Billy Hurley III spent two years of active duty aboard the USS Chung-Hoon, a guided missile destroyer that calls Pearl Harbor as its home port. When he boarded the ship Monday for the first time in 2-1/2 years -- this time as a PGA TOUR professional instead of a Lieutenant in the Navy -- the feeling was a bit surreal. But also comforting.
Although parts of the ship had been upgraded, Hurley was drawn to the familiar places -- his old room, where he spent many hours; friends whom he served with on the ship; the ward room jargon during lunch that inevitably turns into a constant stream of acronyms.
"In the Navy," Hurley said, "you can have a whole conversation using acronyms."
On Thursday, Hurley begins his new life, making his debut as a card-carrying TOUR member at the Sony Open in Hawaii. But on Monday, it felt like he had never left his old life, the one that started at the Naval Academy and turned him into an officer aboard the Chung-Hoon, where playing golf is a bit difficult when you're on a five-month deployment in the Persian Gulf.
"In some ways," he said, "I think I could've just put on a uniform and hopped right back in and not skipped a beat."
The invitation to visit his old stomping grounds came from Chris D. Detje, the Command Master Chief of the Chung-Hoon. Detje, the highest-ranked enlisted person on the ship, reached out to Hurley via Facebook last week.
Hurley didn't know the name, but when he saw the return e-mail address, he knew the rank. The two exchanged e-mails. With Hurley in town for the tournament and the ship still at port, the reunion seemed apropos. And then ...
"It turned into a way bigger deal that I thought," Hurley said, "but it was a lot of fun. They did way more than they should have."
Hurley will need to get used to such bigger deals. After all, he has a story to tell that is unique on TOUR.
While at the Naval Academy, Hurley became an amateur star, earning invitations to play on the Palmer and Walker Cup teams. Just as it did withDavid Robinson and the NBA, the Navy was set to give Hurley a chance to play full-time on the PGA TOUR; unfortunately, he was unable to earn his card.
Instead, he set about fulfilling his commitment. He taught economics at the Academy, then in July of 2007, he was assigned to the Chung-Hoon. He spent two years on the ship, serving his country proudly but doing no favors to his golf skills. He played just five competitive rounds in those two years, and went months at a time where he rarely even swung the clubs.
Once he stepped off the Chung-Hoon in 2009, he could finally focus on his goal of being a pro golfer. Alas, there was one problem.
The state of his game was bad.
"Really bad," Hurley said.
Explained Hurley: "When you take time off, it's the finesse shots that become tough. Sure, you can go out there and swing 100 percent at a 7-iron and hit it fine. But when you've got to take five yards off a 7-iron, you've got no chance. Those were the things that were very difficult to get back."
But he was determined; after all, he is a Naval officer. He played on the Nationwide Tour last year and in 20 starts, he produced nine top 25 finishes, four of those in the top 10. Still, he had to sweat out the last 90 minutes at the Nationwide Tour Championship at Daniel Island, as he sat precariously on the 25th spot on the money list -- the last spot to earn an automatic TOUR card for 2012.
The fact that he was pounding balls on the driving range at Waialae this week shows you how that turned out.
Now he can turn his attention to 2012. The Sony Open in Hawaii isn't his first PGA TOUR start -- as you might imagine, he's received a fair share of sponsor's exemptions -- but it's the first one that really counts.
Give Hurley credit for carrying realistic expectations, though. He knows winning will be all but impossible this year, and that even being in contention on the back nine on Sunday in a given week would be a surprise. His goal this year is to use the pristine condition of the courses he will play and the first-hand access he will have to the world's best players and equipment to improve his game.
Even though he's 29 years old and has lost two of his key pro golf-learning years, he is not in a hurry. His simply wants to a) have fun and b) improve his game. The fact that he listed those two goals in that particular order should tell about his perspective. Missing a four-foot putt for par doesn't seem like a big thing when you've spent five years defending your country.
"If I can sit back here a year from now or at the end of the year and say I'm a better golfer than when I started at the Sony Open," Hurley said, "then I'll have had a good year in the midst of it.
"Sure, you'd love to win a golf tournament and put yourself in contention as much as possible, but really, if I just sit here and try to become better, go through the process of getting better, then I'll end up contending somewhere down the road."
While guarded with his expectations, Hurley knows he will receive plenty of attention this year. Navy grads who step off guided missile destroyers to become PGA TOUR pros don't exactly go unnoticed.
Fortunately, Hurley will gladly accept the responsibility of representing the Navy whenever he tees it up. Not only friends and family are proud of him, but anybody who has a tie to the Navy -- Academy graduates, parents of Navy enlistees, even just fervent military supporters -- will be rooting him on. He will shake many hands, high-five many others, sign many autographs this year.
"I want to be the guy from the Navy, from the Naval Academy," he said. "Nobody's really done it before. I'm proud to be the first service academy grad to play on the TOUR full-time.
"I want to have that emblem on me."
On Thursday, he will wear it for the first time as a TOUR pro. The USS Chung-Hoon may be just a few miles away, but now it's time to embark on a new adventure. One with fewer acronyms.
