Vince Mastracco, the upbeat creator and host of "Golf Talk" on Saturday mornings on KHTK (1140 AM), is feeling closer to par after a summer of chemotherapy to fight off breast cancer.

"I'm coming along. I'm starting to feel like a human again," he said.

Mastracco, 58, was diagnosed May 8. He was brushing his teeth before bed when he scratched an itch and felt a lump. The cancer was detected early in Stage 2 and had spread to one lymph node.

"It was a fortuitous itch," he said.

He covered the U.S. Open in New York in June with his daughter, Abbey, a budding sports journalist at Long Beach State, and started chemo treatments the following Tuesday. He was forced to miss several shows and shared the details with his listeners.

"I should have missed a couple more," he said. "I was in a cloud. (Co-host) Brett (Taylor) had to carry my weight a couple of times."

Mastracco is back on the air full time, and the prognosis is good.

"I'm in remission," he said. "I'm starting the five-year waiting period now."

Qualifiers whittled

Scott Gordon and Spencer Levin will be the area's representatives next month in the final stage of the PGA Tour qualifying tournament.

Gordon (Fair Oaks) tied for seventh last week at a second-stage venue in Texas. Levin (Elk Grove) was exempt into the final stage based on finishing 141st on this year's PGA Tour money list.

They will be among 170 players vying for 25 PGA Tour cards for 2010. Everyone advancing to the 108-hole, Dec. 2-7 final stage in Florida will earn some degree of Nationwide Tour status.

Jeff Wood (Natomas) and Philip Dawson Jr. (Shingle Springs) stalled in the second stage.

Wood, 31, has one trip to the final stage to show for nine qualifying attempts. He's evaluating whether to continue the big-league pursuit. More minitour headbanging isn't appealing.

"I need to figure out where my priorities are personally," he said. "I've had some success, but not the kind that I want."

Wood was in position in the final round in California. He shot a 3-over-par 75 to tie for 42nd; he needed a 70 to advance.

"I felt I was playing my best at Q-school," he said. "Nerves and a balky putter hurt me on the last day."

Dawson, 33, finished 75th in Texas. Future qualifying attempts are likely, he said. He plans to go back to work as a club pro in the meantime.

Bob Niger (El Dorado Hills) tied for 72nd in the final stage of the Champions Tour qualifying tournament in Arizona. He was 27 strokes behind winner Peter Senior and 21 strokes from the top 12 who earned at least partial status for next year.

"I played (lousy)," Niger said. "I can shoot the kind of scores needed when I'm on my game."

He intends to travel to 12 to 15 Champions Tour events in 2010 and attempt to play his way into the fields during weekly qualifying.

West Sac project on hold

There's a design for a West Sacramento 18-hole public golf course sitting in the office of local architect Kyle Phillips. It's not in the top drawer.

Yarbrough, as it's called, is intended to be built in conjunction with a housing development by the same name. But a sour economy has halted momentum.

"With the housing market like it is, they've hit the pause button like a lot of people," Phillips said.

The project is still viable. The upside, Phillips said, is no dirt was moved before things went south, so there are no midstream losses to overcome.

Et cetera

Joel Slak (Folsom) won the Future Collegians World Golf Tour Coyote Creek Open over the weekend in Morgan Hill. Nick Schafer (Rocklin) tied for third.

• The team of Nick Watney (Davis High School) and John Merrick will represent the United States this week in the Omega Mission Hills World Cup in Shenzhen, China.

• Lynne Cowan (Davis), playing for Sierra College, last week became the first player from Northern California to win the state women's community college individual title since it was first contested in 1995.

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