approach of 250 yards on the par-5 18th. He flushed a hybrid.

"I couldn't picture the shot any better,'' he said.

But the adrenaline coursing through his veins in the heat of the moment created a problem. The shot went long and nervously trickled over the green toward the edge of a lake, finally stopping with a couple of paces to spare. What he called simply a "good chip'' left Klauk with 12 feet standing between a playoff against Brehaut and David Mathis and a victory.

"I read it correctly and saw it going in,'' Klauk said of his pre-putt routine.

And it did.

So there you have it, the anatomy of a victory that had been in the works for a while.

It was easy to tell Klauk was in a champion's reverie when reached by telephone Sunday evening. Yes, he said, he was thrilled. And yes, he allowed, this was one he was going to enjoy. But he also offered a qualification.

"I'll be happy,'' he said, "for a couple of days.''

Klauk earned $117,000, moved to second place on the money list with $221,433 ($2,246 behind the new No. 1 Mathis), more than enough to guarantee a spot on the PGA TOUR in 2009. He has no plans to rest on his laurels, though, not with 18 events remaining in what could be one spectacular season.

"I've been working on a lot of stuff to improve, both swing-wise and mentally,'' he said. "I think I'm a different player than I was last year. Out here, it's all about improving. If you keep improving, that's all you can do.''

The question is what took Klauk, 30, so long? His collegiate pedigree -- he was a three-time member of the NCAA Division II national championship team at Florida Southern and the 2000 Division II individual champion and player of the year -- suggested he would not have to wait seven years to scratch his PGA TOUR itch.

Then there was the matter of where he grew up playing -- at TPC Sawgrass, where his father, Fred, recently retired after 23 years as greens superintendent, a job that provided Jeff and his two brothers, John and Jason, an opportunity to soak up invaluable knowledge by observing the practice and playing habits of players like Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk, Mark McCumber, Fred Funk, Rocco Mediate and David Duval in his prime.

"They didn't realize how closely we watched them when we were growing up,'' said Klauk, who became golf's version of a gym rat at TPC. "I stored so much information away.''

That knowledge told Klauk he was good enough to make it in professional golf. It was just a long time coming.

"It was just a question of doing it,'' Klauk said.

Now Klauk has set new goals and envisions new frontiers to conquer.

"It's great that I won,'' he said. "But I have to get better. I want to win more.''