By Carey Hoffman
Enquirer contributor

Coming soon to a city golf championship near you - Kevin Hall, version 2.0.

A year ago, as a callow college student from Ohio State, Hall suddenly came of age, pummeling most of his opponents on his way to the 2003 Cincinnati Metropolitan Amateur Championship title. Through a week of play, he was 25-under par, and only one of his five matches made it beyond the 16th hole.

Now the Winton Woods/St. Rita product, who added the title of Big Ten champion last month, is preparing to defend his Met title. Match play among the top 64 qualifiers begins Monday at Northern Kentucky's Triple Crown Country Club.

When Hall's on his game, the 21-year-old can shoot lights-out as he did at the Big Ten tournament, winning by an 11-shot margin. When he's not, well, that's his focus for improvement this summer.

"My primary goal is to incorporate all of the course-management lessons I have learned from my coaches," wrote Hall, who is deaf and most easily communicates with reporters via e-mail exchanges. "I want to be able to navigate around the course in the easiest way possible. I hope to use the lessons to produce consistent scores."

The new and improved version aims to be not just Kevin Hall, the gifted ball-striker, but Kevin Hall, the strategist.

Hall's father, Percy, who caddies for his son during summer events, says Kevin sometimes thinks of it in terms of playing "boring" golf. But that was the approach that paid off at last year's Met.

"It was great," Percy said of the 2003 Met. "He said that he was going to play a boring game of golf. He said he would play with a lot more patience, and that is something you have to learn."

The father hopes to reinforce that to the son, because it's one of the keys to moving forward with his career. Kevin finished his college playing career this spring and now faces decisions about his golf future.

He wants to continue to establish himself at the amateur level this summer, playing in the Met and trying to qualify for the U.S. Amateur. He also will try to earn his way into a couple of events on the Nationwide Tour.

But by September, he's thinking he'll make the decision to turn pro.

And then ...

"I won't be staying in Cincinnati if I want to play professionally," Kevin wrote. "I'll be moving to a warmer climate to play golf year-round. You've got to be able to play golf every day if you want to make it in the pro ranks."

To that end, several club manufacturers have expressed interest in Kevin's career. Earlier this year, he traveled to have his golf swing evaluated by top-notch teaching professional Jim McLean.

Percy recognizes that this summer is the beginning of a pivotal phase in Kevin's playing career.

"It's the biggest step anyone goes through, from college golf to the pros," said Percy. "It's about managing the course, and I think what happens at the pro level is they manage it so much better. At the pro level, you're going to save a lot of strokes. In college, you're out there with no caddy, you've got homework on your mind and you're playing 36 holes a day."

Wrote Kevin of the PGA Tour: "Anyone can hit the ball out there. It all boils down to who is the master of the short game. Look at Tiger Woods and Hank Kuehne; Hank is the longest hitter on the PGA Tour, longer than Tiger, but Tiger is better because he knows how to get the ball in the hole in the fewest strokes possible. Those pros are awesome when it comes to the short game. My game? It needs a lot of work before I can hang with the big boys."

Not coincidentally, Kevin's hot streaks, such as those at last year's Met and this year's Big Ten tourney, have come when he has been most comfortable with his short game.

"In both of those tournaments, there was one thing that just pinched a nerve in me and I just knew I was going to play well," he wrote. "Prior to both tournaments, I got a new putter. Before both, I played a round where I made just about everything on the greens, and it just made my confidence soar."

This year, he comes into the Met having not played much in the past few weeks. Yet he still managed to shoot three recent under-par rounds.

"There's no pressure on me this year," Kevin wrote of defending his title. "I've gone through it, and the experience I've gained with it will do me good when I play next week.

"Winning two Met titles sounds sweet, though."