By Lauren Deason
PGATOUR.com staff

As a professional golfer, Morris Hatalsky travels to places most people can only dream of going. Wouldn't it be nice, for example, if your job involved spending two of the coldest weeks in January playing golf tournaments in warm and sunny Hawaii?

It all sounds pretty exotic. And the view from the golf course surely beats looking at the inside of an office all day. But the life of a Champions Tour golfer can become taxing at times, so players occasionally need a vacation from the game.

"Sometimes, when you play too much golf, it gets a little monotonous and you lose your enthusiasm," Hatalsky said. "Little breaks here and there are good for you."

Hatalsky and his wife Tracy recently celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary by taking a cruise to Alaska. On their trip, the two greatly enjoyed taking a float plane into the wilderness to go fly fishing and a dune buggy excursion into the mountains.

"We have traveled all over the world," said Hatalsky. "Doing a cruise and seeing how majestic and spectacular the view is and all of the activities was definitely one of the neatest things that I've done with my wife."

The highlight of his trip, Hatalsky added, was "just the fact of having some time together without the busyness of everything."

But all vacations must come to an end and Hatalsky returns to his busy routine at the Greater Kansas City Golf Classic this week. Refreshed and rejuvenated, the 54-year-old is ready to take on the difficult stretch of events, including four of the five Tour majors, that lay ahead.

"I wanted a mental break before finishing off the second half of the year," he said. "We didn't tee it up [at the Bank of America Championship] in Boston and I had a week break and skipped [the Commerce Bank Championship ] in Long Island so I've had a number of days off but I feel refreshed and am looking forward to the second half of the season."

So far in 2006, Hatalsky won the Puerto Vallarta Blue Agave Golf Classic and tied for second at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am. He has finished in the top 10 five times and hopes for continued success.

"I played well the first half," Hatalsky said. "I wanted to continue that and I think part of it has to do with feeling the enthusiasm of playing and working at it."

Throughout the remainder of the season, his tournament travels will continue to take him all around the United States. When in a new city, Hatalsky said he likes to visit unique places in the area.

"They're different cultures that are created around different parts of the country. It's a big United States and there's a lot of things that are going on that identify with each state. So I'm always a tourist at heart."