Tournament Golf is back at TPC Sawgrass! This week its the Web.com Tour Championship on the Dye’s Valley Course.
It is a Battle of the Tours, the PGA TOUR versus the Web.com Tour, at TPC Sawgrass this week. They call the Battle the Web.com Tour Championship but it is really the FedExCup Points Nos. 126-200 from the PGA TOUR versus the Money List Nos. 26-75 from the Web.com Tour. The Top 25 from the Web.com are already golden and have a tour card in hand for the 2014-2015 PGA TOUR season. They are playing to improve their priority position. What is really at stake is an additional 25 tour cards based solely on money won in the four Finals events which culminate this week on Dye’s Valley Course. That competition pits 75 former PGA TOUR players versus 50 current Web.com Tour players who may or may not be former PGA TOUR players. It can be confusing!
For instance, Bud Cauley played in 19 PGA TOUR events this year, made $647,886 and finished No. 129 on the Money List. He did not make the FedExCup Playoffs and won the first Web.com Finals event, the Hotel Fitness Championship. His $180,000 in winnings ranks him as the highest non Web.com member behind Season Winner Carlos Ortiz and Adam Hadwin. Unfortunately, Cauley torn his labrum cartilage in his left shoulder, is recovering from surgery with a full recovery expected. Priority for the PGA TOUR next year is alternated between the Top 25 Web.com regular season finishers and the Other 25 from the Web.com Finals.
Bud Cauley posted this picture on Instagram. Get healthy soon Bud!
The other two Finals event winners Adam Hadwin (Chiquita Classic) and Justin Thomas (Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship), both Web.com Top 25 players, improved their priority. Adam improved to No. 2 just behind Ortiz and Justin to No. 4 just behind Cauley. One spot can make all the difference in getting into a PGA TOUR event especially early in the season. Remember there are 125 PGA TOUR members that kept their cards this year and with sponsor exemptions, prior champions and limited hours of daylight early in the year fields fill up quickly.
Colt Knost played in 21 Web.com events this year, made $106,460 and finished No. 34 on the Money List. So far in the Finals he has won $138,000 with a 2nd place finish at the Hotel Fitness Championship and a T8 at the Chiquita Classic. He chose to not play last week and is playing this week. The 2007 U.S. Amateur Champion is ranked the highest of any of the Web.com 26-75 Finisher at No. 5. Like Billy Horschel did on the PGA TOUR, you can make a season in the post season on the Web.com too.
Jonathan Byrd, a 5-time PGA TOUR winner, who ended the 2010 Las Vegas event with an ace on his final swing, needs a high finish to regain his tour card.
So how is the Battle of the Tours going through the first three Finals events? It is 14 versus 11 for the PGA TOUR (Nos. 126-200) and Web.com (Nos 26-75). Taking into account the different group sizes (50% more PGA TOUR players), the Web.com players are ahead on a percentage basis 22.0% to 18.7%.
Patrick Rodgers, the Tiger Woods protege out of Stanford University, is the Bubble Boy at No. 50. A nonmember of the PGA TOUR he played in seven events on sponsors’ exemptions. He made five cuts, $75,104, and most importantly 85 FedExCup points, the equivalent of No. 196 this year, barely enough to get a spot in the Web.com Finals. His T8 at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship earned him the $30,000 to place him No. 50 with a good shot at earning a PGA TOUR card for next season.
The next ten players below Rodgers are comprised of four PGA TOUR (Nos. 126-200) and six Web.com (Nos 26-75). The Web.com is definitely “the Path to the PGA TOUR” and the path back to the PGA TOUR.
Carlos Ortiz doing a media interview in the shade near the TOUR Academy.
After a morning of analyzing numbers and becoming more familiar with the field of 128 players I decided to head to the practice range to check out the players.
As fate would have it I found the following on Carlos Ortiz, the Season Winner on the Web.com Tour and currently the No. 1 ranked player in the Finals. To finish No.1 is huge as it comes with a fully exempt tour card and an invitation to come back to TPC Sawgrass and play the other course (The Stadium Course) in THE PLAYERS Championship.
Carlos Ortiz is the poster child for the 2014 Web.com season, winning three times in Weeks 4, 6, 23, the third time at the final regular season event. Officially a battlefield promotion to the PGA TOUR but that battlefield was in Playoff mode so has to wait for 2014-2015 season which starts in two weeks at the Frys.com Open. His birthplace is the same as Lorena Ochoa- Guadalajara, Mexico. Maybe it is his destiny to wind up in St. Augustine, Florida with her in the World Golf Hall of Fame? Ortiz is a ‘dot com hopper’? Played in two Finals event and missed cut in both. Time for celebrating is over. Time to get his PGA TOUR game face on and quickly!
With No. 1 golfer Carlos Ortiz and his mother ‘Chela.’
When I went out to the practice range I came across him doing a television interview. I didn’t understand much because it was in Spanish but I met his mother ‘Chela’ which is short for Graciela. I thought it interesting that she mentioned Carlos Jr. (his father is also Carlos) did play at the same Guadalajara Country Club as Lorena. Carlos Jr. was ‘sporty-like’ Mom & Dad and began playing tournaments at age 7. He went to a German school growing up and they sent him to Germany for a year at age 12. His only wish was to continue playing golf which was possible after their search found a year-round golfing school. I wonder if Martin Kaymer winning this year’s PLAYERS and the German flag flying over Champions Circle at TPC Sawgrass is a good omen for Carlos to lock in that top spot this week?
A Google search for Carrie Underwood-Golf returned this picture. Maybe Justin will teach her how to play golf?
One other interesting thing I came across researching a few of the players. Justin Thomas won a playoff over Richard Sterne last week in the third Finals event, the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship on the Scarlet Course at The Ohio State University. The 21-year old was a star freshman at Alabama in 2012 on a team that lost the national championship on the final hole in the final match that year. Justin won one national championship as a sophomore before turning pro and missing Alabama’s second consecutive NCAA Championship this year. His other profile data included: “Favorite courses played are Augusta National and Cypress Point” and “Would like to play Pine Valley and Shinnecock Hills.” I am thinking that will happen. His Dream Foursome would include his Dad, Carrie Underwood and Nick Saban. I don’t know who Nick Saban is? I did not know Carrie Underwood played golf?
I am very excited for tomorrow to come so we can begin the Web.com Tour Championship! With a Scott McCreery Military Appreciation Day Concert Friday and College Game Day Saturday for crossover football fans the tour slogan “Come for THE FUN, Stay for THE GOLF,” probably makes sense for a lot of people.
I am coming back for the golf, will have fun and MORE FUN after the golf is over!
