Frank Lickliter II won the Kemper Open last year, then lost his way. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        DUBLIN, Ohio — The epiphany came a year ago this week. For Frank Lickliter II, a long-awaited first PGA tournament victory was a sign of how far he felt he had to go.

        “With the amount of tools I had at the time, it was a great win,” said Lickliter, a 32-year-old Franklin High graduate. “But it made me realize I needed more tools to win more tournaments, including the majors.”

        That Kemper Open victory paved the way for his finest year, in which he earned $1.94 million and ranked 19th on the money list. But his mindset last May seemed to ring true late in the season, when he went more than two months with out making a cut.

        Lickliter sought out Randy Sonnier, a man he calls “a modern-day Bobby Jones” for his 100-plus amateur tournament titles, and asked him to rebuild the pro's game.

        This wasn't a simple “fix-my-grip” type of tutelage. This was “tear it down and build it from the ground up.” Clear the mind. Fill the nerves with steel.

        “On the pro level, there's not too many guys with the courage to do that,” Sonnier said. “A lot of people think they're going to raise their game, but then they just make a couple small changes and stop.

        “Frank is a lot different. He's a guy that's got a lot of guts. I don't think I've met anyone with more drive than he's got.”

        Lickliter, who lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., said fans won't see the finished product this week at the Memorial Tournament. He wishes they could, for this is a favorite event in a town in which he lived for six years in the early 1990s. But his revised strokes only now are starting to bear fruit, and much of the mental work is ahead.

        Lickliter said he is about 90 percent recovered from a wrist injury that kept him out about four weeks this spring, but he looked strong in tying for eighth two weeks ago at the Byron Nelson Classic. He also tied for 12th at the Colonial last week. He is 71st on the 2002 money list with $403,239.

        “The last few weeks, I've done some really cool things on the golf course,” he said.

        His wasn't a country-club upbringing. Frank Sr., an Armco steelworker, introduced his son to the game at Shaker Run in Lebanon, when it was open only to Armco employees.

        Lickliter is a little rough around the edges: He loves ZZ Top, drives a Humvee and craves hunting. In 1997, he pulled a knife on someone he felt was harassing fiancee Diane Lynn Owen — then his girlfriend — at a Georgia bar.

        He plays a hungry game, based on powerful drives (he ranked ninth in the tour's driving category last year) and aggressive putting (16th last year). Think of the Kevin Costner character in Tin Cup, refusing to lay up.

        But that aggression cost him. Three times in 2000, he led late in an event but lost each time. His most memorable failure was in a Buick Open playoff in February 2001, when Phil Mickelson double-bogeyed the final hole but Lickliter three-putted for a triple-bogey.

        Even the Kemper win didn't come easy; he nearly lost a three-stroke lead with three holes to play.

        “When he got to the highest level of pressure, he couldn't execute,” Sonnier said. “There's a lot of people that can execute Tuesday through Friday, but not a lot can do it on the weekend.”

        Sonnier, who is a Continental Airlines pilot based in Houston, meets with Lickliter a couple of times a month. They also talk often by phone.

        “I'm less than halfway to where I want to be,” Lickliter said. “But I've learned more in the past (seven) months than in the prior 18 years.”

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