- March 03, 2004
PGA TOUR
- Look for someone with ties to the state of Florida this week at
the Ford Championship at Doral. Every winner of the tournament since 1990 has either been a native or resident of the state at the time of his victory. Bill Glasson, the 1989 winner, is the last tournament champion at Doral who did not have a connection to Florida.
- Sergio Garcia struggled last year while making some swing changes,
but it appears to be paying off. He's currently #1 in Greens In Regulation on TOUR, hitting 76.9%.
- Aaron Baddeley needed only 95 putts at last week's Chrysler
Classic of Tucson, only two more than the all-time record held by Kenny Knox and Mark Calcavecchia. Ironically, he lost on the final hole due to a three-putt.
- Tiger Woods' victory last week at the WGC-Accenture Match Play
Championship earned him his 12th official money payday of $1 million or more. In fact, his $1.2 million winners check is the largest in PGA TOUR history.
- Heath Slocum's win in Tucson was the first this year by a
first-time winner. His victory, coupled with a win by Tiger Woods, made them the first players to win this season who were under 33 years of age.
- This week's Official World Golf Ranking shows that 25 different
countries are represented among the Top 100 players in the world and most of them are playing the PGA TOUR. The Top 10 players are all PGA TOUR players and that number grows to 28 of the Top 29 and 44 of the Top 50.
- It's been all or nothing for Harrison Frazar this year. In his
five starts, he has finished 2-T9-MC-MC-T3. He's won $778,543 already--less than $4,000 shy of his best season on TOUR (2001).
CHAMPIONS TOUR
- Mark McNulty will be looking to win his second consecutive event
on the Champions Tour. If he wins this week, he would be the first player since Bruce Fleisher (1999) to win his first two career starts on the Tour.
- Keith Fergus, a three-time winner on the PGA TOUR, turns 50 this
Wednesday and will make his Champions Tour debut at this week's MasterCard Classic in Mexico. He's not the only player turning 50 this week -- Peter Jacobsen hits the magic number on Thursday.
- David Eger's victory at the MasterCard Classic last year made him
the second former PGA TOUR official to win on the Champions Tour. Bob Dickson was the first when he won the 1998 Cadillac NFL Classic.
- This week's stop in Mexico is one of a few tournaments where Hale
Irwin can't claim a victory. The Champions Tour all-time leader in victories has been second here in each of the last two sesaons, however. He was second by a stroke to Bruce Lietzke in 2002 and second by one again to David Eger last year.
NATIONWIDE TOUR
- Heath Slocum's win last week on the PGA TOUR was the 141st TOUR
victory by a former Nationwide Tour player. Alums have won four of the first nine tournaments on the PGA TOUR this season.
- Conditions were as tough as any seen on the Nationwide Tour in
some time this past week in New Zealand. How tough? The Saturday scoring average for the field was 76.484 and there were only two rounds shot in the 60s the entire weekend.
- All three season-opening events were contested on demanding
courses as all three host sites played to stroke averages over par. The Panama GC (par 70) came in at 72.812, the Kooyona GC (par 71) played to a 72.917 average and Clearwater GC (par 72) completed the trio with a 73.682 mark.
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