By STEVE WILLIAMS

"I really didn’t hit the ball that well but I’ve played the course enough to get comfortable with it and know where to miss it and where not to hit it. I battled mentally and putted super."

Earnhardt got to know Keith Hills when he was a member of the golf team at nearby Campbell University in Buies Creek. He had finished third in the event a year ago.

The Keith Hills Amateur, a CGA points event, always attracts a strong field of the state’s best players and this year was no exception. Earnhardt finished four under par with 71-69, but needed two extra holes to get past Paul Simson of Raleigh and Billy West of Fayetteville.

The decisive stroke was a 22-foot putt with a long-style putter on the second playoff hole. A little earlier, he had rolled home a 15-foot birdie on the 18th green to tie Simson, who had eagled the hole to cap a final-round 68 more than an hour earlier.

West, who didn’t make a bogey in the tournament, earned his playoff ticket with a six-foot par putt.

"This was a good tournament to win," Earnhardt said. "I expect to contend there every year since I know the course so well."

Earnhardt, 32, doesn’t fit the mold of today’s top mid-amateurs. While most started playing as juniors before they were the age of 10, Earnhardt’s sport was basketball. He excelled at North Davidson High School and went to the University of Georgia on a partial scholarship.

But being a 6-foot-3 cheerleader on the end of the bench wasn’t much fun, so he left school and started working on his golf game back at Lexington Golf Club, mostly playing with friends. His game got the attention of legendary pro Dugan Aycock and through Aycock he got some tips from Harvie Ward.

He returned to school at Campbell where his game really took off with countless hours of practice and trips around the Keith Hills layout.

He graduated from Campbell in 1997, turned pro for a short stint before a broken ankle and lack of funds sent him to Greensboro, where he started in the car business. He currently works for Rice Toyota.

The dream of playing big-time amateur golf, and perhaps another go at the pro ranks, remains foremost in Earnhardt’s mind, however.

That burning desire takes him to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., about once a month where he’s working with Mark Wood, who also is the teacher for PGA Tour players Dudley Hart and Stuart Cink.

"I’ve been working about a year with Mark Wood," Earnhardt said. "It was kind of like fate. I just saw him on The Golf Channel. He was on Golf Talk Live giving a golf lesson. I liked what he was doing so I called him and went down there."

Earnhardt said Aycock and Ward gave him valuable pointers, but his sessions with Wood are his first real lessons.

"They got me into some fundamentals but Mark’s the first guy that’s taught me the golf swing."

A revamped swing has Earnhardt confident about his future in golf, but nothing helps like a sure putting stroke. That came when he switched to the long putter about eight months ago.

"I had experimented with it in college but it was something I never really had the time to get used to or to use it in a tournament. Finally I decided to stick with it. I had gone as far as I could go with the short putter."

It’s been the difference in some outstanding play lately for Earnhardt, including at the Keith Hills Amateur.

"With the short putter, I pulled putts really bad," he said. "Even when I hit it five feet, I didn’t think I could make it. Now if I get it within 15 feet, I’ve got as much confidence now as I did before with a two- or three-footer."

Earnhardt practices and plays at Greensboro National but he’ll be on the road quite a bit the rest of this golf season. He was medalist in qualifying for the North and South at Pinehurst No. 2 (scheduled July 2-6) and he also hopes to qualify for the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Mid-Amateur.

He plans to play in the Cardinal Amateur in Greensboro, the Eastern Amateur and a couple of other events.

"I’ve got some goals and I’m going to give myself until I’m 35," he said.