By Jon Levy - Staff Writer

April 11, 2010
-- Queen Creek, Ariz.

If there’s anything Charlie Beljan has been proficient at during his time spent on The Gateway Tour, it most certainly has been winning and making money. Four wins and over $260,000 in earnings in 2008 & 2009 give cause for a fairly easy argument to support that.

But, in 2010, prior to coming to the Winter Series Championship at Encanterra, for whatever reason, his performance of 6/10 cuts made, $14,953.55 in earnings and a top finish of T5 at Desert Winter Series No. 4 (Anthem CC - Ironwood) had left Beljan -- and his competition -- wondering where and why that dominating player of the past two years had taken hiatus.

Well, this week at the Winter Series Championship: hiatus ended.

With rounds of 68/65/73/69-275 (13-under) in The Gateway Tour’s $100,000 end-of-series nugget offered to its top-36 money-winners, Beljan’s three-stroke victory walk over Benoit Beisser (72/68/71/67-278), worth $16,000, perhaps signals the return of that player he’s proven himself to be. At the least, though, this first W of ’10 signifies his competitive juices are back in full force.

“It’s been a tough go for me this year,” Beljan said of the season leading up to this week. “It wasn’t so much of a physical thing that’s been lacking with my game, it was more mental. I just haven’t been putting it together out there and haven’t been as pumped to go out there and play every week.

“But, with an off-week last week, I had a chance to work real hard at preparing for this week and I just told myself to go out and win and get back to where I know I should be,” he said. “I think some of the guys out here who know me pretty well could even tell I had put in a lot more work than I normally do, and that something was different. It was great because all week out there I was able to go out and get that fire burning again and get that passion back that I had been missing.”

He also knew a challenging course like Encanterra would play into his hands if he were on form.

“The course played extremely difficult in the first round and in the final round, which I like,” Beljan said. “Like today (in the final round), I knew if I didn’t make any mistakes, it would be tough for someone to catch up. They’d have to play an amazing round to get anywhere close.

“But it was a nice feeling that way because I knew I had a three shot lead with a few holes to play and I knew it was playing tough and it would be difficult for anyone to catch up unless I made a mistake coming in,” he said. “So, it was nice to have control over that.”

Blowing past his 54-hole co-leaders James Drew (69/70/67/73-279 T3) and Ryan Dillon (72/69/65/77-283), on top of holding off Beisser’s charge during a windy final round, Beljan made two birdies and seven pars on the final nine hole to close the tournament like the champion he’s proven himself to be.

“You know, it was a good week,” surmised Beljan. “It was a week I was looking forward to for a long time and I’m ready to get it going again now. I’m going to keep working hard and see where it gets me the rest of this year now.”

He’s hopeful a new plan for the remainder of the year will get him through PGA TOUR Qualifying come fall.

“I’m going to play the Spring Series (on The Gateway Tour) and maybe do a few (Nationwide Tour) Monday Qualifiers here and there, but I’m going to take a little time off this summer for the first time because I feel like I’ve always burnt myself out by the time I get to the most important time of year,” said Beljan. “So, I’m just going to take a nice break in the summer, then get ready for q-school and be fired up when I need to be.”

If he has more weeks like this one at Encanterra, it’s easy to think he will be. Not to mention if he continues to set trends like becoming the first player to win a notable professional event with Srixon’s new yellow Tour ball, as he did this week, success on a grander scale can’t be too far behind.

“The ball was great this week,” Beljan joked of his new yellow weapon. “It made all the difference in the world out there.”


Click here for full field results of the Winter Series Championship at Encanterra and stay tuned as The Gateway Tour resumes again on April 21st for the first event of the Desert Spring Series…