He's just happy to be a big fish in a Small pond

As Mike Small shoved the 2-by-4-foot novelty winner's check under his arm and headed to the door, his round-table with the media over after winning a seventh straight Illinois PGA Championship, some smart aleck (ahem) asked him what in the world he does with all those hilariously huge checks.

After all, the University of Illinois golf coach now has eight of them from the Illinois PGA Championship alone, not to mention the four he has received for winning the Illinois Open over the years.

He has them all bunched together right now, Small said matter of factly. Then he smiled and said maybe when he retires he will wallpaper his garage with them.

With apologies to Chief Brody, the line here is: "We're going to need a bigger garage."

That's because all this guy does is win.

Small has dominated so often in the state that the question that follows him around now like a pilot fish to a great white is, why not strut your stuff on the national stage?

Don't think it hasn't entered his mind.

"I did Tour School two or three years ago just for the heck of it," said Small, 43. "I kind of winged it and didn't play as well as I would have liked. But if that had worked out, I still wouldn't have left my job (at Illinois). I made a commitment to it.

"Next year is going to be very interesting because if my golf swing continues to improve - next year I'll have seven or eight PGA Tour exemptions, and if that goes well you never know, I might play more."

But it's not like he hasn't given this Tour thing a go before. He has. And Small knows firsthand just how difficult an existence it is.

"I like home; I don't like traveling that much," he said. "It's hard to play on Tour. People don't realize how hard it is. You're self-employed and the risk is high.

"I've talked to some (college) coaches who've played on Tour. If you go back on Tour, you've got a job for one year. You've got to play hard. You'll make enough money to last you for a while, but it's only one year.

"If you want to build and be solid and have some consistency in your life, it's probably not the place to be unless you're one of the top 50 players in the world."

And it's not just those struggling to make the Tour's top 125 who have to grind it out mentally and physically.

"Even those (ranked) 80-90 are struggling year to year. It's a pretty stressful deal," Small said. "But if you're playing well, it's the best job in the world - you're making all this money, you're traveling, people are cheering for you.

"But when you're missing cuts and not making money? You're spending $5,000 a week, spending it, to be away from home. I've been there. I've done that.

"I remember all the good times, the top-10 finishes, making cuts in majors - that's fun. But I also remember the times I've been out for six weeks in a row, missing home, and tired, and dragging - that's not fun."

And that's why, for the short term at least, Small will continue to play in the local events, keep teaching his men in orange and blue and keep enjoying what to him has become a heck of a life.

"If I'd never experienced it before I'd probably go do it," he said. "As long as Illinois wants to keep me, I'll probably keep coaching. But if something happens there, then I'll go back playing. That's kind of an insurance policy.

"But I don't think any of that's going to happen."

So that means just one thing for the IPGA: time to order more novelty checks with Small's name on them.