Week 42 Approach Shots: CMN Classic
By PGATOUR.COM Staff
The Children's Miracle Network Classic, the fifth of five Fall Series events, winds up the 2009 PGA TOUR season this week at the Walt Disney World Resort. There is still much to play for, as players are battling for money-list position and TOUR cards in 2010. The top-125 finishers on the 2009 money list will be fully-exempt on the PGA TOUR next season.
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A year ago, Davis Love III won a PGA TOUR event for the first time since 2006 when he came from behind on the final day to defeat Tommy Gainey by a stroke. Once again, the Magnolia and Palm Courses are the tournament's two sites.
This season, Love finished 51st in the FedExCup and is currently 51st on the money list. He's earned $1,622,401, with his top performance a tie for second at the season-opening event at Kapalua.
KODAK MOMENT: The inaugural Kodak Challenge ends this week at the Children's Miracle Network Classic. Kevin Streelman holds a two-stroke lead, with the par-4 17th hole at the Walt Disney World Resort's Magnolia Course the final hole in this year's Challenge. If Streelman birdies the hole at least once, he will clinch the Kodak Challenge and the $1 million that goes to the winner.
Players had to play at least 18 of the Kodak Challenge holes this season. The player's lowest score relative to par on his best 18 Kodak Challenge holes counted.
FAMILY AFFAIR: Haymes Snedeker, a municipal judge in Alabama who played collegiately at the University of Mississippi, received a sponsor's exemption to play this week by winning GOLF CHANNEL's "Big Break X: Michigan" in 2008. Concurrently, his partner, former University of Mississippi golfer Bernadette Luse, earned the opportunity to compete at an LPGA event.
Brandt Snedeker, Haymes' younger brother and a PGA TOUR member, is also playing this week. The younger Snedeker's best 2009 finish was a tie for second at the John Deere Classic.
WINNERS IN THE FIELD: Six players with TOUR wins this season will play in the Children's Miracle Network Classic. They are Michael Bradley (Puerto Rico Open), Brian Gay (Verizon Heritage and St. Jude's Classic), Bo Van Pelt (U.S. Bank Championship), John Rollins (Legends Reno-Tahoe Open), Heath Slocum (The Barclays) and Zach Johnson (Sony Open in Hawaii and Valero Texas Open).
Gay, David Toms and Heath Slocum are the three golfers in the field who played in THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola and finished in the top 25 of the final FedExCup standings.
VETERAN HOPEFULS: Michael Allen, who turned 50 at the beginning of the year, won the 2009 Senior PGA Championship after receiving a sponsor's invitation to compete and is now fully exempt on the Champions Tour and the PGA TOUR. Allen will be making his 10th appearance at Disney. His first and only top-10 at this event came in 2008, when he finished ninth.
Tom Pernice Jr., is another 50-year-old playing this week. He is making his 14th start at the tournament. He had a close call in 2005, when he was runner-up to Lucas Glover. Pernice is coming off a win in his Champions Tour debut at the SAS Championship, where he defeated David Frost and Nick Price by a stroke. Pernice has not won on the PGA TOUR since 2001.
PRO-AM FORMAT: This is one of just three PGA TOUR events where amateurs play alongside professionals during competitive rounds (Bob Hope Classic and AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am). The amateurs play the first two rounds (Thursday-Friday), alternating professional partners on the two days with competition played on the Palm and Magnolia golf courses. After the cut is made on Friday, the low 70 and ties play the final two rounds on the Magnolia course.
ON-COURSE OBSERVATIONS: PGA TOUR Network correspondent Bob Stevens is on the scene in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. for this week's satellite radio coverage (XM 146/SIRIUS 209). Reports Stevens:
Folks in Central Florida are obviously very leery of hurricanes, but with Ida tracking into the Carolinas toward Virginia, a huge sigh of relief came over the entire tournament, particularly after the muddy cancellation of the Viking Classic two weeks ago in Mississippi (and they got more rain from Ida, too!). There's no rain in the forecast for the week following an overnight shower Tuesday into Wednesday, but Tournament Director Kevin Weickel told us he'd been stopped by numerous players telling him their golf balls were actually bouncing in the fairways (a rarity on these usually-soft bermuda layouts) and that the greens were "perfect". Potentially gusty northerly winds (opposite of the normal conditions) will be the courses' best defense Thursday.
The Children's Miracle Network Classic is all about families. There are more kids in tow this week than any other on TOUR with the Disney theme parks the big attraction for many, but not everybody. Robert Garrigus has found a hot fishing spot on the 17th hole at the Magnolia Course where he and other players have been hooking large-mouth bass of up to eight pounds. Garrigus got a special thrill this week when one of his catches was pursued out of the water by an alligator, who eventually won the battle over the fish. Garrigus said his caddy was ready to grab a 4-iron to trade Robert for his fishing pole, but all ended well for everyone, except the fish.
Curiously, the final tournament of the year is more about saving jobs than launching careers. Everyone's talking about the Top 125 and Top 150 and who's going to have to go back to the second stage of q-school when there's still the "big" prize out there. Johnson Wagner, who won at Houston last year and is therefore exempt through next year, told me that going to Kapalua for the season-opening SBS Championship was an experience he'll never forget, but he has to win this week to get back there. Same holds true for most of the field. Yes, there are jobs on the line this week, but 2010 can get off to a great start for someone who has a great finish to 2009.
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