GARY BAINES: Taking Notes
Colorado Favorites on PGA Tour
Need a Strong “Back Nine”
Several in danger of losing Tour card if they don’t kick it into high gear
We’re almost halfway into the PGA Tour season, and a forgettable 2007 from the standpoint of Tour players with strong Colorado ties has melded into an unmemorable 2008.
Last year went so badly for local favorites on Tour that four went into 2008 with what the Tour calls “major medical extensions,” meaning they encountered problems in 2007 to such an extent that the folks in Ponte Vedra basically gave them a do-over this year.
Given that there are seven PGA Tour regulars who have strong local ties, more than half are playing this season with major medical extensions: David Duval (wife’s difficult pregnancy in 2007), Jonathan Kaye (toe surgery in late 2006), Shane Bertsch (vertigo in 2007) and Brandt Jobe (finger and wrist injuries in 2007). And another local, Steve Jones, may very well not play a tournament this year because of a case of tennis elbow.
All except Jones have been competing some this year, but none of the locals has exactly been lighting it up in 2008. The same is true of the other two local favorites on Tour, Kevin Stadler and Martin Laird.
All told among the seven players, there has been one top-10 finish this year (a fourth by Stadler in Puerto Rico in a March event played opposite a World Golf Championship tournament). Arguably, considering strength of field, the best performance so far in 2008 has been probably Stadler’s 15th-place finish at the Players Championship.
As for how the local contingent stands on the 2008 PGA Tour money list, it isn’t a pretty site by historic standards: Bertsch is 94th, Stadler 107th, Laird 191st, Jobe 200th and Kaye 214th. Duval, once the No. 1 player in the world, has yet to earn a dollar of official Tour money after entering eight events this year.
Suffice it to say that the second half of the year better be a big improvement, or several of these players will be competing in far fewer Tour events in 2009. Last year, $785,180 in earnings was needed to remain fully exempt by finishing in the top 125 on the money list. As of now, of the seven Tour players with strong local ties, only Bertsch ($461,694) and Stadler $397,646) have earned more than $100,000.
Granted, players can catch up in a hurry with a handful of top-10 finishes, but falling too much behind the curve is tempting fate.
Monday, May 12, 2008
• PRIME TIME FOR COLLEGE GOLFERS: Four Colorado-based college golf teams will be competing in various stages of the NCAA tournaments during the remainder of May. The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs men will be in the NCAA Division II finals May 14-17 in Houston. The CU (Boulder), Colorado State and Denver men will be at three different NCAA Division I regional tournaments May 15-17, with trips to the NCAA finals (May 28-31 in West Lafayette, Ind.) on the line. And the DU women, fresh off a third-place finish at the NCAA regionals, will compete in the finals May 20-23 in Albuquerque.
• BLAST FROM THE PAST: Mark Crabtree, who won four Colorado Golf Association Match Play titles from 1975 to ‘94 and coached the Colorado State men’s team during the 1990s, is moving up in the world of college golf coaches. After being on the executive board of the Golf Coaches Association of America for the last six years, the current Louisville men’s coach will become president of the GCAA in July. Crabtree credits former CU coach Mark Simpson, who died in December 2005 after having been president of the GCAA from 1999 to 2001, with being a mentor for him in the profession. Simpson coached Crabtree at the end of Crabtree’s CU playing career in the late 1970s.
• UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS: The first non-team event of the CGA schedule is taking place this week in Castle Rock. The State Senior Match Play is being held May 12-16 at Red Hawk Ridge Golf Course. CU golfers Michael Baird and Pat Grady won the CGA Four Ball tournament last week. ... Also on tap this week is the Colorado Women’s Golf Association Niblick tournament May 15 at the Homestead Golf Course in Lakewood. ... U.S. Open local qualifying, which began this week in Pueblo, will continue on May 19 at Colorado Golf Club in Parker and Collindale Golf Course in Fort Collins. ... Both the 5A and 4A girls state golf tournaments will be held May 19-20, with the 5A set for Raccoon Creek in Littleton and the 4A at Rolling Hills in Golden.
GOLF NOTES