Luke Decock, Staff Writer

The News and Observer

Reprinted with permission

Webb Simpson is 23 and, like many in his graduating class at Wake Forest, is beginning his career of choice, which happens to be the highest level of professional golf.

David Mathis will turn 35 next month, a veteran of just about ever minor league golf tour out there. His graduating class at Campbell already had its 10th reunion. Like Simpson, he'll be making his full-time PGA Tour debut today at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

Simpson, who went to Broughton, and Mathis, who lives in Morrisville and plays out of the TPC Wakefield Plantation, took very different paths to the tour -- Simpson without missing a step, Mathis after years of mini-tour toil.

Yet they share the same excitement as they begin their first full seasons on the tour, unsure of what will happen next but with the optimism that can only exist before the first shot is struck.

"It's pretty cool," Mathis said in a telephone interview from Hawaii this week. "Even after being on the Nationwide Tour, I guess it really doesn't hit home until you get here and start seeing guys you've been watching forever. Their golf is no different than my golf. It's just a little bit of a different level of distractions and stuff going on."

Mathis and Simpson have played in PGA Tour events -- Simpson six last summer before and after turning pro and another as an amateur in 2006, Mathis five over the past 12 years. This is different, though. This year, they're both full PGA Tour members, which more or less guarantees them a spot each week.

Simpson fought his way through "Q-School," the PGA Tour's grueling six-round qualifying tournament many pros regard as the toughest test in the sport, after making three cuts on the tour last summer. He also played eight Nationwide Tour events, finishing second twice. All told, he cleared $187,451.

That's nothing compared to the opportunity he has this summer, when he won't be relying on sponsors' exemptions to get into fields.

"There's probably not as much pressure on me as there was in those events this summer, knowing I have the whole year," Simpson from Hawaii before heading out for a practice round with Charles Howell III and Bo Van Pelt.

"That's really nice. But once again, you kind of want to go out there and start off with a bang."

Mathis earned his way onto the tour by finishing 14th on the Nationwide money list last summer. His win in South Carolina in May basically guaranteed him a spot, so he spent the second half of the season working on some major changes to his swing.

It wasn't something he could have accomplished during the offseason, so he basically sacrificed the second half of last summer preparing to make the jump to the PGA Tour -- an example of both the confidence and maturity he has gained over the years.

"In 2005, when I first got into the finals at Q-School, had I played well at finals and gotten a tour card, no way would I have been prepared for the PGA Tour," Mathis said. "I was 99th on the Nationwide money list that year [in 2006] and I would have been 250th on the PGA Tour. ...

"Playing a few years out there in all kind of conditions prepared me a lot better. As I've gotten better physically, I've gotten better emotionally. I'm handling things better than I ever have."

Still, even if the golf hasn't changed, the environment has. As Mathis pointed out, player registration at a Nationwide Tour event (or the NCAA events Simpson has been playing, for that matter) might consist of a couple of people sitting behind bare folding tables. On the PGA Tour, it's a dozen people sitting behind tables covered with white tablecloths.

And if that weren't enough, just arriving in Hawaii was a reminder that it's golf season again.

"Absolutely," Simpson said. "I got off the plane and felt that humidity. It felt so good. I'm so excited."

He should be. For both players, no matter how they got there, it's the biggest season of their lives so far.

luke.decock@newsobserver.com, (919) 829-8947 or blogs.newsobserver.com/decock