Keeping it simple is paying off big for rookie Killeen

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LIVERMORE, Calif. -- Apparently J.J. Killeen never got the memo.

J.J. Killeen says his key so far this week is simplicity. (Badz/PGA TOUR/WireImage)

Inside the Numbers

Killeen thru 36 Holes

Category Total Rank Eagles 0 N/A Birdies 14 1 Prs 18 61 Bogeys 4 T42 Double Bogeys 0 N/A Other 0 N/A Driving Accuracy 71.4% T13 Driving Distance 305.8 yds. 22 Greens in Regulation 80.6% T2 Putts per Round 28.0 T4 Putts per GIR 1.621 1 Sand Saves 33.3% T19

Killeen, a rookie on the Nationwide Tour, simply wasn't aware how difficult it is for a player, especially one with all of seven tournaments under his professional belt, to follow a trip-the-light fantastic round with another extremely solid one.

Maybe that is the only way to explain Killeen's 3-under-par 69 in Friday's second round of the Livermore Wine Country Wine Classic at Wente Vineyards on a track with an earned reputation as the toughest the Tour members will see all season. It followed Killeen's competitive course-record tying 65 in Thursday's opening round at The Course at Wente Vineyards.

"I just seem to be playing all the right shots every single time,'' said Killeen, 26, who spent the majority of 2006 and 2007 on the Adams Tour after he graduated from Texas Christian in 2005 as Conference USA's player of the year. "I'm just playing golf.''

Killeen was too modest to inject a descriptive adjective before "golf'' in that last sentence. But suffice to say "great'' would be a viable option. Killeen's 36-hole total of 10-under-par 134 is a tournament record.

Believe it or not, Killeen's key thus far has been simplicity. He basically is painting by the numbers on a blank canvas, going from Point A to Point B.

"It's weird but I was thinking way too much earlier this year,'' he said. "I was hitting the ball well, but I wasn't getting anything out of my rounds. I had a million things going through my mind before a shot.''

That's about 999,999 too many at this level. But Killeen was focusing on more than his target. Everything around it, like bunkers and rough and the penalties he'd pay should he miss it in a bad spot came into play. So, he said, the idea was to "un-complicate'' things.

Killeen has settled on the following routine this week. He picks a club, picks a target and takes a swing. The result has been smashing -- 18 pars, 14 birdies and four bogeys, two of them three-putts in the second round.

Apparently he is on to something.

It doesn't hurt that Killeen is hitting his irons better through the first two rounds than he has in his previous five starts, two middle-of-the-pack finishes to begin the year and three successive missed cuts. He hit 16 of 18 greens Friday, including the last 15 in succession.

"And most of the time I was pin high,'' he said. "Every part of my game feels good.''

Killeen is also feeling pretty good about where he is at this point in his life. He failed in the first stage of the PGA TOUR National Qualifying Tournament in 2005 and 2006 and appeared to be headed for the same fate last year. Matter of fact, he was buried seven shots off the qualifying number with 10 holes remaining in the final round when his game underwent a resurrection of biblical proportions.

"I thought I was done, so I didn't feel any pressure,'' he said. "I felt like I was playing by myself.''

Killeen played those last 10 holes in 7 under par, closing eagle-birdie-birdie to advance on the number. Six months later he still shudders about his professional near-death experience.

"Just one shot higher and I'm back on the mini-tours this year,'' said Killeen, who sailed through the second stage and went on to miss his PGA TOUR card by four shots in the finals, but gained an exemption on the Nationwide Tour as a nice consolation prize.

Killeen seems unfazed by the fact that he's already traveled to five different countries and played on five courses he had never seen in 2008. The Course at Wente Vineyards marks his sixth different track so he must be a quick study because he professes to be feeling more comfortable with each passing sunrise and sunset.

"It's just a matter of getting used to everything,'' he said.

Killeen certainly will have something else to get used to this weekend. He's sleeping on the lead with 36 holes to play and it's a comfortable five shots. Sure, he felt the heat on his way to the winner's circle on the mini-tours, but what he'll face Saturday and Sunday will be something altogether different.

"I don't have much experience at this level to call on, but I have played a lot of competitive golf,'' he said. "I've free-wheeled it so far this week and I feel like I have nothing to lose. I want to take advantage of every hole and save every shot I can possibly save.

"But it gets right down to this basic premise. I've got to play some golf.''

And what will he be thinking when he embarks in the last group in Saturday's third round?

"Just do it,'' he said, smiling.