Ex-Amateur champ Moore closes in on Tour card

	After a so-so pro start, Ryan Moore has turned it up a notch. Scott Halleran/Getty Images

Top amateur and professional golfers seeking a spot on the PGA Tour have two opportunities each year to get that coveted Tour card.

The first is the dreaded Tour school, where thousands of golfers tee it up, hoping to find the pot at the end of the rainbow after 252 holes of competition. There are three stages of qualifying -- a local 72-hole competition, another 72 holes at regional, then to the finals for 108 holes. The top 35 players get to live out their dreams.

The second way is to write for sponsors exemptions and play in Monday qualifiers. If a player is fortunate enough to get in the field, he must rely on the accumulated winnings to gain access to the top 125 on the money list. Many have tried this path and failed. But every so often a player comes along and breaks through, the most notable being Tiger Woods after he turned pro in 1997.

Will Ryan Moore follow the same path as Tiger?

Moore, you'll recall, won five major amateur championships in 2004, including the U.S. Amateur, U.S. Amateur Public Links and the NCAA championship while representing UNLV. That summer is about as close as any amateur has come to matching Bobby Jones' historic 1930 season when he won the then-Grand Slam: U.S. and British Opens and U.S. and British Amateurs.

This summer at the U.S. Open, Moore announced his intention to turn pro, using his allotted PGA Tour sponsor exemptions the rest of this season in hopes of finishing in the top 125 on the money list, thus earning an exemption for 2006.

Moore tied for 51st at his first pro event, the Barclays Classic; missed the cut in his next two starts; then got back into the money with a T-71 at the US Bank Championship. At that point, with just about $21,000 in the bank, his prospects for 2006 didn't look too promising.

That was July 24. The following week, I had the opportunity to speak with Ryan at the Champions Challenge, an event hosted by Johnny Miller. I asked him about his schedule for the remainder of the year, and Ryan replied: "I don't want to burn all my exemptions at once. I plan on taking another month off, work on my game and then make a big push towards the final events of the year."

A big push? Try a giant leap. Since returning to competition at the Bell Canadian Open in early September, Moore has put himself in excellent shape to claim a spot on the 2006 Tour.

It started with his tie for second in Canada, a finish that earned him a staggering $440,000. That opened up this possibility -- if he could make $35,000 with his last two sponsor exemptions, he'd be allowed to play in the remainder of this year's tournaments. For a guy seeking to get into the top 125, that's a huge benefit.

Moore didn't waste any time -- his T-17 at the 84 Lumber Classic paid $51,920. Since then, he has made two more starts, cashing another $32,816 and now has a season money winnings total of $545,716.

With four events left this season, the 125th player on the money list is Steve Lowery with $552,410. In 2004, the 125th player on the money list made  $623,262.

It'll take a couple of good performances for Moore to maintain and solidfy his spot, but I fully expect Moore to have a Tour card by the end of this year.

Of those final four events, one is The Championship of Las Vegas, so he should be familiar with that course. The other three will be void of most of the top players, with the field comprised mostly of journeymen scrambling to earn money and acquire or maintain their cards. No reason to think Moore, hungry for pro success and accustomed to pressure situations in the top amateur events, can't thrive in that environment.

Don't be surprised if Moore even wins one of those events. Even if he doesn't, he'll soon get his card. And once that happens, it won't take long for Moore to start challenging Tiger and the other elite golfers. Trust me -- he's that good.