February 14, 2008–Most of us with a day job and career work hard to figure out ways to play more golf. Ask most any golfer if they have played recently and the reply is "Not nearly enough." But that wasn't the case for Las Vegas golfer Bill Lunde, a former UNLV All-American and member of the 1998 UNLV National Championship team. He was grinding it out on the mini tours, miserable, he says, trying to spend as little time as possible on the course. And when he did play, he was pretty horrible. But a cocktail of some time off–basically he quit pro golf–with his own 9-5 thrown in, and a splash of fate has led Lunde to exempt status on the 2008 Nationwide Tour and a spot in 8th place on the money list through two events. "Here I am,'' he recently told Dave Lagarde of PGATOUR.com. "This has been bizarre, but things happen for a reason. I honestly believe I have the ability to stay positive and upbeat now.''
Laegarde compellingly detailed Lunde's plight:
"He despised his job and all the interminable hassles it entailed — the drudgery of airports and security checks, the lines at rental car counters and shuttle rides, time spent languishing on the computer chasing cheap hotel deals and far too many meals eaten in quiet solitude.
"As if that wasn't enough, Lunde was doing something even more troubling, something that made all of the above seem like a picnic in the park with a Playboy bunny on a crisp, sun-splashed day. He was failing at his day job on the golf course, making bogeys in the same manner that an IHOP line cook made pancakes on an all-you-can eat Sunday morning. That is, stacks and stacks of them that became increasingly harder to swallow."
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Lunde played the Nationwide Tour as a rookie in 2004 and earned $114,700 good for 51st on the money list but lost his status. He then bounced around the mini tours including the Gateway Tour in Arizona.
He finished in a tie for 15th at the 1998 NCAA Championship when UNLV ran away with the title. He was joined on that team by current PGA Tour star Charley Hoffman in addition to Chris Berry, Scott Lander and fellow Nationwide Tour player Jeremy Anderson. Lunde won the 1997 TaylorMade/Big Island Intercollegiate for his lone collegiat victory. He was a second team All-American in 1998 and a third-team All-American in 1997.