Insider: Steele's big rookie season moves to PLAYERS

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It's not uncommon for Brendan Steele to talk with some of his recent Nationwide Tour graduates about how life can change in a hurry.

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Last year Steele was fighting it out on the Nationwide Tour, and this week he's playing in THE PLAYERS Championship for the first time.

"I was talking with Keegan (Bradley) on Monday about that same thing," Steele said, "and it's kind of amazing how things are so much different."

Take Monday afternoon for instance.

Steele and Bradley were out practicing at TPC Sawgrass and wound up playing nine holes with Phil Mickelson.

"We were just walking around during that nine holes and Keegan and I were saying how ridiculous it is for us to be out here," Steele said. "It's pretty surreal to look around and see the guys you saw while you were growing up, and everywhere you look you see a great player."

Steele, 28, has made a big splash as a rookie on the PGA TOUR thanks to his surprising victory the Valero Texas Open. That win helped him get onto the map, and one of those new places he'll see this week is THE PLAYERS Championship.

What helped him gain the needed confidence to win in San Antonio was how he gutted it out to win last year's Nationwide Tour Championship.

"I played really consistent last year and I had a lot of good finishes on the Nationwide Tour," Steele said. "The most important thing was to actually finish off the Tour Championship to get the win. Even though a second or a third place would have gotten me a (PGA) TOUR card it was important to prove to myself that I could do it.

"I really leaned on that hard in San Antonio knowing I did that last year on the Nationwide."

Steele is No. 21 on the FedEx Cup points list and when he won in San Antonio his World Golf Ranking was a distant 231st. Now he's ranked at No. 133.

The way Steele was able to win his first PGA TOUR tournament in just his 12th start is something he finds hard to explain.

There are seven players in this year's PLAYERS Championship who competed on the Nationwide Tour in 2010, and three of them Steele, Jhonattan Vegas and Gary Woodland have won this season. The other four first-timers at the Players Championship who were on the Nationwide Tour last season are Bradley, Tommy Gainey, Hunter Haas and Chris Kirk.

"It had bothered me that earlier in my career I had blown some leads and that was something I needed to put behind me," said Steele, who turned pro in 2005. "In San Antonio it was all about having that experience of winning last year that really helped pull me through."

That victory for Steele, who is from Idyllwild, Calif., and is a 2005 graduate of Cal-Riverside, has increased his visibility with fans and other players.

"I definitely feel like I belong," Steele said. "I feel like I've earned some respect. With the nature of this game if you are playing well a lot of guys still don't know who you are as a rookie but when you pick up a win it's different."

Steele said he and Bradley held their own playing nine holes with Mickelson.

"It wasn't intimidating because Phil's such a nice guy and he was really trying to help us out," Steele said about the experience. "You want to look good in front of him and you want to hit good shots. You don't want to look stupid and it's a different feeling than in a tournament because in a tournament you aren't worried about who you are playing with, but in this practice round, even though it was nine holes, it's a different deal."

Steele said he listened intently whenever Mickelson talked about the challenges of playing the TPC Sawgrass.

"It was neat to be out there with him and hear his insight into the course," Steele said. "Just the preparation in general that he does and what he's observed out here in so many of these tournaments was great to hear."

About the only claim to fame that Steele has outside of golf is his uncle, Anthony Geary, has played Luke Spencer in one of the last remaining soap operas around "General Hospital." But now that Steele is a PGA TOUR winner and his stock is rising, he hopes to make a bigger name for himself.

"The win was unbelievable," Steele said about his highlight of his rookie season. "But getting to play here this week is going to be amazing. I've always loved to watch The Players Championship on TV and now I'll be inside the ropes playing in it."

Steele says he's already started to worry a little bit about the famed No. 17, a short par-3 that has a unique island green. But the laid-back Steele already has a plan.

"I'm just going to try and hit good shots on that hole and go for the middle of the green every time," Steele said. "No. 17 is what everybody talks about it, so it will be fun."

John Dell has covered golf for the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina for the last 17 years. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR. You can reach him at johndell@triad.rr.com.