By PETE IACOBELLI
AP Sports Writer
KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C.
University of Illinois golf coach Mike Small shot a 69 on Sunday to earn a three-shot victory at PGA Club Professional Championship, and will lead the top-25 finishers here into the final major of the season.
Small finished at 1-over 289 to beat Travis Long, who shot a final-round 71. It's the second straight year Small has qualified for the PGA Championship. He finished second at the Club Pro Championship in 2004.
For the win, he gets $67,000 and exemptions into six PGA Tour events.
Between coaching and recruiting, Small had little time to get ready for this tournament _ and didn't know what to expect. "I was a little rusty starting out," he said. "But things clicked after that."
Small was a shot behind Long when he came off the course and didn't like his chances because the fierce Atlantic Ocean winds that typically blast the back nine were only mild breezes.
But Long, who had six holes remaining when Small's round ended, made bogeys on the 13th and 14th holes to fall back. Long's chances ended for good when he dunked his tee shot into the water and took a double bogey on the par-3 17th.
Long, an assistant pro at Southshore Golf Club in Henderson, Nev., was overjoyed, though, at his finish. "My goals coming into the tournament were just to make the cut," Long said. "Once I did that, I kind of made some extra goals."
Small is in next week's Western Open on the PGA Tour. Then Small will have to stay sharp enough for the PGA, where he missed the cut last year at Whistling Straits.
The PGA will be played at Baltusrol in Springfield, N.J., in August.
In the final round, Small made birdies on the first, fourth and eighth holes. He had eight pars and a birdie on the 15th coming in, good enough for a championship.
The Ocean Course took its toll _ Small's winning total was the highest in CPC history, surpassing the championship totals of Bob Boyd in 1988 and Jeff Freeman in 1999.
Small turned pro in 1990 and then began playing any tour that would have him, "except the LPGA Tour," he said. Small won twice on the Nationwide Tour in 1997 and the next year jumped to the PGA Tour.
But Small couldn't do better than a ninth at the Canadian Open that year and, with a wife and two young boys, grew tired of chasing his dreams so far from home. He settled back at his alma mater, taking over as Illini golf coach in June 2000.
"When you take a step back from something, you learn from it," Small said.
Suzy Whaley, the Connecticut club pro who made history as the first woman to qualify for the PGA Club Professional in 2002, finished with a 78 and, at 23-over, tied for 64th.
Even if Whaley had finished among the top 25, she would not have gotten into the PGA since she teed off from shorter distances than her male competitors.
