Poway Native Lunde Close to a $1M Golf Payday

By all accounts, the 2011 season on the PGA Tour has not been a resounding success for Poway native Bill Lunde. For the first time since joining the Tour full-time in 2009, he has not had a top-10 finish, and his earnings are down from both his rookie campaign and last year, when he won for the first time on the big circuit.

That's not to say it's a bad year, and it appears it could get much better over the next three weeks. Lunde is in line to win the Kodak Challenge, a $1 million winner-take-all competition that has run all year and will culminate at the Children's Miracle Network Classic at Walt Disney World on Oct. 23.

He's not counting the cool million just yet, but Lunde has a three-shot lead and probably won't need to play again to wrap up the Kodak title, though he will compete in this week's Frys.com Open in Northern California.

Players in the competition record their best score of the week on a designated hole, and must play in a minimum of 18 of the 30 tournaments on the Kodak Challenge schedule. Those 18 holes constitute a "scorecard," so each player is measured against par on his best 18 holes.

After playing in 21 of the 27 events held so far in 2011, Lunde is 19 under par, with an amazing 17 birdies and an eagle on his card. His best on the designated hole at the other three events he played were pars, and they are tossed out of the mix since he has 18 better scores.

So with three events left, he won't be able to better his score unless he gets another eagle. But his nearest challenger, Cameron Tringale at 16 under, would have to birdie the designated hole at all three events just to tie.

Last year's Kodak Challenge went to a playoff after three golfers tied at 17 under. Troy Merritt won the million and Aaron Baddeley and Rickie Fowler got nothing. Lunde was way back at just 9 under, tied for 62nd place.

How did he improve so much in 2011? Making the cut in 20 of his 26 events this year certainly helped. It gave him four chances to play the hole-of-the-week, rather than just two for those who fail to make the 36-hole cut.

Even without a top 10, Lunde has earned $639,548. That's 116th on the earnings list, barely safe when you consider only the top 125 on the money list earn their 2012 PGA Tour cards. But by winning the Turning Stone Resort Championship, to join fellow Poway native Charley Hoffman as a Tour winner in 2010, he earned a two-year exemption that runs through next year.

Lunde and Hoffman (who is tied for third in the Kodak Challenge at 15-under), who grew up on the same street in Poway, played countless rounds of junior golf together and were part of the 1998 UNLV national collegiate golf championship team, remain neighbors, but in Las Vegas. That's where Lunde registered his eagle on Saturday at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

"It was big today just to get that eagle, and it got me to 19 under through 18 holes, which is huge," he said in the Tour interview room in Las Vegas Saturday. "That was my ultimate goal.

"I'm not thinking about spending it (the million) or anything. It's a step closer. I'll think about it when it's all over, but definitely 19 under feels pretty good. I knew if I got to 19, I'd have a really good shot at it.

"But still, you just never know what's going to happen. Someone makes a crazy shot. Next week someone could make a hole in one, jump up there. Things have to fall into place, but you know, that was my ultimate goal, to make eagle on 16. So I'm very happy about that."

See Lunde's eagle in Las Vegas

Learn more about the Kodak Challenge