With the world of professional golf ridden with uncertainties regarding performance, many amateurs are hesitant to make the leap of faith to the tour. But former Illini golfer Luke Guthrie has found early success on the PGA Tour.

The 23-year-old, who turned professional last year, placed third in the Honda Classic, a PGA Tour tournament holding a $6 million purse in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

The Quincy, Ill., native’s play over the weekend helped him place ahead of some of the top names in golf. His second-round 7-under-par 63 was the lowest single-day mark of the tournament. By the end of the third day, Guthrie held the top spot with Michael Thompson at 8-under. 

Guthrie’s final round Sunday, however, was plagued by strong winds, making it difficult to finish under-par. He posted a final round of 73 after a double bogey on the par-4 14th and an another bogey on the 18th.

After his Saturday round, Guthrie told reporters that he was extremely ready for the course conditions. 

“I live in Champaign right now, spent four years at Illinois and that’s a pretty flat area of the country if you haven’t been,” he said. “The wind whips about every day. That’s pretty normal for me right there.”

Despite Guthrie’s confidence, his final round score of 73 dropped him to third at 5-under on the tournament. 

He finished two shots behind Geoff Ogilvy and four behind Michael Thompson, who had previously never won an event on the PGA Tour.

Despite the close competition, Guthrie said after Saturday that he stayed composed. 

“On a day like that, you couldn’t really leaderboard watch or anything like that,” Guthrie said. “You’ve just got to put your head down when it’s tough like that and know that par is going to be a great score around here.”

Guthrie said the experience of closing out tournaments at the Big Ten Championships and during the Web.com Tour helped his confidence. 

“The first time you make a 5-footer where everything, all eyes are on you — everything starts in practice, when all your teammates are on you, kind of giving you some crap and trying to get in your head and you make that putt. Those are the things you draw back to,” he said.

Even though he dropped from the top spot, the Honda Classic was Guthrie’s first PGA Tour event where he finished in the top three. Pocketing just over $400,000 for his finish puts him in 25th on the money list, bringing in $621,753 in 2013 alone.

Guthrie has played three events on the PGA Tour in 2012, finishing in the top 20 in all three. His previous best finish was a tie for fifth in the John Deere Classic.

During Guthrie’s senior season last spring, he became the first back-to-back Big Ten champion since Northwestern’s Luke Donald captured two wins in 2000 and 2001; Guthrie became the first Illini to pull off such a feat since PGA Tour veteran Steve Stricker repeated his Big Ten Championship win in 1989. Guthrie also broke his own single-season school record with a final stroke average of 71.19 his senior year.

Beginning his freshman year in 2008 as one of the top-10 ranked juniors in the nation, Guthrie posted the lowest round of his career, 6-under-par 64, at the D.A. Weibring tournament. After sinking a 60-foot birdie putt early, he went on to record the second-best score in Illinois school history. 

That same year, Guthrie won the Illinois State Amateur after firing a final-round 65 and posted more top-10 finishes than either Scott Langley or Chris DeForest, two other former Illini currently playing on the tour, did as a freshman the year before.

His sophomore and junior years were also full of many successes. After finishing in the top 10 in four tournaments and finishing top 25 in 11, Guthrie paved his way to setting the school record for stroke average his junior year with a 71.36. That same year, he also became the first Illinois player to win the Big Ten title since 1999.

Guthrie’s success in college appears to have begun as a professional, though time will tell if he can experience similar results as the likes of Stricker and Donald. 

Claire can be reached at [email protected].