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Boy Ace twenty-three-year-old golfer proves he can make the grade Like most PGA golfers, Luke Guthrie is concerned with winning tournaments and moving up the money list. Unlike most pro golfers, however, Guthrie is also concerned with earning the last thirteen credits of his business degree at the University of Illinois in Champaign, so he can graduate. B p h o t o g r a p h b y s ta n b a d z / p g a t o U r But ShouLd thiS LaSt yeaR PRove any indication, the only business he'll most likely be in post-graduation is the game of golf. He clinched his 2013 PGA Tour card in September with two wins on the Web.com Tour, and ended the season fnishing second behind Casey Wittenberg on the offcial Web. com Tour money list (he was the youngest of the Top 25 earners). As the 2013 PGA tour season kicked off, Guthrie, twenty-three, was ready to go. His frst item of business was the Sony Open in Hawaii in January. "I've had the PGA Tour card in my wallet this whole time just so I can look at it once in while," Guthrie says. "I couldn't wait to get going. I have the itch to compete." That itch has already earned him $695,265 in just a few shorts months of playing in 2012, but Guthrie, who started the game in the town of Quincy, Illinois, at the age of two in the backyard with plastic clubs (sound familiar, Tiger Woods?), hasn't even considered buying much more than perhaps a new pair of sunglasses, if that. "I've been boring with it," he says of his accruing prizes. "I thought I was getting a car, but I'm not sure if I'm going to do that. When you're on the road fying from spot to spot, it doesn't make sense." This brand of levelheadedness isn't always seen in athletes, let alone those in the spring of their careers. In keeping with the good Midwestern stock that he comes from, his mother still asks him to cut the grass and make his bed when he's home in Quincy. He's in a nearly three-yearlong relationship with his college sweetheart, Kaitlyn Wampler, who plays on the women's golf team at the University of Illinois. His older brother, Zach, an assistant coach there, is his caddie. One of Guthrie's other outlets that, like golf, stokes his competitive fre is a ferce match of Ping-Pong. "You have to stay humble," the rookie says. "Golf can be a feeting game. I don't know everything that's going to happen this year, but I just can't wait for it." With the stats and starts that he's already secured, the wait should be more than worth it. Not that he'll have much time to refect on the whirlwind of his recent past and its windfall—the frst three months of this year he has been on the road constantly, and how well he plays determines his schedule in the second half of the year. As far as celebrating what would normally be an integral rite of passage and a highlight of a young man's life, Guthrie's collegiate exodus is already superseded by his real-life experience. "There was no ceremony in December," he says. "I could come back and walk in May, but we'll see how I'm doing in golf." One thing is for certain—he won't be the only one watching. "i don't know everything that's going to happen this year, but i just can't wait for it." Spring 2013 . Tempus-Magazine.com 81