Bob Friend Jr. doesn't play as much competitive golf these days. Yet he is still a competitive golfer.

Friend, 42, of Fox Chapel, won the West Penn Open last week at Totteridge, outside Greensburg. He shot 71-67--138, a stroke better than the runner-up, Arnie Cutrell of Greensburg.

That isn't a shock, considering Friend is a professional, one of the best players to come out of Western Pennsylvania in the past quarter-century.

But ... he doesn't play or practice as much as he did when he was on the PGA Tour ... doesn't enter as many tournaments ... doesn't have the time most aspiring champions need to devote to this meticulous, maddening game.

Work and familial obligations have rearranged Friend's priorities. He is the director of golf operations at Pikewood National Golf Club, a pristine work-in-progress high on a hill outside Morgantown, W.Va. AND he is the vice president of marketing for Greer Industries, based in West Virginia. AND he and his wife, Leslie, have three children, ages 10, 8 and 6.

Oh, and being a long driver takes on added meaning for Friend. He commutes to his jobs in West Virginia, and to Dover, Ohio, where Greer has its steel businesses. Lots of drive time.

Friend, somehow, has been able to iron out any difficulties posed by such a frantic regimen.

"Sometimes, I'm going in 10 different directions at once," he said, chortling. "It's very challenging, but it's also very rewarding.

"It keeps you young and it keeps you in fun."

The son and namesake of a former Pirates pitching stalwart can still deliver on the course. Sunday, five days after winning the West Penn, Friend Jr. shot a 64 at fabled Oakmont. He fired that same score there about two years earlier.

Friend has retooled his swing -- again. He changed it in 1999, when he detected some flaws, but this spring reverted to what he had been doing eight years earlier. John Redman, teacher of touring pro Paul Azinger, has been working with Friend.

Yet, in many ways, Friend is playing by rote.

"I don't work on my game as much as when I was touring," said this 1982 graduate of Fox Chapel Area High School, who will play in the Pennsylvania Open next month.

"But I'm pretty strong at the mental part of he game. I know how to play. I plied my trade on the PGA and Nationwide Tours for 16, 17 years.

"If I hit the ball well enough, I can think my way around the course."

Friend does get in, what he calls, "a lot of customer golf." Playing with clients and potential clients is one of his duties at Pikewood, a private club where he has worked for a year and a half. Attracting new members is a priority.

The geography itself is an enticement. Pikewood is being built on a mesa with an elevation of 2,200 feet. The views are breathtaking, looking down seemingly at the rest of the Mountain State. It's Wild and Wonderful.

"On a clear day, you can see across 60 miles of air space," Friend said.

As a course, Pikewood is 61 percent complete. Two holes were finished this spring, expanding the competitive layout from nine holes to 11. The final seven, Friend said, are targeted to be ready in May 2007. This "new nine" ultimately will become the front nine.

Friend went from Fox Chapel High to Louisiana State University on a golf scholarship and won the Southeastern Conference title in 1986.

Friend spent nine years on the Nationwide Tour, winning one tournament in 1991. He earned a playing card on the PGA Tour for the 1992-93 and 1998-2000 seasons, and participated in four U.S. Opens and a PGA championship. Friend finished 57th on the money list in 1998, thanks partly to coming in second at the Canadian Open.

The possibility of returning to PGA play appeals to his competitive side. Friend made enough cuts on his previous tours on the Tour to be exempt for the first round of qualifying. But two more rounds would follow during the fall months, and very few players end up earning cards.

Friend's pragmatic side isn't so sure. Oh, he is a capable player, and he said John Raese, owner of Greer Industries and a challenger to Robert Byrd for a U.S. Senate seat, is supportive of his play.

"He said if I need to prepare for a tournament, go for it."

But ...

"The PGA Tour is fabulous," Friend acknowledged. "But I'm 42 and I have three kids, and I'm enjoying what I'm doing."