BROUSSARD - Rob McKelvey came tantalizingly close to reaching the pinnacle of his chosen profession in 2000, just a few months after the biggest win of his golf career.

The former UL All-American found the lightning in a bottle early that year, walking up the 18th fairway as the champion of the Louisiana Open and claiming the $81,000 first-place check.

It was the high point of a season in which he earned $173,565 Nationwide Tour dollars, finishing 16th on the Tour's money list. But that 16th-place finish put him one position out of earning the magic PGA Tour card - an honor that went to the top 15 money winners.

Jeff Hart was less than $5,000 ahead of McKelvey ($178,489), but the difference might as well have been in the millions. Ironically, the Tour now advances the top 20 on the money list, so had that been in effect McKelvey would have made the big jump.

Instead, he returned to the Nationwide, and his effectiveness gradually decreased. He fell to 46th on the money list the following year, then to 54th and to 88th, and eventually to 164th in 2004 when he made only six cuts and finished with only $14,447 in earnings.

He didn't have enough appearances to make the money list last year, but the Atlanta product and resident had other things on his mind. It was a year he'd just as soon forget.

His mother's health had deteriorated for nearly 18 months and doctors could not figure out why, before she passed away in November. An autopsy following her death diagnosed her with the brain disease Creutzfeltd-Jakob - in effect, the human variation of "Mad Cow" disease.

"At least we finally found out what it was," said McKelvey, who's back at the site of his best golfing moment this week as a sponsor's exemption into the Chitimacha Louisiana Open field.

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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com