Rapid City's Wil Collins is on the PGA Tour after a long journey through the world of golf mini-tours that may have broken a less confident man. But a spot on the biggest golf tour in the world is something that he and those close to him have long believed would happen for the determined 30-year-old.

"Never a doubt in my mind," Collins' childhood friend and sometime caddy Tim Troxel, of Rapid City, said. "He's always been the hardest worker and most positive person I've known. I always knew he'd get to where he is eventually. Always."

As it turned out, Troxel was right on a few counts. His friend did make it onto the Tour, and it took all of that work ethic - especially getting through the crucible that is known as PGA Tour Q School in his seventh try.

"I can't believe I'm still standing," an exhausted Collins said a couple of days after shooting a 19-under 413 over the final six rounds of qualifying school in La Quinta, Calif. "To play 10 rounds like that, I was just getting by on adrenaline."

Collins has experienced quite a bit of success in his golf career. After winning three individual Class A state championships as a prep star at Rapid City Stevens, Collins moved on to the University of New Mexico where he was named the Mountain West Conference freshman of the year in 1999 and the Ben Hogan Award winner in 2001 as the top student-athlete in college golf. He followed that up with some success as a pro - winning numerous mini-tour events, competing in the 2005 U.S. Open and finishing 57th in The International at Castle Rock, Colo., in 2005.

But he had never been able to punch his ticket to play full-time on the PGA Tour, until he made the biggest putt of his life on the final hole of qualifying. And he didn't know just how big it was until afterward.

Collins was at 18-under par with two holes to play when he birdied the No. 8 par 5 to go to 19-under. Collins played the back nine first in his final round.

That birdie put him right on the number to make the PGA Tour. He needed to escape with a par on the last hole, a dogleg right par 4 with water on the right.

"I didn't know what I needed," Collins said of his score. "My caddy and I talked about just staying focused on the last three holes and not thinking about a number. I just wanted to play each shot. I didn't want a thought about what I needed to shoot to enter my mind because I had been so calm all day. I was really at peace and didn't want to change anything."

That calm was severely tested on the final hole of the tournament.

Collins stepped up to the tee and hit his drive left away from the water, but the ball hooked a little too far and found the rough, 217 yards away from the hole, covered in mud on a severe uphill slope. Collins had little choice and laid up into the fairway where he could try to get a wedge close enough to get up and down for par.

Collins' wedge found the green about 20 feet away from the cup and he stepped up and knocked the left-to-right breaking putt into the high side of the hole, where it trickled into the cup and Collins gave an incredibly subdued fist pump.

Collins plans on making his 2009 PGA Tour debut at the Sony Open at Waialae Country Club the week of Jan. 12. One thing about that first tournament of the year is absolutely certain - Collins is honored to be representing his hometown on the world's biggest golf stage.

"The outpouring of support that I've got since I made it has been absolutely amazing," Collins said. "People praying for me, people cheering for me, I've had more calls from the 605 area code in the last couple of days than I've had at any time since I left for college. I had an hour-and-a-half of messages on my phone to listen to. It was pretty neat, and it just makes me real proud to be from Rapid City and South Dakota."