The beginning of the Adams Golf Pro Tour Series has been just like the start of a classic novel for a pair of local golfers.

Matt Van Cleave and Brice Garnett have seen the best of times and the worst of times, just four tournaments into the season.

Each has missed the cut twice, but each also has recorded a top-10 finish, most recently Van Cleave on Saturday in the Jamie Hilton’s Hillcrest Children’s Golf Classic in Waco, Texas.

Van Cleave was eager to provide the details of his fourth-place tie — worth $4,650 to him — in his personal blog. The 6-under 282 was a huge turnaround for the Maryville, Mo., native, who couldn’t even find the words to blog the week before after missing his second straight cut in Victoria, Texas.

“I was pretty beat up after a couple of missed cuts in a row,” VanCleave said Tuesday. His action had been limited by two missed cuts and rain that shortened one tournament to two rounds.

“Going into Waco, I’d only played five competitive rounds all year,” Van Cleave said. “I was pretty disappointed at that point, and I didn’t have a whole lot of expectations going in.”

Van Cleave’s previous best finish this season was a tie for 21st at the Capital One Classic in Houma, La.

Garnett, a Gallatin, Mo., native, missed the cut there, as well as in Victoria, but the 25-year-old tied for ninth on April 4 with a 16-under in the Lake Charles Open in Louisiana.

This is the third year in the Adams Golf Pro Tour Series for Garnett, a three-time All-American at Missouri Western who earned rookie of the year honors in the Tight Lies Tour before it folded. But the circuit is new for Van Cleave, 26, who had played three years in an

Arizona-based circuit.

Van Cleave was searching for more variety in weather and course conditions than he got in the Gateway Tour Desert Series in an effort to become better prepared for another shot at PGA Qualifying School this fall.

“I haven’t played a single round yet where the wind wasn’t blowing 20 miles per hour,” Van Cleave said. “I’d been a little spoiled, playing in Arizona, where the wind wasn’t a factor. I needed to get my butt kicked a little bit and get back to the way I played back at Mozingo and at Kansas State.”

The Adams Tour also prepares him for his golfing future in another way, Van Cleave contends.

“I also get the experience of traveling, playing on the road and staying in hotels,” Van Cleave said. “The first three years I didn’t have to do that. I could sleep in my own bed every night. But that’s not the way it really is in golf.”

The next stop on the Adams Golf Pro Tour Series is the WinStar World Casino Open on May 13-16 at WinStar Golf Course in Thackerville, Okla.

Sports reporter Rick Dunaway can be reached at rickd@npgco.com