Out of the Rough

Steve Flesch has played golf with snakes, and maybe eaten some too. You never know what’s under that sauce in Manila or Calcutta.

Flesch nearly gave up professional golf six times. Those would be the six times Flesch didn’t make it to the finals of the PGA Tour qualifying tournament.

Year after year, Flesch would come to Kentucky from sweating it out on the Asian Tour--literally sweating, until his pants left puddles in his shoes--and then bomb out in qualifying school. Flesch was a quiet, polite 5-foot-11 left-hander who had a beautiful swing and a future as an accountant. That’s what people would say when they saw Flesch.

But here is Flesch, a 33-year-old University of Kentucky graduate, just finished with his third year on the PGA Tour, a winner of $2,025,781 this year, ranked No. 13 among money-winners, and filled with wide-eyed excitement and heartfelt gratitude for what he says is good fortune.

Flesch will be partnered with 1999 British Open sob story Jean Van de Velde in the Hyundai Team Matches at Pelican Hill Saturday and Sunday. The format pits four two-person teams from each of the PGA, LPGA and Senior PGA competing for $1.2 million in prize money.

The three defending champion teams are Fred Couples and Mark Calcavecchia from the PGA, Juli Inkster and Dottie Pepper from the LPGA, and Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson from the Senior PGA. Flesch must have to rub his eyes to even believe he’s here.

“It’s hard to believe where I am right now,” Flesch says. “I never imagined this life, making $2 million from playing golf. I’m blessed.”

It’s harder and harder to celebrate the financial achievements of pro athletes anymore. Baseball players who make more than small countries, then complain about being disrespected when someone else gets a bigger raise, have ruined it for everybody. NBA players who find it impossible to show up on time for games or practice and then threaten the lives of the people who report their transgressions still take home millions of dollars. And then say they were disrespected.

But golf is different.

If a golfer is late for his tee time, he is disqualified. If a golfer parties all night and has a bad day, his paycheck drops. The golfer pays his own way. If a golfer travels first class, he pays for it himself. If a golfer gets a suite in a five-star hotel, he pays for it. A golfer can eat filet mignon. But he pays for it. So sometimes the golfer eats cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He pays for that too.

A golfer gets what he earns, earns what he gets, every week. If a golfer is injured, there is no paycheck. If a golfer makes millions, it is because the golfer played often, played well, followed all the rules.

So it’s hard to resent Flesch and his $2 million.

When Flesch graduated from Kentucky 10 years ago, as he explains, “PGA qualifying wasn’t until November, I had to play somewhere and I wasn’t fond of the mini-tour in Florida. So I figured I’d play the Asian Tour for one season, get my PGA card in the fall and it would be clear sailing.”

Off Flesch went, hopping a flight to Manila. “I was 22 years old, just out of college and on my own in this very strange country,” Flesch says. “It was a little bit of a shock. It was a three-month tour and every week you were in a new country, a new culture, different food, different customs. Once in India I had to stop to let a snake cross the green before I could putt.

“On the drive from the hotel to the course, you’d see people sleeping in boxes, in the gutter. You’d see dead people with a cover thrown over them because the dead were dropped on the side of the road and only picked up once or twice a week.

“It’s a shocker, but, in a way, it is good for you. You discover what is important and how lucky you are to be from where you are from.”

Six straight years Flesch came home from Asia and entered the PGA qualifier. Six straight years he failed to get into the finals. “Six times,” Flesch says, “I questioned my talent and thought it was time to do something else. But I couldn’t give up golf.”

The seventh time wasn’t the charm, but it was better. At the 1996 qualifier Flesch made it to the finals. He didn’t score well enough to earn his PGA Tour card, but he did well enough to qualify for the Ben Hogan Tour (which turned into the Nike Tour and which is now the buy.com Tour). Flesch ended up No. 4 on the Nike Tour money list, winning the season-ending tournament and finally earning his PGA Tour card. No qualifying school.

In 1998, Flesch was PGA rookie of the year. He struggled to a 75th-place finish on the 1999 money list after fracturing his elbow in a fall down some stairs at his home in Union, Ky., but this past year Flesch proved to be one of the steadiest performers on the PGA Tour. He finished in the top 10 in 10 statistical categories.

What Flesch doesn’t yet have is a PGA Tour victory. He finished second at the National Car Rental Classic in Orlando, playing his final two rounds with Tiger Woods. He hung with Tiger, but the two of them were passed at the end by Duffy Waldorf’s final-round 62.

Curtis Strange has called Flesch “the best golfer never to win a tournament.” This wasn’t an insult to Flesch.

“Whoever thought I’d be considered good enough to be winning PGA tournaments,” Flesch says.

Flesch has a good contract with the Cypress-based Cleveland Golf, which has allowed him to help design a line of left-handed clubs. He has a wife, Lisa, and plans for a new home in Union. He hasn’t had to shoo a snake off a green in three years. He never thought life could be this good.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com