The ‘other’ Justin Hicks takes lead at Torrey Pines

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Justin Hicks went to the golf course, took a walk around, had a beer and a sandwich. Five hours later, he spotted his name atop the U.S. Open leaderboard.

Indeed, it was quite a day to be Justin Hicks at Torrey Pines — even if you weren’t THE Justin Hicks at Torrey Pines.

Turns out, there were two of them out there Thursday.

One was the Nationwide Tour professional, the one who shot 3-under 68 to share the lead with Kevin Streelman after the opening round. The other was the club professional at Stadium Golf Center in San Diego, who simply drove up the road to watch the action.

“I got home, I had three or four e-mails saying ‘Congrats on the Open,’ ” said Hicks, the teaching pro. “I had students saying, ‘Wow, you’re playing fantastic.’ ”

A nice sentiment.

But in fact, it was the other Justin Hicks who was making a name for himself.

He’s the 33-year-old from Royal Palm Beach, Fla., who has been playing the Nationwide on and off for the past four years. He made it here through qualifying earlier this month.

“Who am I?” Hicks said after his round. “Well, I think I’m just another one of the guys out there playing the Nationwide Tour, trying to earn his PGA Tour card. There’s a lot of great young players in America, and we’re all out there trying to earn our way up.”

The other Justin Hicks, a 38-year-old who was born and raised in San Diego, was one of those up-and-comers once, too.

He went to UC-Santa Barbara in the early ’90s, then transferred to UCLA, where he played golf as a walk-on. In 1995, he went to Q-school and made it to the second round. After that, he played on the Hooters Tour for five or six months.

“That’s when I realized my game wasn’t good enough and that wasn’t quite what I was looking for,” he said.

Around then, Stadium Golf opened, and he has enjoyed a successful career there ever since.

Not that he hasn’t dabbled in the playing side a little.