Climbing A Mountain

Filed in archive Golf News on September 24, 2007

Courtesy: getty images

While the PGA pros fought at the Turning Stone Resort Championship to keep their jobs next year, a Canadian on the Nationwide Tour earned his way to the Big Show yesterday.

29 year old Jon Mills who hails from Oshawa, Ontario, just east of Toronto and a blue collar town if there ever was one (home of General Motors Canada), showed his own work ethic when he shot four rounds in the 60s at the Boise Open in Idaho.

In fact, Mills' final round was a Tiger Woods-like 64.

And the check he received vaulted the Canadian into fifth place on the Nationwide Tour, giving him his playing privileges for next season on the PGA Tour.

In 14 events on the Nationwide this year, Mills has missed the cut just twice.

Mills typifies the professional golfer today. He has the work ethic to match his self-confidence and he's not afraid to take one step forward and two steps back if it means he draws ultimately closer to his goal.

The young Canuck joined the Nationwide off the Canadian Tour, a superb feeder series, in 2002 but played poorly. Back to the Canadian Tour for another year and then another shot at the Nationwide in 2004. He played better. He had learned something.

In '05, he had a breakout year when he finished fifth on the Nationwide money list. But the PGA in 06 proved too tough a mountain to conquer first time out. So, back to the Nationwide and the culmination: yesterday's victory and his PGA Tour card in his wallet again.

Said Mills, "It seems like every time I've moved up a level in this game I've needed a year to have a learning curve. It even happened when I was a junior. But I've always believed in myself. I never questioned what I was doing.''

To be successful in golf - or anything in life, for that matter - you need this kind of focus and belief. When you have it, no mountain remains unconquered for long and life delivers in spades.

Jon Mills is going to find out how true that is. And it may even come next year.