Central graduate pursues professional golf career

Cape Girardeau native Todd Obergoenner hopes to one day hold one of those large presentation checks awarded to winners on the PGA Tour.

Obergoenner took a small step in that direction earlier this month when the 2004 Central graduate earned his first payday in professional golf. While the check was relatively small at $1,552, it represented a monumental step for the 23-year-old Obergoenner, who is competing in the 12-week Hooters Tour Winters Series around Orlando, Fla.

It represented the first cut for Obergoenner in his five tournaments on the developmental tour as he tests and hones his skills in the professional golf world.

They are skills that served him well in the amateur world, which he resided in for the past 13 years.

After taking up golf at the age of 10, Obergoenner went on to become an all-state golfer at Central and parlayed his prep success into a golf scholarship at the University of Kentucky.

Todd Obergoenner hits an iron shot on the third fairway during the Missouri (MGA) Amateur Stroke Play Championship in July at Dalhousie Golf Club.KIT DOYLE kdoyle@semissourian.com

After red-shirting his freshman year at Kentucky, he played one season for the Wildcats before transferring to Southern Illinois-Carbondale. He became a co-captain for the Salukis and had the lowest stroke average on the team his senior season.

He said a professional career was always in his head during college, but marked improvement and career-low scores over his final two years of college inspired the dream all the more.

"As I was getting done with college, it was time to decide whether I was going to give this a shot and try to make a living at this or just go straight into working," said Obergoenner, who was an Academic All-American at Southern Illinois and graduated with a degree in exercise science in May. "If I didn't do this, I'd regret it down the road, and I don't want to have that regret.

"In my mind, God has blessed me with this ability. If it doesn't work out in the end, it doesn't work out. But at this moment, this is what I feel like I'm supposed to be doing, so I'm just enjoying doing it."

His amateur career included a course-record 63 at Kokopelli Golf Club in Marion, Ill., in 2007. He also fired two 63s at Crab Orchard. But it doesn't quite compare with a steady run that he's been on during 2009, which includes a fourth-place finish at the Missouri Valley Conference tournament in April and a top 16 at the U.S. Amateur Public Links tournament in July in Norman, Okla. It was part of a run of golf that Obergoenner said is the best of his career and where he's learned to score when he's not at his best.

Todd Obergoenner looks over a putt while playing for Southern Illinois during the MVC tournament in April at Dalhousie Golf Club.

"You just learn that through the years playing competitive golf, but I've learned it even on a whole new level now," Obergoenner said.

A new ballgame

The Hooters Winter Tour Series holds three-day tournaments with the field of about 130 golfers cut after the first two rounds.

Obergoenner said he missed his first four cuts by just a couple of strokes, finishing slightly above par.

That changed in his most recent tournament when he put together rounds of 69 and 68 for a 7-under total that cleared the cut by three shots. He followed those two rounds with a 69 for a 10-under total, which was six shots off the winning total -- the winner of the 131-man field received $12,368 -- and good enough for a tie for 16th place.

"In terms of the competition, it's not that much different," Obergoenner said of the step from amateur to professional. "It's just trying to get yourself to relax. You're playing against the same people you played against in college, amateur golf and junior golf. It's not like it's changed necessarily. You just have to trust yourself and play. That's what I've learned, and that's what I was finally able to do this past week.

"When I was missing cuts by two or three, I wasn't necessarily trusting my ability and letting things happen. I was trying to force things to happen and make the cut that way. That's not how you play golf or any other sport. You've just got to let your ability do the talking."

Obergoenner said a combination of a shorter course and ideal weather also helped him go low. The most recent tournament was on a 6,800-yard layout, where the others have been at least 7,000 yards, with two stretching more than 7,200 yards.

Obergoenner said his length off the tee, around 280 yards, is average on the tour. But five tournaments into his professional career, he's already become a firm believer in the adage, "Drive for show, putt for dough."

"The guys that are making money every week and near the top every week, any time they have a scoring opportunity -- the ball inside of 150 yards -- they're most likely getting the ball up and down," Obergoenner said. "That's how they're making their birdies. Any time they get inside 150, they're probably going to make birdie. So that's what I've worked on improving is that. If that's what everyone else is doing, that's kind of what you have to do to hang with them."

A golf mecca

Obergoenner has an apartment until the end of May in Sanford, Fla., in the northern section of Orlando. It's situated in a hotbed of professional mini tours. He said one hour is the longest he'll have to travel for any of his 12 Hooters tournaments. There is no qualifying for the tour, where a young pro looking to start his career can claim a spots in the field with an $800 entry fee.

"It's basically you pay your money, you show up and you go see what you can do," Obergoenner said. "That's how a lot of these mini tours are. You don't necessarily have to qualify to play, you just have to pay your money and go."

He said the number of professional mini tours in Florida is "countless." Just in the Orlando area alone, Obergoenner was able to rattle off the Florida Professional Golf Tour, Hooters Tour, Medalist Tour, Moonlight Tour and the Suncoast Series.

"There's probably another one I've never heard of," he said.

The Hooters Tour Winters Series runs from mid-October to the end of January, and Obergoenner plans to compete in all 12 events.

"I'm looking at is as I'm trying get as much experience as possible," he said. "That's the only way to improve, to get out there and test yourself and try to beat the guy you're playing against."

He then is eyeing the Florida Professional Golf Tour, which runs to the end of March.

Supporting the dream

His parents, Don and Mary, never had much interest in golf, but they always have been 100 percent behind their son and are helping him financially as he pursues his dream.

"Both my parents have been nothing but supportive," Obergoenner said of his lifelong involvement in the game.

He's also thankful for a supportive community that has helped his golf skills grow through his youth, and now into his professional career.

"I've been very lucky to have people both out at Bent Creek and Dalhousie helping me out in terms of getting prepared," Obergoenner said. "Dalhousie let me use their facilities to prepare for this fall, and also out at Bent Creek the same thing. They've both been very generous."

While he was excited about making his first cut and returning to Cape for Thanksgiving, he is not going to measure his professional success on a tournament-to-tournament basis when he returns to Florida.

"I'll give it about two years, and then kind of look at what I've done," Obergoenner said. "If I've improved and making progress, then you just kind of keep going at it. If at that time you realize you haven't really improved at all, then you've got to wonder what you're doing.

"You have to give yourself a window. I can't just give myself the 12 weeks and say, 'What have I done there?' That's too short a time period. I'll give myself a couple years and see what happens."