Staying busy is nothing new for Kyle Stanley, whose golf career has taken a meteoric rise since his high-school days at Bellarmine Preparatory School in Tacoma.

The Gig Harbor native was a college star at Clemson, and after he joined the PGA Tour three years ago, Stanley’s professional career slowly began to take off.

He played in the 2009 U.S. Open and last summer’s British Open, but it took much longer for Stanley to sew up his first pro victory.

The breakthrough win opened up a lot of doors and made the 24-year-old’s already hectic schedule that much tougher.

His Twitter fellowship went through the roof, increasing to more than 11,700 followers. He made recent appearances with CBS Sports, ESPN.com and the Golf Channel. He returned a phone call to the Gateway last week, although we were unable to pin him down for an interview.

For the most part, Stanley struggled last year during his first full season on tour. He made the cut in 22 of 28 events but managed a top-10 finish only four times.

With the new season only a month old, Stanley already has stamped himself as one of the favorites for the FedEx Cup, a points-based system for determining an overall tour champion.

After four events, he leads the cup standings with 846 points and has vaulted himself to No. 52 in the world rankings. The $1.79 million he’s raked in thus far eclipsed what he made in all of 2011.

But the truly inspiring story is how he managed to get over the hump and get that elusive first victory.

At the Farmers Insurance Open on the final weekend of January, Stanley seemed destined to pick up the winner’s check. He led by five strokes as he entered the final round at the famed Torrey Pines course outside of San Diego, and his imminent victory was enough to rouse his father, Matt, into grabbing a flight to southern California for the final 18 holes.

Matt, a tax attorney who lives in Gig Harbor, watched his son squander a three-shot lead on the 72nd hole, then lose in a playoff to Brandt Snedeker.

But he said Kyle took the agonizing loss with dignity.

“I was really proud of him,” Matt said. “He was really miserable, but he stood out there and signed autographs and was a real gentleman about it.”

In the days that followed, karma rewarded him. He was inundated with encouraging phone calls and text messages, many from his fellow pros, and “it showed him that a lot of people cared about him,” Matt said.

Kyle didn’t have a lot of time to wallow in self-pity. He had another tournament just four days later, and prior to the Waste Management Phoenix Open, he texted his dad with a premonition: “I know this sounds weird, but I think this is all going to work out.”

Stanley was right on the mark, although Spencer Levin had to go through hell for it to happen.

Levin built a seemingly insurmountable six-stroke lead after three rounds — Stanley trailed him by as many as eight shots — but he had it slowly slip away.

When Stanley drained a 4-foot par putt on the final hole and completed a 6-under 65 in the final round, it was the end to a remarkable seven-day emotional rollercoaster.

But he wasn’t about to gloat, because he knew what Levin was going through.

“I really feel for him, experiencing that,” Stanley told CBS Sports. “You don’t want to wish that upon anybody. He’s a very good player, way too good of a player to not bounce back or recover.”

Stanley’s dad thinks it all happened for a reason, and the end result was better than if Kyle had simply won at Torrey Pines.

“You wouldn’t have believed all the people that we’ve heard from,” Matt said. “There are a lot of people from western Washington, honestly, that are interested in what he’s doing.”

Sports Editor Neil Pierson can be reached at 253-853-9246 or by email at neil.pierson@gateline.com. Follow him on Twitter, @gateway_neil.