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Randy Youngman Staff columnist mug for The Orange County Register

SAN DIEGO – It is happening a year later than he had planned, but the wait will soon be over for former Santa Margarita High star Beau Hossler.

A lifelong dream will finally become reality this week when Hossler, 21, makes his PGA Tour debut as a professional during the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

Hossler, the Fred Haskins Award winner as collegiate golf’s top player in 2016, had to delay the start of his pro career after suffering a shoulder injury last June while competing for University of Texas in the semifinals of the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship. But now he is fully recovered from surgery and focused on the next phase of his headline-grabbing career.

“I’m excited to get going,” Hossler said after teeing it up with tour veteran Charley Hoffman during a recent practice round on the redesigned North Course at Torrey Pines. “I’ve been anxious. I was supposed to play (tour events) all last summer. So it’s going to be nice to be out there on a course and be competitive again.

“I feel my game’s in good shape and I’m feeling very healthy, so I’m just excited to get out there and compete and try to win. That’s the goal.”

Winning has always been the goal for Hossler. He won often during his high school and college career and in high-profile individual and team tournaments between seasons. And he has always enjoyed stepping up in competition to measure himself against the best, as he did in qualifying for three U.S. Open Championships as an amateur before the age of 20 – a feat that only three others had accomplished, none named Tiger.

He has been precocious for a long time. To wit:

• At 14 years old, shortly after graduating from eighth grade at a Mission Viejo middle school, Hossler was the second-youngest qualifier in the 105-year history of the US Amateur.

• At 16, three days after getting his driver’s license, he qualified for the 2011 U.S. Open and was the youngest player in the field at Congressional Country Club – third-youngest qualifier in the 111-year history of the event

• At 17, he became the first high school player to qualify for the U.S. Open in back-to-back years since Mason Rudolph 1950-51; not only that, he briefly led the 2012 Open at The Olympic Club midway through the second round and was on the leaderboard until a final-round 76 dropped him to 29th.

That week, his stated goal was to finish as low amateur – until he found himself four strokes out of the lead going into Sunday’s final round. Asked then if he could win the Open, he answered: “Absolutely. There’s not a doubt in my mind.”

Since then, Hossler has won a lot, and competed in numerous prestigious events around the world. He won the SCGA Amateur in 2013 and 2014, as well as the Western Amateur in 2014. He qualified for and made the cut at the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, then played for the victorious U.S. team in the 2015 Palmer Cup. He also had a team-best 3-1 record for the losing U.S. team in the 2015 Walker Cup at Royal Lytham in England.

In his three years at Texas, he was the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year in 2014 and was the Big 12 Player of the Year in 2015 and 2016, winning five tournaments as a junior a year ago before getting hurt in the NCAAs and deciding to turn pro a month later.

Thanks to the Farmers Insurance Open, the first of six sponsor’s exemptions he has lined up, Hossler will play his first event as a PGA Tour pro in Southern California, the area he grew up, and specifically at Torrey Pines, where he won the boys 15-17 title on the South Course during the 2011 Junior World Golf Championships. He won that event by two shots over a then-unknown Bryson DeChambeau, a 2016 PGA Tour rookie.

“Obviously, the course is going to be set up different, and it’s a totally different time of year (than the Junior Worlds), but any time you have a past win on a course it certainly gives you a little bit of confidence,” he said. “I feel comfortable with the courses here, especially the South.”

Hossler also is a much different player now than he was during his glory years at Santa Margarita. He has grown from the 5-foot-11, 165-pound high schooler who contended at The Olympic Club in 2012 into a leaner, stronger, 6-foot-2, 210-pounder who can carry the ball 280 yards off the tee, complementing his always-sharp short game.

Though technically the Farmers will be his first official tour event, he played three events as a pro in the fall, winning a 36-hole Adams Pro Tour event in Spring, Texas (worth $5,200) and finishing tied for eighth at the TaylorMade Pebble Beach Invitational in November, an event won by Scott McCarron. That was another good measuring stick for Hossler, because he played alongside tour pros from the PGA Tour, Champions Tour, LPGA Tour and Web.com Tour, as well as selected club pros.

“More than anything, it was great to get back out there and compete and have something to play for, especially after six months of rehab,” Hossler said. “That was a tough time, but looking back on it, I definitely have more of an appreciation for what we get to do on a weekly basis – and seeing my buddies out there (playing on tour) encourages you to work hard and get ready.”

Hossler says it has been a “good learning experience” having competed against so many tour pros in the U.S. Opens, as well as playing practice rounds with tour pros such as Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth and Brendan Steele. He also played in college with Texas alum Cody Gribble, a recent PGA Tour winner, and against Justin Thomas, the hottest golfer on the planet.

“There’s a lot of stuff you can learn by watching,” Hossler said. “I feel my game is in good shape, and I feel I have the tournament preparation I need to go out and be successful this year.”