After years of toil and hard knocks Brian Gay has become a consistent contender on the PGA Tour—a tribute to his talent and to the no-quit spirit of his buoyant bride, Kimberly.

IT ALL seemed so effortless. There was Brian Gay two Sundays ago at the Verizon Heritage, basking in a runaway victory as he strolled down one of golf's most famous holes, the 18th at Harbour Town. On TV the announcers had run out of superlatives; on the final green Gay was engulfed by his beaming wife and adorable daughters. In one fell swoop he had scored a $1 million payday, lasting job security and an invitation to the Masters, to say nothing of the admiration of his peers and a nation of golf fans. It took only four days of stellar golf to produce this picture-perfect scene, but Gay's journey has been much longer, and more taxing, than appearances would indicate.  Everybody's All-American at Florida, Gay, 37, spent the better part of a decade and a half trying to find his place on the PGA Tour. It was a wearying journey that entailed grinding through B-list tournaments and sweating out travel expenses, but through it all Gay somehow held on to the belief that someday his time would come.  "There were low moments," he says. "Lots of them. But I never lost the desire to win. I never let myself believe I wouldn't."

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