BELJAN BECOMES A BELIEVER

- TAKES PALM VALLEY VICTORY

FROM THE GATEWAY TOUR WEBSITE
After beginning the final round of this week’s Gateway Tour's Desert Winter Series event at Palm Valley GC, Phoenix, Arizona, trailing Kent Eger (66/66/73—205, T10) by three strokes, Charlie Beljan (67/68/64—199, 17-under par) shot an eight-under par, 64 to take his first victory of the year, worth $24,000, by way of a two-stroke cushion over Brady Stockton (63/70/68-201).
Through four events now of the Desert Winter Series, the Mesa, Arizona native has not finished worse than sixth place, and coming off last season, where he earned over $100,000 on the Gateway Tour, he’s already amassed an impressive $47,450.00 with the bulk of the ’09 season yet to play.
“You know it’s funny, I hit it the worst I’ve hit it in a long time, but I putted and chipped out of my mind this week,” said Beljan of his performance. “That just goes to show, if you can putt and chip, that’s all that really matters to get it done in this game.”
Beljan needed just 25, 26, & 26 putts in each round, respectively, and in making the final-round run, he reached nine-under par through his first 11 holes before closing with all pars and a lone bogey of the day on the par-4 17th.
“I started birdie-eagle right out of the gate and it just went on from there,” he said of the day. “I knew if I could just keep hitting greens, that’s all I needed with the way I was putting.” “I just rolled it real well all week,” he added.
Beljan missed advancing to US PGA Tour School Qualifying Finals in the 2nd Stage last fall, and while he’ll play The Gateway Tour throughout the remainder of this year, he also plans to Monday Qualify for 13 events on the Nationwide Tour.
With those in mind and with the rest of The Gateway Tour year at bay, he hopes to take some of this week’s attitude – an attitude that’s been perhaps vacant from his near-misses in the previous weeks – on throughout the rest of the year.
“Just believing,” said Beljan. “Just believing that the ball’s going to go in. That’s all I’m doing different.”
Beljan now leads the Desert Winter Series money list by over $7,000 over Ben Kern, having already accomplished one of his goals of winning on the Gateway Tour this season. A larger goal of leading the Gateway Tour money list at the end of the season, however, is one he’s well on his way to reaching as well.
“That’s definitely something I want to accomplish,” he said. “I want to see what I can do with the Nationwides, but come season-end and the Tour Championship in October, I want to be on top of that money list. That’s my biggest goal for this year.”
This week's event at Palm Valley concludes the 4th Desert Winter Series event of seven events preceding the 2009 Winter Series Championship at Encanterra. The Gateway Tour will resume again next week, February 10-12, at Hillcrest & Vista Verde in Sun City West, Arizona.