PGA Nationwide Tour Player Trevor Murphy Golf Instructional Video

Tervor Murphy

You'd never know it from his rounds of 70, 69 and 68 to open the Stadion Athens Classic, pushing his total score to 6-under 207 entering today's final round at the UGA Golf Course.

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Golf was never supposed to be Murphy's sport. The Vermont native was a world-class junior skier, competing on the U.S. junior world championship team along with Olympic stars Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso as a teen. His father and uncle competed on the U.S. ski team, as well.

It seemed as if his future was as an Olympian in the slalom events - at least until he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee during his senior year of high school, a time where he was already struggling to remain motivated in his chosen sport.

"I'd been kinda getting burnt out a little bit," Murphy said. "My dad and uncle were both on the U.S. ski team at times and I think they both wanted me to focus on golf, because (skiing is) a pretty dead-end career.

"Being 28 or 30 is considered old in that sport, whereas golf, look at (49-year-old PGA Tour star) Kenny Perry and some of these other guys, still playing well."

Murphy is only 25, but he has already become an accomplished golfer in a small window of time. Although he only picked up golf in his middle-teens - and then only played recreationally a couple months per year - he gave his full attention to the sport once he opted to end his skiing career.

He won the Vermont Amateur for three straight years and even won a spot in last year's U.S. Open as a sectional qualifier - he finished in a tie for 58th at Bethpage Black after shooting even par at the midway point to tie for 16th.

That came after winning a spot on the UNC-Charlotte golf team, first as a walk-on, and later as a player who helped the 49ers improve from the 100s in the national rankings to the No. 1 spot. Murphy helped lead the team to a third-place finish in the 2007 NCAA championships.

Although this is only his seventh event as a Nationwide Tour pro, Murphy has already started to make his mark on the circuit. By reaching the weekend in Athens, he has made the cut in five of the seven events he entered, including a season-best 10th-place finish at the Moonah Classic in only his second Nationwide start.

Not bad for a guy who only started playing golf year-round in 2004.