WINONA LAKE - As Denny Hepler put it, the pressure was like trying to hit a shot on the last hole to win a championship.

Fortunately, Hepler, the owner and club pro at Raccoon Run Golf Course, has already done that, having won the 1982 Malaysian Open in a playoff situation.

Being comfortable in front of a television camera didn't hurt either.

Hepler, a Warsaw Community High School and Florida State University graduate, spent two weeks in California this summer filming for the reality TV show Big Break VI: Trump National.

The show, which will air once a week in one-hour episodes, begins airing Tuesday at 10 p.m. on the Golf Channel.

The concept of the show, which is the Golf Channel's most popular reality show, is simple.

The show features nine men and nine women competing for a chance to be on the PGA's Champions Tour or the LPGA Tour at Trump National Golf Course in Los Angeles.

Winning the sixth season of Big Break, however, isn't so simple.

"It was like trying to hit a shot on the last hole to win a championship," Hepler said of the two weeks of filming. "The intensity of the show was huge. There's not a shot I'm afraid of after that. They put us in ridiculos spots. They made us look like idiots at times. It was embarrassing for all of us. The golf course was extremely hard."

On top of that, there's the twists and turns that Donald Trump adds to the show.

"The Big Break is about opportunity," Jay Kossoff, The Golf Channel's executive producer for original productions, said in a press release. "Imagine a struggling mini-tour player or senior-aged competitor invited to tee it up with the likes of Annika Sorenstam or Hale Irwin and play for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The show is an avenue for one of these men and women to find out if they can compete at the next level."

Asked how he was chosen to participate on the show, Hepler said his resume was on the Senior PGA Tour's website.

Hepler, who said thousands of people applied for a shot on the show, was then among 20 who attended a live audition in Chicago in the spring.

At the audition in Chicago, those present had to hit 10 various shots, as well as talk on camera.

The final audition then took place in Orlando in June.

And after being chosen, Hepler, who endured the filming with back pain from a previous injury, and the other 17 contestants on Big Break VI: Trump National spent the last two weeks filming for the show.

Along with winning the Malaysian Open, Hepler said filming for the show was one of his more memorable moments in his golfing career.

As for how Hepler did on the show, whether or not he won, he's not telling.

Hepler signed a 12-page contract that said he wouldn't reveal the results of the show. The contract, if broken, carries a $1 million penalty fine.

Hepler was allowed to tell his wife, Cindy Hepler, the results but said he didn't.

As for the filming itself, Hepler said the participants got up at 5:20 a.m. and cameras would be in their faces at 5:30 a.m.

The cameras were there when they ate breakfast. They were there on the golf course.

There were interviews each day that lasted more than an hour.

Talking about the pressure of the show, Hepler said that fellow contestant Jeff Mitchell admitted he was more nervous during the filming than he was when he was tied for the lead at The Masters.

Mitchell won the Phoenix Open in 1980 by four strokes and later that same year shot a 66 to tie Seve Ballesteros after the first round at The Masters.

"It was awful quiet at times," said Hepler. "You could hear a pin drop, let's just put it that way."

As for meeting Trump, Hepler called him "a real approachable guy." He made mention that Trump was also in the process of filming the television show The Apprentice and would drive himself from the course to Hollywood.

The 18 contestants represent 12 states as well as Australia, New Brunswick, Canada and South Africa.

The show features one other Hoosier, Brownsburg's Karyn Stordahl-Utecht, wife of Indianapolis Colts tight end Ben Utecht. [[In-content Ad]]