VSGA Alum
by KEN KLAVON
HURLEY READY TO GRAB
SECOND CHANCE
Former VSGA Amateur champion Billy Hurley III regains PGA Tour
playing privileges, aims for permanent place on the big stage
Sure, it’s concretely there, elusive by
nature, but it’s oh so hard to clamp onto
even when you’re cocksure you have it dead
to rights.It’s symbolic, of course, but it may
sum up Billy Hurley III’s professional career:
the culmination of retrieving a slippery PGA
T
our card that once seemed to be firmly in
his grasp.
Hurley, a two-time VSGA Amateur
champion, remembered the defeated feeling
(sickening would be more appropriate) after
he lost his PGA T
our card in 2012. He’s
also well aware of the rigorous journey he
endured this year on the developmental Web.
com T to successfully earn it back.
our
In 2012, cognizant that only the top 150
players on the money list were granted an
automatic invite back to the PGA T
our the
following year, Hurley fluctuated between
Nos. 125-150 much of the season.
Then he turned into that guy who locks
his keys in his car—helplessly looking in
from the outside.
Hurley watched in near horror as he was
slotted 151st, a mere $150 or so out of the
10
final spot—sort of like staring incredulously
at a lottery ticket one number off from the
riches. T weeks later he wearily attended
wo
the second stage of Q-school. The ensuing
results weren’t good. It mapped a merciless
path to the Web.com T
our, a purgatory for
castoffs and retreads hoping to get a shot of
playing where the milk and honey flow.
It wasn’t until a late burst at the Web.com
T Finals, a series of four events at the end
our
of the regular season that wrapped up in late
September, in which Hurley secured a place
on the PGA T for the 2013-14 season. He
our
finished 26th, earning one of the 50 PGA
T cards that are awarded.
our
FAITHFUL PERSEVERANCE
It’s hard to measure the emotional depths he
experienced from both sides of the spectrum.
Which was more emotionally taxing: the
miserable feeling in 2012 in which he lost
his card or the buoyed spirits in gaining it
back? It’s a rather perplexing question, akin
to asking a gambler whether the lowest of
the low feelings of losing outweigh the highs
of winning.
“In the summer [of 2012] I thought I had
it locked up, but it was my own fault because
VIRGINIA GOLFER | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013
Above: Billy Hurley III’s steely determination
helped him secure a spot on the PGA Tour
for the 2013-14 season.
I missed a bunch of cuts,” Hurley said via
phone in early October. “It was a different
thing to deal with emotionally because I went
from having conditional status to playing the
next week at the second stage of Q-school
and not making it.”
Fellow PGA T
our player Mark Anderson
underwent a similar arc. He and Hurley have
become good friends.
In 2011, Anderson earned his card while
playing on the Web.com T
our, only to lose it
in 2012 when he placed 155th on the money
list. And like Hurley, he scratched his way
back to a card this year on the Web.com
T
our. Anderson says he revels over Hurley’s
resiliency and marvels at his ball-striking
ability. But it goes beyond that.
“I think the best way to describe Billy
is that he always seems to be extremely
focused,” says the 27-year-old Anderson. “His
military background has prepared him well.
He’s always composed, always has a plan and
he sticks to it.”
If anything, that resolve, that discipline, is
w w w. v s g a . o r g
STAN BADZ/GETTY IMAGES
A
As a rule, there is no correct
way to kiss a snake.