GREENSBORO — There were some mistakes in his first round in a PGA Tour event on Thursday, but Salisbury native Will Collins didn’t feel overwhelmed or overmatched at Greensboro’s Sedgefield Country Club.
“It’s a win-win for me,” the 25-year-old Collins said. “It was a chance to feel like I really belonged. Obviously, there were a lot more people watching on the first tee than usual, but you hit that first shot, and then you just go out and play golf. It’s still golf.”
Collins is a regular on the eGolf Tour, where he competes against talented but still unknown golfers in small-city events.
Collins’ check for tying for 20th in the Spring Creek Classic earlier this month was a modest $1,550, but the stakes were a lot higher and the galleries a lot larger when Collins teed off in the first round of the Wyndham Championship.
The really big wheels that fans know by their first names — Rory, Phil, Bubba — bypassed the Wyndham, but it’s still a huge deal. The purse is $5.3 million. The winner’s share will be $954,000.
Collins, 25, comes from an athletic family. His mother Debbie played college hoops, while his father Rip played college football. Collins won back-to-back 2A individual state championships at Salisbury High, taking top honors in 2006 and 2007.
His career at Virginia that followed high school graduation was just as stellar. Collins was a captain for the Cavaliers and made ACC All-Academic teams.
In 2011 U.S. Amateur sectional qualifying in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Johnson shot a second-round 60 and took medalist honors by eight strokes.
Collins shot an ungodly 26 on one side that day. A day like that can change your thinking and change your life. He was on the verge of starting a career as a teacher, but he postponed the classroom to give pro golf a whirl.
It has been a grind at times, but there have been some shining moments. He won the eGolf Tour’s Salisbury Classic and pocketed a check for $15,000 last October at the Country Club.
“What made that great was a lot of people who watched me grow up playing golf had a chance to see me win that tournament,” Collins said.
A month before he won in Salisbury, Collins shot a sizzling 20-under to tie for second in the eGolf Tour’s River Landing Open in Wallace, but in the 2014 season there have been more ups-and-downs. Collins has made eight cuts while competing in 13 events and has won $16,213.
Collins has participated in a number of Monday qualifiers this season for the PGA and the Web.com Tour, and he finally put it all together at Bermuda Run on Monday. His 66 put him in the Wyndham, along with three other qualifiers.
“It’s always huge to start fast and I got off to a great start Monday and kept it going,” Collins said. “I actually was very close to qualifying for Wyndham last year, but I lost in a playoff. I played well Monday, but all that did was put me in the tournament. The tournament is when you go to work.”
Collins worked his way to a 2-over 72 on Monday, nine shots behind leader Camilo Villegas.
Even-par would’ve given him a much better chance to make the cut, but he bogeyed 16 and 18. On 18, he struck his worst tee shot of the day into the trees, and his second shot found a sand trap short of the green. Still, he didn’t let that hole turn into a disaster. He salvaged bogey with a 7-foot putt.
The other two of Collins’ four bogeys came early, on 2 and 3, when he was still feeling his way.
“I got off to kind of a rough start,” said Collins, who played with Richard Steme and Edward Loar. “I made some rookie mistakes, but I hung in there. I settled in and then I started attacking the golf course the way you’re supposed to do.”
Collins is 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, and he can overpower golf courses at times. He played great golf in the middle of his day. He knocked in a short putt to birdie the par-5 fifth hole, ran off a string of seven straight pars, and then mashed his approach shot 3 feet from the cup to set up a birdie on 13. That temporarily got him to back to even-par.
Collins gave a couple of precious shots back at the end, but he was upbeat about the experience.
“All in all, it was good, but I’ve just got to get the ball in the hole a little faster Friday than I did today,” he said with a laugh.
Collins’ bogey on 18 dropped him to a tie for 118th in the 156-man field. He faces a tall task to make the cut today.
Still he plans to take his best shot, and whatever happens he’ll grow from this week’s experience.
“The eGolf Tour is a great place to play and a great place to work on your game.” Collins said. “But it’s still not where you want to be. This week, I’m where I want to be.”