As a teenager, Tyler Sweet used to spend all day on the course at Newlands Golf and Country Club.

“Playing at Newlands in the summer, we would get 72 holes in a day,” he said. “Tee off first thing in the morning, played until it was dark and our parents would come pick us up.”

Sweet began working at Newlands when he was 12-years-old.

And the game has stuck.

Two weeks ago, the 30-year-old won top spot at the ESPN National Golf Challenge, a two-round tournament held in Las Vegas for golf pros from around the country. The event featured 110 golfers.

Sweet, a Langley Secondary graduate, grew up playing golf and hockey.

He actually quit golf for a few years, but then re-discovered the game at age 17 and gave up hockey.

The decision wasn’t hard.

“I wasn’t a fast skater, I couldn’t keep up,” he said with a laugh.

Sweet did toy with the idea of becoming a linesmen, working junior hockey games around the province. But eventually golf won out.

He left Langley six years ago and became the assistant pro at Sunland Golf and Country Club, a course just outside Seattle. Sweet is now the club’s general manager.

At the Vegas event, Sweet had a less than stellar start.

“After the first nine holes of the day, I was ready to leave the golf course,” he admitted. “I couldn’t hit a green or (anything).

“Then I made a 30-foot eagle putt and it just turned my round around.”

Sweet wound up with a 68 and a spot in the final foursome.

Round two began with nine straight pars before he put together a string of birdies on the back stretch. A 68 left him with a 137 and put him in a playoff against James Ousley, who recovered from an opening round 74 to shoot a sizzling 63.

The two golfers played a one-hole playoff on a 420 yard par four hole which was surrounded by water.

Sweet hit a pitching wedge to within 15 feet but his putt lipped out.

Ousley shot was within three or four feet, but his putt, which would have forced another playoff hole, went over the edge and past the hole.

Sweet said nerves were not a problem.

“I have never gotten nervous on a golf course; it is just another hole,” he said.

“You beat balls on the driving range every day and chip and putt every day just for these kinds of situations.”

At this same event last year, Sweet had finished third.

Sweet will continue playing in club pro events next season, as well as a few PGA tournaments.

But his main focus will be on running the golf club.

“I really enjoy doing what I do, I love working with people and running a country club,” he said.