`Heads up’ play on the Nike Tour – golfer Darron Stiles uses quarters to mark balls – Brief Article

Pete McDaniel

Darron Stiles began the Nike season as a non-exempt player, but thanks in part to a ritualistic pre-putting routine the former Florida Southern All-American has a good shot at obtaining a PGA Tour card. Stiles, who won the Dominion Open in May, uses only quarters from the 1960s to mark his ball–heads up and facing the hole. “I guess it’s a bit of a superstition, but it’s worked pretty well at times.”

Stiles, 26, considers himself fortunate just to have made it this far. As a teenager, he overcame jawbone cancer that reduced him from a strapping 200-pounder to a lightweight. Doctors told him he’d never play golf again. He’s been beating the odds ever since.

COPYRIGHT 1999 New York Times Company Magazine Group, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group

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