Weekend Drama Set for 2014 Web.com Finals Finale

The cut at the Web.com Tour Championship, the last of the Four Final events to determine 50 PGA TOUR cards for next season is agonizing in and of itself. When there is a an hour or so weather delay on Friday, the sun still sets at 7:27 pm and there are golfers left on the golf course with their fate and the fate of others yet to be known. Saturday morning comes with no sun rise, at least not visible to those with golf clubs in their hands heading out to Dye’s Valley to finish Round 2. It is a dreary day and drizzling outside. Perfect weather to make the competition even more challenging and dramatic. Oh, the agony and sheer excitement to make it to the PGA TOUR.

Sunny and bright is Zac Blair who is 13-under, bogey-less and leading by three strokes with three holes remaining to be played in Round 2. Blair was ranked dead last coming into the Final Finale, one of 21, including 2003 Open Champion Ben Curtis, with zero dollars earned in the first three playoff events. Blair went birdie, bogey, par to post 13-under and maintain a three stroke lead going into Round 3. The number is important, relative to other numbers, not whether or not one is bogey-free at this stage. Three missed cuts and a top finish to be No. 50 or above is coming into focus for Zac. Only two more rounds to go.

At dawn Saturday morning there were 68 golfers at even par making the cut. Once all golfers finished Round 2 play the final cut of the year came at 66 players at even par. Jeff Curl, another Web.comer, in the 26-75 category with no golden Top 25 tour card bogeyed the 17th and finished outside the cut at plus-1.

Harrison Frazar, with only his last hole, the 9th, to play this morning, posted a 10 to go from 1-under to 5-over and miss the cut. It is reported that he found water left with his tee shot, took a drop then found water left with his approach shot last night. This morning he found his ball in the water and attempted to get it up and down for the much needed bogey on the par-4 hole. Frazar won the 2011 FedEx St. Jude Classic, his first win in 355 starts, played in 15 regular tour events this year and made 3 cuts. He missed all four cuts in the Web.com Finals. After sitting out the 2013 season with a back injury, he is playing on a Major Medical Extension and has 10 events to earn 332.25 FedEx Cup points or $548,236 to retain his PGA Tour card according to Wikipedia.

Midway through the Web.com Tour Championship six players are projected to move into the Top 50 and earn their tour card by virtue of their play this week. Note that these are only projected at this time. There are still 36 holes to be played. The hopeful group of six are led by Zac Blair who is projected to win the event and the $180,000 first place check. Updated ‘Bubble Boy’ is No. 50 Tag Ridings with $35,798 in Finals earnings. A sixth place finish alone earns $36,ooo. As in the financial markets, historic golf performance, even that within the last 48 hours, does not project the future final two rounds. Hopefully for those involved along with Blair- Sung Joon Park, Miguel Angel Carballo, James Nitties, Chad Collins, and Ridings future is what has been projected.

For every six that enter the Top 50 there are six that leave the Top 50 surprisingly whether or not they made the cut this week. Four missed the cut and can no longer make money, improve their position and rebound back into the Top 50- they are Dicky Pride, Greg Chalmers, Will Wilcox, and Patrick Rodgers. Even though Vaughn Taylor (T34, 69-70) and Carlos Sanz (T50, 70-70) made the cut they slid out of the Top 50 mainly due to Zac Blair  (1st, 63-65) and Miguel Angel Carballo (T3, 68-65) coming from oblivion to possibly winning a Finals event and a ticket to the BIG SHOW next year. The Web.com golf competition is as exciting as the PGA TOUR, except you may not know the players as well. That is why their caddies wear the number associated with the players Top 50 rank. Remember (sure you do) the Rocket, Billy Horschel’s meteoric rise to the FedExCup title?

Remember it is not necessarily the main combatants that determine their fate in this fighting format for a PGA TOUR card. The Golden Boys with tour card for next year securely in hand and those still playing this week and seemingly out of the tournament and the race for the Top 50 can suddenly emerge to impact the final outcome. If Zac Blair falters a bit and someone ties him for that needed sixth place finish his earnings drop from $36,000 to $34,750. Another one and one more to make it a four way tie and it is nearly $4,000 less than a singular finish. A Sunday 65 can topple the apple cart for some. That is why they payout in dollars and cents. It can literally come down to the last putt, a penny and someone’s prayer being answered.

It is a day projected of rain, a Northeaster sending waves of rain at times to Dye’s Valley to raise the bar of competition just a bit. Another variable for the competitive golfer to adjust to and perhaps another outside agent that determines one’s fate. Of course, any and all outside forces can be combated with stronger inside forces for golf, like life, is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to what happens to us. Vaughn Taylor and Carlos Sanz are still playing along with 64 other golfers that made the cut, some with a card securely in hand, others with a hunger to have one with their name on it come Sunday evening on the back lawn of the Clubhouse at TPC Sawgrass. Game on, whatever the inside or outside conditions or thoughts and golf clubs being swung to impact golf balls. Play well and keep praying whether you are playing or not.

A couple experiences from earlier in the week to report on from outside the ropes.

The 9th annual ‘Taste of Golf,’ a fundraiser for The First Tee of North Florida, was another incredible and successful affair on Thursday night at the Clubhouse. If you get a chance go out to their home and play the Brentwood Golf Course. It is a regulation 9-hole reduction (the 6th hole is original) of the 1923 Donald Ross design that was redesigned by the PGA Design Services Group for the First Tee. Sam Snead won two Jacksonville Opens on the very same ground. If you are lucky you will meet some of the First Tee kids and hopefully get to play nine holes with them. The kids weren’t at the fundraiser but they were as their thoughts were present in the form of placards prominently displayed throughout the elegant Ponte Vedra Room and upper level of the Clubhouse. I liked the one best by Angelina because it referenced golf as a journey that she seems excited to explore. I am thinking that is how she approaches life and with her First Tee experience, will undoubtedly impact the world well after my years here have passed. It is a great feeling anytime I am connecting with The First Tee organization, playing golf or not, tasting golf or not, staffers or kids, it does not matter!

I came across a golf and love story when I met Erin Spalding while enjoying the deliciously sweet confections of the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club. Her fiance, now husband Joshua, was playing the local Arnold Palmer Signature Plantations Course with her father David back in November 2012. Starting on the back nine, he had it going and was 5-under par when they arrived at the par-3 third hole. Full of confidence he couldn’t wait until Christmas and politely asked David for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Evidently the answer was yes from both father, and later from the daughter, though the golf score suffered terribly for the remaining seven holes. The marriage, as you can tell in the picture, is going extremely well. Joshua Spalding’s golf game came back as this week he shot 68-71 to advance through the Web.com Q-School Pre-Qualifying in Texas. Golf and love do go together!

As surprising as the ins and outs of the Web.com Finals is the common link between the ‘Taste of Golf’ First Tee Benefit Event and the Dye’s Valley reconstruction- the always stunning Milan Moore. Milan, a golf course architect with the PGA TOUR Design Services Group, was both the Chairwoman of the Taste of Golf Committee and Project Manager for the Dye’s Valley project. The golf course is as stunning as she is and has received rave reviews from the players this week. Mother Nature tested the golf course with a deluge Friday afternoon that was a resounding ‘Awesome Yes’ as the players returned to playing golf in a little over one hour. A good Pete Dye design brought to modern life so much so that it seems as if there was a ‘Midas Touch’ during the reconstruction or maybe a ‘Milan Touch.’ Congratulations Milan and the entire PGA TOUR Design Service Group for a reconstruction well done!

One more thing, and we saved the best for last, as we head into a Ryder Cup week. The Friday night Military Appreciation Ceremony was one of the best ever at TPC Sawgrass, right up there with President George H.W. Bush’s PGA TOUR Lifetime Achievement Award and Military Celebration at the 2009 PLAYERS Championship. There were chants of ‘USA, USA, USA’ for Jim Furyk as he heads across the pond to represent the United States of America in the Ryder Cup in Scotland. But Jim’s mission was bigger tonight as he introduced a true American hero Sergeant Sean Karpf. Sergeant Karpf gave a heartfelt account of his wartime experience and shared his gratitude for being alive and an American. All the best to you Sean and good luck in the Ryder Cup Jim!