[ SONY OPEN ]
Wilson just short again
When you are Hawaii's only player on the PGA Tour and you've just missed the cut in your hometown for the second straight year, it has to hurt.
Dean Wilson wouldn't admit as much yesterday, but he couldn't mask the disappointment of having to pack his bags after the second round of the Sony Open in Hawaii.
The 34-year-old Kaneohe golfer had just finished valiantly with two birdies, carding a fine 67 for a two-round total of even-par 140 at the Waialae Country Club. When he walked off the final green he thought he might still have a chance of making it to the weekend.
But when he emerged from the scorer's trailer a few moments later -- where he learned that, like Michelle Wie, he would miss the cut by a single shot -- he probably wanted to wrap his wedge around the nearest coconut tree.
"I'm disappointed," he conceded. "But I've missed cuts before and I'll miss them again, so I'm not going to get down about it."
Missing the cut is never fun, but to miss it by a single shot is excruciating. When it comes to golf, however, Wilson has always had to earn his success the hard way. He traveled the world for 10 years playing professional golf -- and went to the tour's Qualifying School eight times -- before making it to the PGA Tour.
Wilson grew up in Kaneohe. He played high school golf at Castle, as well as junior golf. "I won some tournaments," he said. "But nothing big. I wasn't one of the top golfers. There was always someone better than me."
After high school, Wilson wanted to play at a major mainland university. But only the coach from Brigham Young-Hawaii called. He told Wilson, "Play here a year, and if you do well, transfer up to the main Utah campus." And that's what Wilson did.
In Utah, Wilson had a crack at a big-time college golf program. Although he still wasn't very good, he talked then-coach Karl Tucker into allowing him to come out for the team. Tucker didn't normally allow walk-ons, but he saw something in Wilson -- and he was right.
Wilson broke into the starting five near the end of his first year. Between 1990 and 1992, he and 2003 Masters champion Mike Weir helped lead BYU to three straight Western Athletic Conference titles. In 1991 Wilson was the individual WAC champion.
After graduating from BYU, he turned professional and went abroad. Family and friends gave him $7,000 and he parlayed that into a seven-year sojourn playing the Australian, Canadian, Asian and U.S. Buy.com tours. He never won at any of these stops, but he always earned enough to continue his quest.
In 2000, Wilson qualified for the lucrative Japanese PGA Tour but then missed the cut in his first seven events. With only two more guaranteed starts, he had to produce or it was sayonara.
That week Wilson made the cut. The next week he played again -- and won. The victory was worth $166,000 and earned him Rookie of the Year honors.
In 2001, he won the Japan PGA match-play and stroke-play championships, both major championships in Japan. That earned him a five-year qualifying exemption and a spot in the U.S. Open, where he tied for 30th. For the year, he won $950,361, second in overall earnings in Japan.
That December, however, he failed in his seventh attempt to get through 'Q' School.
"Sure, I was discouraged," he said. "But my attitude was always, 'If I can't qualify then I'm not prepared. What do I have to do to get better?' "
Wilson returned to Japan in 2002 and had another strong season, winning two times and placing fourth on the money list. This time he made it through 'Q' School. Last January he teed it up in the Sony Open in Hawaii, his first event as an official member of the PGA Tour. And while he missed the cut, he went on to win $654,345 and finish 98th in earnings, which was enough to retain his tour card. He also gained international notoriety as one of Annika Sorenstam's playing partners during her historic first two rounds at the Colonial in Texas.
Wilson had no trouble pinpointing the reason he missed the cut in this year's Sony Open. In Thursday's opening round he took 36 putts -- seven more than the field average -- en route to a 73. Yesterday he made only one three-putt, but it proved costly. It came at the par-4 fifth (his 14th hole), where he hit a nice approach shot to within 25 feet of the hole -- only to come away with a bogey.
"I'm more comfortable on bent greens than bermuda because that's what I normally play," he said. "But that's no excuse. These greens were perfect."
If golf has taught Wilson anything it is persistence. He'll be back. Of that you can be sure.