Columnist Dean Juipe: Estes, Wilk linked only by profession

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2002 | 9:34 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

As defending Invensys champion Bob Estes conducted a series of rapid-fire interviews Monday near the driving range at the TPC at Summerlin, 23 other professional golfers of varying skill levels were immersed in a pressure cooker of a one-day tournament on the course. But they were, for comparison's sake, a million miles away.

Here was Estes looking fresh, having just flown in from Washington where he added $50,400 to his account by tying for 25th place in Sunday's NEC Invitational. During his interviews there were references to the battalion of personal coaches at his disposal, as conditioning and nutrition experts have not only helped him earn $1.5 million this season but have assisted his ascension to an elite status on the PGA Tour.

He seemed to have little in common with Vic Wilk.

"I'm numb," the congenial Wilk explained. "My hands and feet are swollen. I'm so tired, I feel as if my swing is off balance.

"But I'm trying to have fun."

Wilk, who was competing for one of two at-large spots in October's Invensys Classic at Las Vegas, not only had been awake for 27 hours but had driven 17 nonstop hours (covering 1,200 miles) from Midland, Texas, prior to teeing off at Summerlin. Chatty and effervescent, he was doing his best under very adverse conditions.

"As I pulled into town I called the guy who was going to caddy for me and he said he was too tired to come out," Wilk said. "I said, 'What? You're too tired? What about me?' "

Wilk's overnight trek was the result of playing in the four-day Buy.com Permian Basin tournament in Texas, where he tied for 35th and won $2,253. For the season he has won a little more than $30,000 and is a distant 80th on that tour's money list.

Yet Wilk -- who was a child actor in Los Angeles and who has lived in Southern Nevada for several years -- considers himself "one of about 200" players in the country who could make the PGA Tour with a little luck. To date he hasn't had that luck, as exemplified by his 11 trips to the Qualifying School finals without ever earning his tour card.

"Twice I've missed by one shot," he said in resignation.

So he plays in the shadows on a minor tour, a lithe, 42-year-old, left-handed nomad with a beautiful game who aspires for the something better that is life on the PGA Tour. But for all of his abilities and successes -- he won a Buy.com event in 1994 -- he remains outside the loop that is frequented by the men of Estes' ilk.

The 18-hole Invensys qualifier, held simultaneous with the Estes interviews, presented Wilk and his 22 cohorts with an opportunity to crack a PGA lineup for at least a single week in October, and Wilk wasn't about to pass it up. He found a late replacement to serve as his caddy and set out -- with four privileged amateurs, including his father-in-law -- to shoot as low of a score as a guy who hadn't slept was capable of shooting.

Along the way and en route to a two-under 70 that left him three strokes behind Billy Harvey and Jeremy Anderson, Wilk talked of forcing himself to stay up late enough into the evening to watch the Browns-Packers game on TV, "just to be somewhat normal."

But this day, part marathon and part travelogue, was impossibly abnormal.

Wilk hits a nice ball, but 17 hours is one long drive.