Fuchs shoots 69 and says he'll try for PGA Tour again

Some other golfers at the Met Open had better scores than Adam Fuchs did Wednesday. Met Amateur champion Evan Beirne of St. John's took the second-round lead with a 5-under-par 66. Fresh Meadow head pro Charlie Bolling also shot 66 on Bethpage Black. Nobody, though, had a more life-changing round than Fuchs'.

He shot 69 in the morning session, when it was windy and when Fuchs was saying that this would be his last pro tournament. But he also knew that he had a 5 p.m. deadline to apply for the PGA Tour's qualifying tournament, known as Q School. Sure enough, after conferring with his fiancee, his father and his golf prospects, he chose to give it one more try.

"It's still a long shot," he said, "but I could play well enough in these next two months . . . who knows?"

The 28-year-old Long Islander, who grew up playing at Bethpage and now plays out of Hamlet Wind Watch, said he knows what he will be up against in Q School. He has tried for seven years to break through and, at his father's suggestion, decided to start a full-time job in preparation for his Sept. 2011 marriage to Jennifer Rosenblum. Fuchs has options. He has offers to work for his dad at PSF Shoes, a Manhattan manufacturer, or Abbe Lumber, his future father-in-law's firm in Avenel, N.J.

"I've had success, but the guys out there hit the ball a lot farther than I do," he said. "It's a little discouraging when I play well and shoot 69, 70 and I see these guys shooting 64, 65. It's kind of like I'm good, but it's a whole new world out there to make it to the PGA Tour."

But, with a chance to win the Met Open Thursday, is it really time to give up on golf? He decided no, adding that his family went along.

Beirne has more immediate concerns. He has a chance to be the first since Johnson Wagner to win the Met Amateur and Met Open the same year. Plus, school starts a week from Thursday.

Bolling had work to do at the club before the round. "This is why I'm in the business, right here," he said. "To get a chance to come out here and play golf, this is icing on the cake."

He has played in major championships, has been on the PGA Tour and had four top-10 finishes out there. But that was in the 1980s. "Here's a quote," Bolling said, "I am not trying for Q School."