Dec. 9, 2011
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Even for a superstitious guy like Charlie Beljan, 13 was a lucky number.
Beljan, the former University of New Mexico golfer, finished tied for 13th earlier this week at the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament in La Quinta, Calif., and qualified for his tour card during the 2012 season.
“I still don’t think it’s settled in yet,” Beljan said. “I think I’m most excited that I haven’t had to play golf for the last two or three days.”
Beljan, 27, shot 11 under par during the grueling, six-round Q School event from Nov. 30-Dec. 5, finishing in a three-way tie with Harris English and PGA Tour veteran Jeff Maggert. The three were six strokes behind winner Brendon Todd.
The top 30 players in the event qualified to compete on the PGA Tour this upcoming season as full-fledged members.
Probably not many of those top 30 wore the same pair of socks the last four rounds because of the success they had in earlier rounds with those socks on. Beljan did.
“If something’s working, I don’t want to ever change anything,” he said. “If I stopped and got coffee for my fiancée in the morning, we did it again the next morning. I’m very superstitious. I won a big tournament (just before arriving at UNM) and so I played my first year in college with my shoes untied.”
Beljan was making his fifth Q School appearance. Q School consists of a pre-qualification tournament, a first qualifying stage, a second qualifying stage and a final qualifying stage. The former Lobo had advanced to the second round in each of his first four attempts.
When he made to the final stage, Beljan started out with a lot of confidence.
For the first four rounds, I felt very comfortable,” Beljan said. “The fifth round, I started to get a little nervous and then the sixth round my caddie and I went out and we were just going to go golfing, enjoy the day and enjoy the moment.
“From the green on (No.) 14 to the tee on (No.) 15, something clicked and I couldn’t breathe; I couldn’t walk. The last four holes were horrible. I was just trying to breathe and making that golf ball go forward.”
Beljan, who competed for the Lobos from 2004-07, had been playing in the Gateway Pro Tour. In 2011, he won two tournaments and had nine top-10 finishes in 17 starts. He won both events and posted eight top-10 results in the last nine tournaments he played in 2011.
Beljan finished fourth at the Gateway Tour Championship in October.
“I quit hitting golf balls and I started chipping and putting,” Beljan said of a change in practice habits that led to his ascension. “That’s where you score. The better you start chipping and putting, the easier it is to hit the golf ball. You don’t think you have to hit it absolutely perfect.”
He also changed putters just before the qualifying tournament began.
Beljan said he was asked about his alma mater after finishing his qualifying round on Monday.
“I just talked about how I played for the Lobos and how I looked forward to representing them because the Lobos through my four years were nothing but great.
“Coach (Glen) Millican went above and beyond what any coach I think would’ve ever done for a player whether it was mentally or I had a lot of back issues, and he was always right there to figure out how to solve this. Coach Millican was a big part of this because without him, I don’t know if I would’ve still been playing. He kept me going throughout those years.”
Lucky for the superstitious Beljan that Millican was around.
CURRENT LOBOS: Golfweek.com listed its Top 10 men’s collegiate story lines this season, and the Lobos were No. 9 on the list.
The articles said of UNM: “New Mexico a pleasant surprise: Not many people thought much of New Mexico when the season began, but the Millican-coached Lobos certainly have them thinking now. New Mexico opened with a second at the Mark Simpson (Invitational), finished fourth at the Golfweek Conference Challenge, second at their own Tucker Invitational, won the Lone State and closed out with a fifth at Royal Oaks. The Lobos are No. 24 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings heading into the spring.”