LITTLE ROCK — It was only appropriate that Maumelle Country Club was chosen as the site of the inaugural Ken Duke Charity Pro-Am benefiting Arkansas Children's Hospital.
Back in the early 1990s, Duke (Arkadelphia, Henderson State) was fresh out of college and landed a low wage job at the club doing everything from selling goods in the pro shop to shagging balls on the driving range.
In exchange, Duke got to play unlimited golf in his spare time in order to try to make a go of itprofessionally.
"It really doesn't seem like that long ago," Duke said with a smile. "These are my roots and where my career in golf began."
Duke, 38, whose charity event Tuesday raised more than $60,000, is the embodiment of the hometown boy makes good. After years of paying his dues, Duke broke through this season with more than $1.9 million in earnings.
Duke has had five top-10 finishes and is ranked 36th on the PGA Tour money list.
Returning to Maumelle as a celebrity is something that hasn't quite sunk in.
"When I worked here, I always hoped that I could do well enough as a professional one day to do something to give back to the community," Duke said. "I hoped that was going to be the case, but I certainly didn't know it would happen."
Duke's road to the top has taken perseverance. He played the minitours and in Canada for almost 10 years before earning his PGA Tour card in 2004.
Unaccustomed to the spotlight, he was sent packing back to the Nationwide Tour in 2005.
"It was really tough that year," Duke said. "Everybody was throwing new clubs at me trying to get me to switch. I just didn't really feel comfortable out there at the time."
A chance meeting with noted golf instructor Bob Toski early in 2006 changed Duke's fortunes. He began taking lessons and made the minor adjustment of going from hitting a draw to a slight fade.
The changes paid off almost immediately. Duke won his first Nationwide Tour event at the BMW Charity Pro-Am that April, finished the season with nine top-10 finishes and was named the Nationwide Tour Player of the Year.
More important, he was back on the PGA Tour.
"It wasn't really a huge change," Duke said. "But normally, it takes two or three years sometimes to make any kind of long-lasting change in your golf swing. [Toski] told me he hadn't had anybody adapt that quickly to such a change in his 50 yearsof teaching."
The momentum certainly carried over this season. He earned almost $1.2 million in a four-week span in April with four consecutive top-10 finishes, including a runner-up showing at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans.
"The bottom line is that I've been playing good golf," said Duke, who is coming off a tie for fifth last week in the Ginn sur Mer Classic.
"That's what you work for, and it really isn't about the money. If you're playing good, the money comes.
"My game is at a different level than it was a couple of years ago, but I still have a lot of work to do to get to that next level. For me, that's getting a win, climbing to top 50 in the world and making a run at getting on the Ryder Cup team."
Despite all his accomplishments, Duke's still the same small-town guy from Arkansas who doesn't appear to have apretentious bone in his body.
"I live in Florida, but Arkansas will always be home," he said. "I know how hard I've had to work to get where I am, but I'm no better than anybody else."
Sports, Pages 21, 25 on 10/31/2007