Aussie comes up Trumps
Saturdau July 22, 2006 - By Bernie Pramberg The Daily Telegraph
WHO was the Australian golf professional to win $US1million in a recent tournament. John Senden?
No, Senden pocketed $US720,000 last week for his victory at the John Deere Classic. It was Stuart Deane.
Stuart who?
He doesn't play on the US PGA Tour, not the secondary Nationwide Tour and isn't even a regular on the third-tier Hooters Tour. In recent years, Deane has made a living as an assistant club pro in Texas, playing infrequently in mini-tour events where competitors pay to play with the entry fees comprising the prize pool.
But the 34-year-old battler in the mould of the movie Tin Cup's anti-hero Roy McAvoy, was the last man standing in the Trump Million Dollar Invitational contested in the Bahamas. He was presented with his cheque by multi-millionaire Donald Trump last month, but was sworn to secrecy until the made-for-television event screened in the US.
"My wife and I couldn't go out and buy anything big because people would know,'' said Deane. ``We had to lay real low until it was shown on ESPN ... now we can renovate the house and buy a new car."
And Deane, who was club champion at Brisbane Golf Club in 1990 where he was a regular pennants player before turning pro, can quit his job in the golf shop at a Dallas club to chase his dream of making the PGA Tour.
"I grew up with guys like Sendo [Senden], Rod [Pampling] and Stuey [Appleby] and played the Australasian, Asian and Canadian Tours for a while," he said.
"I moved to America in '97 to play, but married a Texas girl and stopped playing when we decided to have a family.
"Now Elizabeth [his wife] and I have a daughter, aged three, and a million dollars. I can go back to what I came here for ... to play golf."
Deane, who lives in Arlington, Texas, is no slouch as a player. He won 10 events on Queensland's famous Troppo Tour in the early 1990s, and earlier this year pre-qualified for the PGA Tour event in New Orleans where he made the cut. Last year he finished third at the Texas State Open.
Having played two events on the US Pro Golf Tour while still working as an assistant, Deane went from nowhere to millionaire.
After 54 holes qualifying at the Trump Million Dollar Invitational at Canouam Island, he lined up against nine others for the sudden-death nine-hole shoot-out. Now his target is the US PGA Tour qualifying school later this year.
"In the shoot-out, a player was eliminated at every hole and I had a few close calls,'' he said. "I was hoping my gun wouldn't run out of bullets ... I guess it all worked out." Caption: Money man ... Stuart Deane
