Former Deac Mattiace eager to return to Tour

There were only two former Wake Forest golfers on the PGA Tour in 2011 — Bill Haas and Webb Simpson — and both had career seasons.

They could have company from fellow Deacons in 2012 from the looks of the final stage of PGA Tour qualifying school.

Kyle Reifers already has his tour card for 2012 because of his success on the Nationwide Tour. Four other former Deacons will have the chance to follow suit at this week's final stage of qualifying — Len Mattiace, Ron Whittaker, Brendan Gielow and Travis Wadkins can secure cards with top-25 finishes.

Mattiace, 44 and a PGA Tour veteran, has started to find his game again.

"I've got some good golf left in me," Mattiace said.

Mattiace, a member of Wake Forest's 1986 NCAA championship team, fell off the golfing map after tearing ligaments in both knees in a skiing accident in Vail, Colo., in December 2003.

That also was the year Mattiace nearly won the Masters — he lost in a one-hole playoff to Mike Weir. After the skiing accident, Mattiace was never the same on the course.

"Oh sure that was tough, and just look at the record after that," he said. "I lost my (PGA Tour) exempt status the year after that, and now here I am."

Mattiace hasn't played full time on the PGA Tour since 2006, when he made six cuts in 22 tournaments.

He has had trouble getting PGA and Nationwide tour starts the past three years, but he said he found a little something late in the season.

He fared well in two Nationwide tournaments, then made it through the second stage of PGA Tour qualifying school.

Mattiace, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour who has $6.8 million in career winnings, says he's in the best shape of his life and feeling stronger than ever. He had plenty of technical problems with his swing but says those issues are behind him.

"I felt like my swing is there but I just haven't had many starts the last couple of years to test it out," he said.

Mattiace, and the others, will start their bids for tour cards Wednesday, in a six-day, no-cut final qualifier at the PGA West in La Quinta, Calif.

"Sure, it's obviously a grind and you have to be playing well," Mattiace said. "I feel very confident heading in, and the goal is to finish in the top 25 so I can be back on the PGA Tour next year."

Wadkins, 24 and a 2010 graduate, was a solid golfer at Wake Forest but didn't win any tournaments and had just one top-10 finish. He hit the minitours hard after graduation, and his father, Lanny Wadkins — a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame — said that Travis has been playing great for the past year or so.

"He's hitting it the best I've ever seen him," Lanny said. "He not only had to go through first and second stage of qualifying he had to the pre-qualifying tournament, so he's going through his fourth stage coming up."

Gielow and Wadkins were teammates of Simpson, and Gielow said that seeing Simpson's success has provided motivation.

"Last year it was my first year as a pro, and I played about as bad as I could," Gielow said. "So I went back to my first swing coach in May and just kind of went back to basics, and it's worked out for me."

Gielow, 24 and also a 2010 graduate, had two victories at Wake Forest and he also played the minitours after graduation. He's been fighting the flu but hopes to be at full strength by Wednesday.

"In a way, it's going to be a lot like a U.S. Amateur week because it's such a long week, but I just want to be really smart," Gielow said. "It's six rounds of stroke play, so it's going to be a challenge."

Golfers who made the final stage of PGA qualifying are assured of some status on the Nationwide Tour if they finish outside the top 25.

Lanny Wadkins, whose back issues have cut short his Champions Tour career, said that if his son makes the PGA Tour, he might come out of retirement.

"If Travis makes it, I might go back out on the PGA Tour one more time just to play with him," Lanny said. "That would be cool."

Around the green

• Natalie Sheary, a Wake Forest graduate in her first pro season, also will be at the final stage of LPGA Tour qualifying school this week. She will be part of a 142-golfer field that starts play Wednesday in Daytona Beach, Fla. Other former Deacons in the field are Delores White, Jean Chua, Stephanie Kim and Laura Crawford.

• Haas was a part of the U.S. President's Cup team in Australia. He wrote a daily blog for pgatour.com and in his final entry talked about being honored to play on his first international team as a pro. He also loved being in the team room and getting to know his teammates better. "I don't think they saw me as Jay Haas' son," he wrote. "I was their teammate, and that was exactly the way I wanted it."