Chris Stroud won’t have much in the way of momentum for this week’s opening
round of the Fed Ex Cup Playoffs. Stroud, who missed his third consecutive cut
at the Wyndham Classic, will enter at No. 109 in the standings. It’s his
lowest Fed Ex rank since coming in at No. 110 in 2012. He entered at No. 47
and No. 43, respectively, the previous two years and was No. 61 in 2011. The
former Lamar University All-America’s current money winnings for the 2014-15
season of $746,814 are the lowest since his bottom line was $735,019 in 2010.
A year ago when he had four top 10s and 11 top 25s, Chris’ earnings were
$1,826,399. A good week at the Barclay’s, however, could help salvage the
season. To advance to round two of the playoffs, he will need to finish high
enough to move into the top 100 . . . Andrew Landry, who looked to be in great
shape to join Stroud as the second PN-G grad on the PGA Tour next season, has struggled a bit of late on the Web.com Tour and his position has become
somewhat precarious. After missing cuts in three of the past six events while
mixing in a T37, T31 and T75, Landry has slipped to No. 19 on the money list.
He needs to finish in the top 25 to guarantee a PGA Tour card for the 2015-16
season. Four tournaments remain in the Web.com Tour regular season — this
week in Portland, Ore., Sept. 10-13 in Fort Wayne, Ind., Sept. 17-20 in
Davidson, N.C., and Sept. 24-27 in Columbus, Ohio. Landry’s lead over Kevin
Tway, the No. 26 player on the money list, is $20,300 and, given the
relatively small size of Web.com checks outside the top 10 in any given week, that may well be enough. But Andrew, and those who are sweating him out, will
breathe easier if he can deliver one more good finish . . . It’s been a
terrific year for two Lamar exes in professional golf. Shawn Stefani enters
the Fed Ex Cup playoffs No. 37 in points, which puts him in excellent position
to make it all the way to the Tour Champioship. Stefani, with three top 10s,
including a second place finish, and 10 top 25s, has pocketed $1,689,411 in
official earnings. Dawie van der Walt, meanwhile, has won twice, stands No.3
on the Web.com money list at $292,547 and has locked up a PGA Tour card for
next season . . . Tiger Woods haters got a reminder this past weekend of how
important he is to the big picture of professional golf. With Woods in the
field at the Wyndham Championship for the first time, event organizers had to
print 49,000 extra tickets. All-time attendance records were set on Saturday
and Sunday. In addition, CBS’ Sunday TV rating of 3.9 was the highest for a
non-major since the 2012 Quicken Loans which Woods won. Yes, the game is in
good shape with the likes of Jordan Spieth, Rory McILroy, Jason Day, Rickie
Fowler and a number of other good young players. But none of them generate the excitement that Tiger does. Everybody wins when he’s a factor. Nothing would be better for golf than for him to come all the way back next season. The
final obstacle to that appears to be figuring out how to deal with weekend
pressure . . . Congratulations to Hunter Huff, Nederland High School’s No. 1
golfer this past season. Huff will continue his education on a golf scholarship at the University of Houston-Victoria. Another former Nederland player, Shelbi Vincent, is a member of the UH-V women’s team . . . Dennis Walsh is almost certainly the best golfer from Southeast Texas who didn’t play on the PGA Tour. Now in his late 60s, Walsh delivered a bit of a flashback in the Senior 50 Plus Game at Babe Zaharias on Monday. Playing the second through the sixth holes in five-under, Walsh went on to shoot a 64. Not surprisingly, his team that included Butch Pittman Carl Certa and Bud Auffurth won the front
nine in the two-ball competition in 8 under. The foursome of Jim Jordan, Larry
Johnson, Ed Hetzel and Pat Waite was a distant second at minus 1. On the back the Jordan team tied the team of Richard Briggs, Bobby Wactor, Larry Foster and Larry Rogers at minus 1 . . . The Super Saturday Game at The Babe was played in a 2- ball format with the team of Lee Bertrand, Rick Pritchett, Don Duplan and Bob West winning the front in minus 5. Teams captained by Bill Hanley and Craig Fontenot tied for second at minus 2. On the back, the Hanley team that inluded Harrell Guidry, Bill Hammond and Bruce Lee tied for first at minus 2 with the foursome of Gary Whitfill, Randy Monk, Ed Holley and Mark Petry.
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