Tommy Biershenk is 32, was on the Nationwide Tour long enough to see the feeder system go through three names changes and was done playing professional golf just two years ago, the victim of a stagnant career.

Some of his friends, though, weren't convinced. They thought Biershenk had too much talent to play golf and should not be selling "key caddies" -- the paper jackets that hold hotel room keys. So this former Clemson University player went back on the circuit, this time the Hooters Tour, and is the hottest player in professional golf after Lorena Ochoa.

"It's nice to make some money, stay loose and pretty much get ready for [PGA] Tour school again," Biershenk said.

Biershenk is the leading money winner on the NGA Hooters Tour, the third-largest professional tour in America. And he is trying to win his third event in five starts at Quicksilver Golf Club in Midway, where he shot par-72 yesterday in the first round of the Quicksilver Golf Classic.

That, though, left him six shots off the lead held by Aaron Clark of Springfield, Mo., and Grover Justice of Lexington, Ky., each of whom shot 6-under 66 to take a one-shot lead on Matt Anderson and Bryant MacKellar heading into the second round today. The 72-hole event has a $150,000 purse and a $24,000 first prize.

"I'm kind of surprised the scores are not lower than they are," Biershenk said. "You got about 40 guys out here who are tremendous players. I'm a little upset shooting 72. I feel like 72 is bad."

It was not good yesterday, not on a day when 19 players shot in the 60s -- including Neville Island golf-dome instructor Kevin Shields (68) and McKeesport native Brian Cooper of Scottsdale, Ariz. (69) -- and 38 players bettered par.

But it was still well enough to keep Biershenk in contention, where he has seemingly been on a weekly basis. This Columbia, S.C., resident has two victories and a second-place finish in his past four starts, the most recent coming in the LaSalle Bank Open a week ago in Granger, Ind.

Among the professional tours, that is a streak surpassed only by Ochoa, who has finished first or second in her past six LPGA Tour events.

The surge has pushed Biershenk to the top of the Hooters Tour money list with $65,408 and restored his belief in his ability to play golf for a living, hopefully on another tour.

"I've certainly tapped into my potential," Biershenk said. "I'm off to a good start and I got a sponsors exemption into a Nationwide Tour event, so, hopefully, I'll keep playing well and get a couple more. When I won again, that took some of the pressure off my game."

Biershenk really took the pressure off his game in 2004 after he lost his playing status on the Nationwide Tour. That was when he decided to quit professional golf and "tried to go to work for a living," investing in a business to sell promotional ads on key caddies.

Biershenk did not have much of a career on the Nationwide Tour, never winning in five years after joining the then-Nike Tour (which became the Buy.com Tour) in 1999. And work seemed like a plausible alternative.

"I wasn't afraid to work hard," he said. "But I stuck my foot out there too far and it didn't work. My friends kept saying, 'You're too good not to be out there [playing golf],' so they got together, put some money up and here I am."

Biershenk played the Tar Heel Tour in 2005, a mini-tour based in North Carolina, and rebuilt his confidence. After missing the cut in two of his first three events on the Hooters Tour this season, he won the Auburn-Opelika Tourism Bureau Classic in April and finished second a week later in the Savannah Lakes Resort Classic in Georgia.

A month later, he won again in Indiana, earning him nearly $64,000 in three tournaments. And he has not looked back.

"The big difference is, if I was struggling again this year, if I didn't start playing better, I was going to do something else," Biershenk said. "To know I can win, to lead the money list, shows me I still got it in me."