A quest for quality.

Byline: Ron Bellamy The Register-Guard

OREGON CLASSIC

JUNCTION CITY - It's been a great season on the Nationwide Tour for Jeff Quinney, but he returns to the Oregon Classic at Shadow Hills Country Club this week determined to make it even better.

He's yet to win on the professional golf tour this season, though he's returning to the site of his previous Nationwide Tour victory, in the 2004 Oregon Classic on the 7,020-yard, par-72 Shadow Hills course.

And he's still focused on the goal of finishing the season as the leading money winner on the Nationwide Tour, with the $450,000 Oregon Classic - its first-place prize of $81,000 - the first of five events left prior to the season-ending Nationwide Tour championship.

All that, Quinney said, keeps him from looking too far beyond the tournament that begins Thursday, and yet the fact is that his superb season - he's No. 6 on the Nationwide Tour money list, with earnings of $256,464, surpassing his career Nationwide earnings of $239,174 prior to this year - already has ensured him of obtaining his PGA Tour card for next year.

And playing on the PGA Tour will be a dream come true.

"It's why you've been playing golf, to get out there," Quinney said. "And you've finally achieved your goal, and you're not satisfied with playing just one year."

The 27-year-old graduate of South Eugene High School, who played collegiately at Arizona State and lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., would become the fourth graduate of a Eugene high school to play on the PGA Tour, following Brian Henninger (Sheldon), Eric Johnson (Churchill) and Casey Martin (South Eugene).

"It's finally jelled together where everything fell into place," Quinney said. "There's a lot of confidence that's come by a few (high) finishes and being able to trust my swing. It's stepping on the first tee on Thursdays trying to win the golf tournament rather than just trying to make cuts."

From a technical standpoint, Quinney noted that he's now worked with swing coach Mike LaBauve of Scottsdale for almost three years, and the result has been a tighter, more repetitive swing - flatter, at least in comparison to the swing Quinney had when he won the U.S. Amateur and played in the Masters - that has enabled him to be more consistent.

He's also switched equipment this year. His new sponsor is Nickent Golf, which makes his hybrid fairway wood and has given Quinney the freedom to choose the rest of his clubs. After playing Callaway clubs and balls the last couple of seasons, he's returned to the Ping driver and irons he used in college, along with Titleist wedges and golf balls, while retaining his Odyssey 2-ball putter.

"There are multiple factors," he said. "Not just one thing. ... Basically, every part of the game has improved."

A few numbers:

Quinney ranks 12th on the Nationwide Tour in greens in regulation, compared with 102nd last year. He ranks 13th in total birdies, with 282, compared with 76th last year, when he made 227. He ranks fourth on the tour in "bounce-back" - following a bogey with a birdie or better - compared with 58th a year ago.

He leads the Nationwide Tour in total eagles with 16, compared with three all last season. The result of all that is that Quinney's pre-cut scoring average has dropped to 69.65 strokes per round, seventh on the tour, from 71.76 strokes per round last year, 103rd on the tour.

And here's the final reflection of his consistency: He leads the Nationwide Tour in top-10 finishes with seven. As Casey Martin, the fellow South grad, notes, it requires an exceptionally solid season for a golfer to be ranked as high on the money list as Quinney without the home run payday of a victory.

"It's unbelievable," Martin said. "It's hard to do. To be top five or six on the money list without winning, you have to play some tremendously consistent good golf."

In retrospect, Quinney said, his season was ignited by a third-place finish in his fourth event, the Livermore Valley Wine Country Championship, when he led after 54 holes and vaulted into the top 20 on the money list for the first time in his career. Since then, he's missed only three cuts and never two in a row en route to a career-high in earnings.

"I haven't made any major purchases or anything like that," Quinney said. "You never know in this lifestyle. You have to save your money. You have one bad year. ... I haven't had any time to get any more toys. But it's definitely more comfortable and takes a lot of pressure off."

Still, Quinney points out, the higher on the money list he finishes this year, the better status he'll have on the PGA Tour next year, with the top Nationwide Tour money-winner fully exempt into tournaments. That's key in terms of being able to win enough money to last more than a year on the PGA Tour, which, of the Eugene high school grads, only Henninger has done so far, holding his Tour card from 1993 through 2003 and winning twice.

Quinney's already had a taste of the PGA Tour in his career, having played 16 tournaments and made four cuts. The key to next year, he said, will be to start well and "settle into playing the same game that got you there." Martin agrees.

"I could see him doing great," Martin said. "I could see anything happening. the first year out there, for a lot of guys, you never know what to expect. If he can have some success early on, I think he'd be golden. I think the pressure comes when you miss early on, and you reshuffle to the back of the bus (in terms of status for entry into tournaments) and you feel this weight of pressure every time out to play great.

"If he could get off to a good start, I think he could have a great year."

This week, Quinney will focus on a good finish, to what's been a great year.

QUINNEY'S CASH FLOW

Jeff Quinney's year-by-year earnings on the Nationwide Tour

Year Events Earnings Rank

2001 1 $5,868 200

2002 8 $24,126 129

2003 8 $28,910 117

2004 22 $127,290 46

2005 24 $52,981 90

2006 21 $256,464 6

- Nationwide Tour