- October 22, 2002
PGA TOUR
- During last week's Disney Golf Classic, eventual runnerup Chris DiMarco
had as hot a stretch of golf as anyone in recent history. Over the course
of 18 holes that included his last 12 on Thursday and his first six on
Friday, DiMarco posted 13 birdies.
- How low do you have to go? Frank Lickliter II posted these scores last
week at the Disney Golf Classic, 69-68-69-69--275. Those four good rounds
earned him a T40.
- More on low scores: Last week, the field at the Disney Golf Classic
combined to post 15 scores of 64 or better. The cut, by the way, was a PGA
TOUR record 6-under par.
- The battle for a spot in the Top-125 is very heated with only two weeks
left. David Frost currently holds down the 125th spot with $509,845.
That's $103,493 more than it took to finish 125th last year. In fact,
$509,845 would have led the PGA TOUR in earnings as late as 1984.
- John Rollins is currently 27th on the money list. If he remains in the
Top-30 following this week's Buick Challenge and qualifies for THE TOUR
Championship next week, he'll be the fifth player to graduate from the
BUY.COM TOUR one year and earn a spot in the elite field the next. The
first four were Tom Lehman (1992), David Duval (1995), Stewart Cink (1997)
and Dennis Paulson (1999).
SENIOR PGA TOUR
- Hale Irwin needs to win $147,697 this week at the season-ending SENIOR
TOUR Championship at Gaillardia to become the first player in SENIOR TOUR
history to win $3 million in a single season. He needs to finish in a
two-way T4 at the worst in order to pass the $3-million mark.
- More on Irwin: He needs only $9,642 to eclipse his own single-season
record of $2,861,945 he established in 1998. He's guaranteed to break the
record as long as he finishes the tournament.
- Let's hear it for 63-year-old George Archer. He came within a shot of
shooting his age last week at the SBC Championship in San Antonio with his
first-round 64. It was his lowest score of the year.
- If playing in his 200th consecutive event last week wasn't memorable
enough, Dana Quigley went it one better and collected his seventh career
win. He also took home the biggest check of his career--$217,500.
BUY.COM TOUR
- With the largest first-place check available on the BUY.COM TOUR at
$108,000, every player in the field at the season-ending BUY.COM TOUR
Championship this week has a mathematical shot at finishing in the Top-15
and earning a PGA TOUR card for 2003. Todd Barranger currently holds down
the 15th spot with $175,236. The 55th and last player in the field, Andy
Sanders has $80,937. A victory would probably vault Sanders into the
Top-15.
- A total of 10 players have earned $200,000 or more this year on the
BUY.COM TOUR, tying the record set last year.
- Bob Burns' victory last week at the Disney Golf Classic was the record
20th this year by a former BUY.COM TOUR on the PGA TOUR. It was the first
career win by the 1998 BUY.COM TOUR Player of the Year and the 122nd by a
former player on the PGA TOUR.
- Since he did not qualify for this week's BUY.COM TOUR Championship,
Victor Schwamkrug ended his year with a record 328.5-yard average off the
tee. That tops the old mark of 312.0 set by Tom Carter last year by 16.5
yards. For the season, Schwamkrug posted 123 drives of 300 yards plus in
144 tries (85.4%). He also had 30 drives of 350 yards or more, including a
season-long effort of 405 yards.
- Aaron Baddeley enters this week's finale on a roll having finished 2, T2
and T4 in his last three starts. He's collected $104,700 over that span to
move to ninth on the money list with $205,106. He was 35th on the money
list before beginning this streak.
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