By Jon Levy - Staff Writer

February 11, 2010
-- Goodyear, Ariz.

After four runner-up finishes and eight total Top 10’s on The Gateway Tour since his rookie season in 2008, 27-year-old Tucson, Ariz. native, Nathan Tyler (65-64-67-196, 20-under par), finally shirked off the ‘always a bridesmaid, never a bride’ idiom this week at Palm Valley with a convincing four-stroke win over Jake Younan-Wise (66/68/66-200), worth $18,500.

The win comes after another near miss in Desert Winter Series No. 2 at Vistancia, where he came up just one stroke shy of tying Scott Harrington, but as he finished strongly on his closing nine holes this week -- knocking down three-straight birdies on Nos. 14-16 to post a back-nine 33 (3-under) and final round 67 (5-under) -- he made sure his first Gateway win came with authority.

“I think I just finally had my head in the right place,” Tyler said of his winning touch this week. “I did well at concentrating on consistency of the process instead of the results. And that led to a lot less stress in my golf game and allowed me to play better.”

“My game tends to be focused all around my mental game,” Tyler continued. “Everyone out here hits it well, it’s just those who have the mental focus to stay with it are the ones who win.”

Aside from mental strength, Tyler attributed his win to a good short game during the first two rounds, and a re-found sense of it again on his final nine of the tournament.

“I struggled a bit (with the short game) at first today,” said Tyler, “I took my only bogey of the week (on the par-3, 4th) after hitting it to about forty feet and three-putting, but I kind of found it again on the fourteenth and made some good putts coming down the stretch.”

Holding off a charging Younan-Wise, who opened his final round with a 5-under, 31 to climb within two strokes of his lead at the turn, Tyler felt making a few more birdies on the back-side would seal the deal and make Younan-Wise do something spectacular to catch him.

“I figured three-under on the back would be golden, even though (Younan-Wise) was playing well, he’d have to shoot 62 to catch me,” surmised Tyler. “I thought if I could just birdie the two par fives and make another one on one of the par fours, I’d be set.”

“But that didn’t quite go to plan. I did end up with the three-under, but I only birdied one of the par fives (the 14th) and made two others on the two holes (Nos. 15, a par-4 and No. 16, a par-3) after it,” continued Tyler. “But, I’m very pleased with the way I finished out there and just very happy to finally win one and get the monkey off my back, as they say.”

A former University of Arizona golf team member, Tyler has conditional status on the Nationwide Tour this year after making it to q-school finals last fall. No stranger to playing at the highest levels of professional golf after playing in the spotlight at last summer’s U.S. Open with Trevor Murphy (click here for the story)
and qualifying for the Farmers Insurance Open just a couple of weeks ago, Tyler plans on making the most of his year.

“I’m going to Monday Qualify into just about everything I can, both PGA TOUR and Nationwide-wise,” said Tyler. “I think I’m 61st on the status list right now on Nationwide, but you’ve just got to get in early and play well. If you play well right away, that can shape your whole year, and that’s why I’m going to work hard to do.”

Following Tyler and Younan-Wise rounding the top 5 in the $119,000 event was Nathan Lashley (65/66/70-201, 3rd), Zack Miller (66/68/68-202, 4th), and Eric Meierdierks (66/70/67-203, T5) and Tom Kalinowski 66/69/68-203, T5).

Click here for full field results and stay tuned as the Tour resumes again next week, February 15-17, at The Wigwam Resort - Gold…