Beth Nelson | courtesy photo Michael Nagy displays the trophy Wednesday after capturing the 26h Tournament of Champions at Boyne Mountain Resort.

ESCANABA — Michael Nagy has something all golfers want and need — confidence.

Nagy has plenty of it after winning the Michigan Tournament of Champions Wednesday at Boyne Mountain Resort and also recently capturing the 26th Western Corporate Image Pro-Am golf tourney in Aberdeen, S.D., on the Dakotas Tour.

“I could get used to this winning thing for sure,” the 24-year-old Nagy said Thursday while unwinding in his hometown of Manistique.

“Golfers don’t win a lot. The more you can do it and get used to the environment and be comfortable in uncomfortable situations, the more it helps. (Winning at Aberdeen) showed me I could get it done under pressure and I fed off that (Wednesday). I had the confidence and the belief I could do it again.”

Nagy has come a long way since first swinging clubs as a 3-year-old and playing all-day golf as a kid at Indian Lake Golf Course.

In his career, Nagy won three U.P. Finals championships and was a past Michigan Junior State Amateur champion.

Nagy still credits Casey VanDamme, who is the head golf coach at the South Dakota State University, for early lessons and helping him develop a solid swing base. VanDamme also was an assistant golf coach at the University of Tennessee and helped lure Nagy to Knoxville for a four-year stay on the golf team.

“(VanDamme took a video of my swing the before I won (in Aberdeen) and it shored up a few things,” Nagy said.

Nagy didn’t tear it up at Tennessee, where he earned degrees in marketing and supply chain management. But he stayed hungry.

“It was a disappointing experience,” Nagy said about

his college career. “The consistency was not what I was looking for. I played decent golf and I could see my potential. That drove me to play professionally and to put in a lot of hard work the past six months.”

Nagy will return to play a few more events on the Dakotas Tour. It’s not glamorous, but it’s a start toward chasing his dream.

“You are not playing a lot of spectacular golf courses,” Nagy said. “And some are set up as pro-ams. It’s not the big stage, but everybody is fighting for the first-place check.”

Any interesting stories on the mini tour?

“The first time I got into South Dakota the tornado sirens started going off,” Nagy said. “I was home alone at the house where I was staying. It was freaky. I went down to the basement and everything was fine.”

Nagy has won $19,250 on the Dakotas Tour and pocketed an $8,000 check for winning the Michigan TOC.

He said a group of friends in Knoxville have pooled money to sponsor him on the Dakotas Tour to help with entry fees and expenses.

He’s also signed up for the Web.com qualifying school starting in early September and will try to get his card for that circuit, which is a level below the Professional Golf Association.

Nagy will try to work his way up and beat the odds to in pursuit of a PGA Tour card.

“I just want to keep doing what I’m doing and riding the confidence,” Nagy said.