LA JOLLA, Calif. — The phone rang in Bill Lunde's office three years ago. Well, it wasn't exactly his office. It wasn't even a cubicle. It was an open area workspace that Lunde shared with others at the Las Vegas Founders, the organization that runs the Las Vegas PGA Tour stop.
The phone ringing was an event in itself for a sales guy like Lunde, who spent his day working the phones and making cold calls. "It was always kind of fun when my phone rang," Lunde said, "because no one ever called me."
This time, Chad Campbell was on the line. Campbell is a PGA Tour star and a former teammate of Lunde's on the University of Nevada-Las Vegas golf team. Lunde was captain of the 1998 squad that won the NCAA championship (Campbell had already moved on) but had given up on playing pro golf in 2005 after two disappointing years on the Nationwide Tour and a failed attempt at Q-school. So Campbell's initial question to his ex-teammate was the obvious one: "Bill, what are you doing?"
Lunde answered that he was sitting in his office. Campbell laughed at the thought. So did Lunde. Then Campbell caught himself and said, "I'm sorry." Lunde said, no, it's funny to me, too, that I'm sitting in an office. "It was bizarre when friends called," said Lunde. "It was always awkward. It never felt like that was what I should be doing."
Three years later, Lunde has come full circle and is back to what he should be doing — playing golf at the highest level. He is teeing it up in this week's Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines, a big thrill because he's a local hero — he's from Poway, an inland suburb just northeast of San Diego. Eighteen months out of golf and a taste of the real world in business (it ended with him getting laid off during a real-estate decline) gave him a needed new perspective on the game that was driving him crazy.
He enjoyed a good year on the Nationwide Tour in 2008, winning once and racking up more than $340,000 in earnings, and now he's a rookie on the PGA Tour. He follows in the footsteps of other Tour players who tried jobs in the real world and were drawn back to golf, like Scott McCarron and Joe Durant.
"For whatever reason, I got led back to golf and here I am," said Lunde, 33, who lives in Las Vegas near childhood pal and fellow Tour player Charley Hoffman. "I'm blessed for the opportunity. The success I've had the last two years has been wonderful."
This week is going to be especially sweet. Lunde remembers walking the slopes at Torrey Pines as a kid attending this tournament back in the days when singer Andy Williams had his name attached to it. He still recalls the time he was perched by the fifth green on the South Course with his grandfather, and golfer Fuzzy Zoeller handed him his golf ball as he left the green.
"When you're eight years old, that's like the greatest thing in the world," Lunde said. "You think they just handed you a gold brick."
Lunde plans to repay that favor this week to another youngster. "Hopefully it feels the same," he said, "even though there's a good chance he might not know who I am."
Without that dose of reality in the working world, Lunde probably wouldn't be on the Tour now. He struggled with his game for two years on the Nationwide Tour and it affected his attitude. He grew to hate the travel, the gypsy life, the hotels. Golf isn't fun when you're not playing the way you know you can. It reached a point, he admitted, that he could barely make himself practice for half an hour on the range before he'd lose patience.
"I needed a break, no question," he said. "I was miserable to be around."
