The secret finally got to come out, one that Kim Welch did not find all that difficult to keep quiet about.

Being tight-lipped about the conclusion of The Golf Channel's reality television show, "Big Break: Kaanapali" wasn't a big deal, even though family members in Sacramento inquired constantly about Welch's fate.

She kept surviving. And on the series finale July 8 (the show was taped in Hawaii in December), she won the whole bonanza by defeating France's Sophie Sandolo, 4-and-3, in 18 holes of match play at the Royal Course and Kai Course.

"I'm a good secret-keeper," Welch said Tuesday, the day before leaving for the Alliance Bank Golf Classic, the Duramed Futures Tour stop in Syracuse, N.Y.

"This was just fun for me. I turned it into something that was entertaining, because I told my family to bring their tissues every week."

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This week: Nationwide Tour's Price Cutter Charity Championship, Thursday through Sunday, Highland Springs Country Club, Springfield, Mo.

World ranking: 549th.

2008 earnings: $61,730 (56th on the Nationwide Tour).

Last tournament: It's not only time to start thinking about Putnam's standing on the money list, it might be time to be anxious. Putnam is making cuts – he made his third in a row at last week's Nationwide Tour's Players Cup – but he needs a few top-10 finishes coming down the home stretch to shrink the gap between himself ($61,730) and the 25th-ranked Chris Anderson ($121,607), whom the Tacoma resident in grouped with for the first two rounds this week. The Life Christian Academy graduate is almost a full stroke higher on this season's scoring average (71.41) to his 2006 Nationwide Tour campaign (70.47).

Tee time Thursday: 10:10 a.m. PDT off the first tee with Anderson and Todd Fischer.