By Bill Cooney
Special to PGATOUR.com

MILWAUKEE -- Watch Arjun Atwal launch a deep teardrop drive or rip a center-cut fairway metal. Watch the penetrating ball flight, and watch him tee up another and do it all over again.

Atwal didn't always make it look this easy. He started playing golf at 14, a relatively late start compared to most of his PGA TOUR competitors.

"Even when I was playing in high school I never even thought I would make it on the PGA TOUR," said Atwal, a native of Calcutta, India. "I was average. I was No. 1 on my school team but nobody played golf."

"But," Atwal added, "I practiced a lot. I used to cut school to practice."

Atwal now has made it. And he's here to stay.

The man who speaks three languages took up the game on the encouragement of his father, Bindi. He first played at Royal Calcutta, a private club where his parents were members back in India.

At age 16, Atwal and his family moved to Long Island, N.Y. There, Atwal spent time at a local driving range and Bethpage Black, site of the 2002 U.S. Open. By his first year in the United States, he was already breaking par.

Arjun Atwal finished T4 at the 2006 Buick Invitational. (WireImage)

Atwal, 33, studied liberal arts at a Long Island junior college and won his first college event at Bethpage. He turned pro in 1995 and honed his skills on the Asian Tour, where he became the first player to surpass $1 million in earnings.

"I really improved fast," said Atwal, who has eight international victories to his credit. "I turned pro when I was 22 and by the time I was 25 I won my first event on the Asian Tour, which was pretty big for me. And I started winning a few more and I could see that I could make it here."

Atwal became the first native of India to earn his PGA TOUR card after his seventh-place finish at the 2003 qualifying school. He finished 142nd on the money list with a late-season surge his rookie year despite missing 14 of 15 cuts during one stretch.

His breakout year came in 2005. Atwal, who finished the season as the TOUR's leader in putting average (1.710 per hole), tied for second at the BellSouth Classic and shared fifth at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. He also added two more top-10s at the B.C. Open and Bell Canadian Open and finished 82nd on the money list.

He is still seeking that elusive first TOUR win, but what's held him back? That's easy, he says -- his once trusty putting stroke.

"It's been bad," said Atwal, who ranks 80th in putting average (1.774) this season. "I got into a bad funk in Florida. I started jamming these three-, four-footers. I had no confidence going. But I've gotten back to where I was putting last year lately by just letting the ball dive into the hole."

Obviously, Atwal's No. 1 goal is to win. And if he does, he hopes it will translate -- at least someday -- into an increased interest in golf back home.

"It's not that big," Atwal said. "But the way the economy is growing in India, it's catching on a little bit. More middle class people can afford it now. That's a good thing."

What feels even better for Atwal is his day job -- just walking fairways and hitting golf balls, even if they don't always go in the right direction.

"I have no complaints," he said. "Every once in awhile you've got to remind yourself that you're playing on the PGA TOUR and everything becomes OK."