Berganio may be back

With Phil Mickelson visiting various members of the cactus family en route to a season-starting 76 he deemed “ridiculous,” and Anthony Kim whacking wacky shots across fairways and near man-made lagoons toward a 73, and Camilo Villegas coming in at one-over-par 72, the summit of the leaderboard had some room Thursday.

It had room for the anonymous, and it had room for the inspirational.

Sure, up came James Nitties, the impossibly cool Australian whose father played backup bass guitar for three nights for AC/DC. (Well, did yours?) Nitties, 26 and healed from juvenile arthritis and fresh from the gruel of Qualifying School, shared the lead of the star-infused FBR Open after one round at 65 with Lucas Glover, that aged veteran of 29.

Before that, though, came another recent Q school honor graduate, Sylmar’s David Berganio Jr., with a 66 that tied for second with Charley Hoffman, and in that came a revelation: Berganio, newly 40, can endure a round these days without his three bulging disks staging any protest.

“I’m very thankful,” he said.

Golf savants and Valley residents with voracious memories will recall Berganio as the kid who grew up in Pacoima and found golf when a priest at his school steered him from trouble with some Chi Chi Rodriguez clubs, four irons, two woods and a putter. “I was born to a 15-year-old mother on welfare,” Berganio used to say. “If that’s not tough, I don’t know what is.”

He went to Mission Hills Alemany High, won the U.S. Public Links twice, and flashed a brash sincerity that enabled such comments as, “The country club boys don’t have any [guts].” He starred on Arizona’s three-time national champions and finished second to David Duval for the 1993 Jack Nicklaus Award honoring the best collegian. “In all the articles it says I was on Jim Furyk’s team in college; he was on my team in college,” he said Thursday, grinning and then praising Furyk’s sustained kindness.

He joined the PGA Tour in 1997 and readily would tell you he didn’t fulfill his potential. He played 25 events in 2001, 30 in 2002 and 15 in 2003. He finished second to Mickelson at the 2002 Bob Hope.

Then the disk trio spoke up, inharmoniously.

“Getting out of bed was a bad day,” he said. “Standing upright was a bad day. It wasn’t like a sharp pain, it wasn’t like I had anything shooting down my legs, it was just a very deep ache. It was more of a mental thing. Was I ever going to play again, I didn’t know. A lot of sleepless nights, anxiety, grinding teeth.”

From 2003 through 2008, with a few Nationwide Tour events sprinkled in, he played only one to three PGA Tour stops a year, two in 2008 if you count Qualifying School in early December and Berganio’s bogey-free, closing 65 on the Nicklaus Course at PGA West.

As he continued to receive major medical exemptions for the tour year upon year, he might’ve stumbled on a title for the lousy mid-2000s: “A lot of 800-milligram ibuprofen,” he said.

“I turned over every rock in those 5 1/2 years to figure out what was the problem, from different exercises, different trainers, pilates, yoga, I spin now, and I even got to the point where I lost 20 pounds just to alleviate the pressure off my back,” he said.

Eight months ago, he said, came a merciful ebb. For three months, he said, the ache has stayed away. While conceding he prepared insufficiently sometimes and practiced too much on others -- all of which could factor into his back -- he claims that a simple and thorough dedication to his workout brought peace.

According to the PGA Tour media guide, he would have needed $346,342 in earnings in his first five events to earn exempt status, but he bolstered that with his Qualifying School passage. Then he nibbled at the top of the board last week at the Bob Hope, opening with 63 and 64 before finishing tied for 34th for $24,671. Of course, people wonder how he’ll hold up, physically.

He held up spotlessly for the bogey-less 66 on Thursday. It placed him in contention one shot behind the leaders and ahead of three guys with 67s and 13 with 68s. It led youngsters to seek his autograph along a rail.

To him, though, it mattered just to play, and to play serenely, and to say things such as, “I don’t mean to sound cocky or anything, but I’m playing with a lot of confidence,” and his closing, “Things are good for David Berganio right now.”

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chuck.culpepper@yahoo.com