Local players excited for home game at Winn-Dixie

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Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

Jacksonville resident Len Mattiace is a regular at TPC Sawgrass, hoping to return full-time to the PGA TOUR.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- This week's Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open presented by Planters at TPC Sawgrass is a great opportunity for local PGA TOUR veterans like Jeff Klauk, Frank Lickliter II, Len Mattiace and Bubba Dickerson to compete at a facility with which they are extremely familiar.

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All four are glad to be home for various reasons -- not the least of which is the opportunity to sleep in their own beds at home after weeks on the road.

Klauk, who lives less than a half-hour away from the club, could almost throw a rock from his childhood home to the first tee of Dye's Valley, which hosts the Nationwide Tour event this week. The other course at TPC Sawgrass, THE PLAYERS Stadium Course, is home to the TOUR's signature event of the same name.

After recovering from back and ankle injuries in the first part of 2010, Klauk is finally happy with the way he's playing. He is looking forward to the nostalgic return to TPC Sawgrass, where his father was the long-time course superintendent.

"The Valley is what I really played most growing up," said Klauk. "That's where I spent all the time in the winter when the Stadium Course was overseeded. It's going to be fun."

Bill Hughes, the club's general manager, remembers when Klauk mowed the Valley's fairways and greens.

"About a month ago when Jeff saw the Valley configuration with about 30 percent of the fairways gone and much more narrow, he couldn't believe it." said Hughes. "He even told me 'Boy, if I had only been mowing this grass, I'd gotten home a lot earlier every night.'"

Mattiace, who has already committed to the second stage of q-school to try to regain full-time status on the PGA TOUR, has history at TPC Sawgrass -- only it's on the Stadium Course. The 43-year-old Jacksonville resident, a two-time PGA TOUR winner and former Masters runner-up, tied for fifth at THE PLAYERS in 1998 after calamity struck at the infamous 17th hole.

"I have a great opportunity to finish well this week and wherever that is, so be it," said Mattiace, who spends four to five days a week at the TPC when he's in town. "I used to do a mix of Stadium-Valley about 50-50 but I'm probably playing more on the Valley these days.

"I come out to the Tour Academy here and it's a great place to work on my game. Todd Jones has been the principal instructor for me and he's been great. I feel super."

Fernandina Beach's Bubba Dickerson says that since he's been a member of the TOUR, he's seen less of the Valley because his buddies always want to play the Stadium. "I'm looking forward to it for that reason," said Dickerson, who first played the Valley course as a high school student in nearby Callahan, Fla.

One of the more interesting stories to follow this week may be that of Santiago Cavanagh, the Flagler College golf coach who survived sectional qualifying to earn his spot in the field. He's juggling his own practice time with his golf team's schedule in a whirlwind week.

"I left my office Monday night at 8 p.m. after coming back from a tournament with my teams," said Cavanagh, who coaches both the men and the women at the college located 30 minutes down the road in St. Augustine. "I played a practice round today (Tuesday) and will go back to my office Wednesday and try to organize an upcoming 18-team college tournament."

Cavanagh, a native of Coronel Suarez in Argentina, played four years of collegiate golf at Lincoln Memorial (Tenn.), and also played on the Hooters and Tarheel Tours. In 2009, he competed in the PGA TOUR's Transitions Championship and the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.

"I will definitely never close the door on playing golf," Cavanagh said, "but I don't have the goal of going up there and playing full-time again. I enjoy what I'm doing with coaching and I love competing. That's why I keep my game up because I never know when the opportunities come."

Another Nationwide Tour member, Bob Gates, grew up about 90 minutes away in Gainesville, Fla. He recalls spending his fair share of time at TPC Sawgrass with fellow Floridians Ty Harris and Sam Saunders, grandson of Arnold Palmer.

"We all sort of gravitated to this area from time to time," Gates said, "and it's usually the Stadium we played because that the one that gets all the glory and attention. Being able to come back and play an event where your family can drive and watch you is pretty special."

It's even more of a home game for Lickliter, who lives at TPC Sawgrass. He's played 20 weeks on the Nationwide Tour this year and ranks 66th on the money list. With a win before family and friends, Lickliter could position himself among the top 25 who will earn their TOUR cards with one event remaining.

"We've seen little of Frank out here lately because he's chasing the dream," Hughes said. "I know he's relieved to be in his own bed."

Even though the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars could not manage a win at home against the Tennessee Titans Monday night, Hughes thinks homefield advantage in the Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open this week is huge.

"It's a familiarity component for these guys," said Hughes. "I don't have to tell you that it's a putting tournament every week and the guy who's got the hot putter is the guy that wins. But, week after week, the guys might have gone to the same tournament in a row for 10 years -- only to see it one week a year.

"It's nothing for us to see guys like Jeff, Len, Frank, or Bubba out here. They know the idiosyncrasies of the golf course so much better than everyone else, and I'm sure they're more relaxed here than out on the road.

"It's kind of like the slippers that you can never throw in the garbage can."