Insider: Veteran plays his way back into full status
By John Dell, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent
Darron Stiles, the all-time leading money winner on the Nationwide Tour, has seen a lot in his time as a pro golfer.
Stiles, who is 37 now and has made more than $1.5 million on the Nationwide Tour, is having another one of those breakout seasons. But as is his custom he's not about to start polishing off an acceptance speech just yet.
"We are only five tournaments in," he said in a stern tone. "There's a long way to go."
For somebody who has been playing mostly on the Nationwide Tour since 1997 he sheepishly acknowledges that being the all-time money leader isn't all bad.
"It means I've been out here awhile," said Stiles, a 1995 graduate of Florida Southern College. "It's hard to believe my first year out on the Nationwide was in 1997. That's a long time ago."
Back then the tour was called the Nike Tour, and Stiles had a rough go of it making just eight cuts in 26 events that first year out. He's come a long way, and is especially happy with how 2011 has gone.
Through five tournaments Stiles, who is seventh on the money list heading into this week's Stadion Classic at the University of Georgia, has made three cuts with no worse than a tie for 13th.
He's done so well that he didn't have much playing status when the season started but has improved to where he can play a full season.
There was some luck on his side early in the season. He was one of the last players in the field for the tour opener at the Panama CLARO Championship, and he wound up tied for second. He parlayed that into a tie for eighth in the second tournament in the rain-shortened Pacific Rubiales Bogota Open.
"I barely got into the field in that first tournament," Stiles said. "In fact, I think I was the last player in the field so that just shows you what can happen if you get that chance."
Stiles, who has had a lot of chances in his career, has four career Nationwide Tour wins spread out from 1999 until his last one in 2006.
During his career he's finished inside the top 25 on the final money list to gain his PGA Tour card three different times. He said that having that experience of grinding it out to earn his PGA Tour card should help him.
"Oh, definitely that's a plus because I've done it before," he said laughing. "I've done it three times and not a lot of people can say they've done it that many times."
Stiles has no magic formula as to why he's off to such a good start. Because it took awhile for the season to finally open, he honed his game on the minitours during the winter and that seemed to pay off.
"I was just really in a good frame of mind when the season got started," Stiles said. "I haven't changed much of anything with my swing or anything drastic like that."
Last season he had success with 14 made cuts out of 25 tournaments and finished 79th on the money list. In 2008 he was seventh on the money list to earn his PGA Tour card for 2009.
Stiles hasn't done that bad when he's gotten the chance to play on the PGA TOUR. He's played in 115 career events and has made 52 cuts and has made just over $1.5 million. While he's never won on the PGA TOUR he does have three top-10 finishes.
Stiles, who lives in Pinehurst with his wife, Kim, and their two children, used to have lofty goals at the beginning of each season. But it was a couple of seasons ago when he decided to change his strategy.
"It's funny, but I would set these goals and be so focused on them that I would kind of lose sight of what I was trying to do, and that's get the ball into the hole," Stiles said. "So really I fall somewhere in between of setting goals. I have a goal to win at least once this season and then let everything else take care of itself."
As a tour veteran Stiles has seen changes in his time on the Nationwide Tour and a lot of it has to do with the younger players.
"They are bigger, stronger and hit the ball six miles," Stiles said. "I think that's the biggest thing I've seen when you compare to when I started in '97 up until now."
There were so many young players who took the Nationwide Tour by storm last season, Stiles was amazed at how prepared they were.
"The guys coming out of college are so much better prepared to play the tour style of golf," he said. "When I got out of college it's not to say I wasn't prepared, at least physically, but mentally it's a challenge."
If Stiles does have some complaints about the younger players it's that they sometimes don't manage their games well, mainly because of a lack of experience.
"I know they are hitting a lot of wedges into greens where I'm sometimes hitting a 7-iron but I can get it closer in most cases," Stiles said. "So I like that aspect of it, but I still wish I could drive it like some of those young guys can."
In 1998 Stiles averaged 298.3 yards per drive, and this season he's averaging 284 yards a drive. He says he has to hit driver a lot more than he used to just to keep up with the young bombers.
Stiles is looking forward to a stretch of tournaments in late May and early June where he'll be able to establish his typical routines.
"We start playing a lot of tournaments in a row and that's really where you can get it going pretty good," Stiles said. "I know I'm off to a good start, and that gives me some cushion, but that doesn't mean I can coast. That much I do know."
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.
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