BOB WEST ON GOLF: Stroud, Landry look to punctuate memorable seasons
Published 8:42 pm Tuesday, August 22, 2017
For a couple of guys who cut their golfing teeth at the late and much
lamented Pea Patch, Chris Stroud and Andrew Landry are doing very well for themselves in 2017. Events of this week and beyond could make already memorable years much sweeter.
Stroud will be competing in the first round of the lucrative Fed Ex Cup
playoffs. He starts No. 71 out of 125 players in terms of points for the four
tournaments that end with the crowning of a champion next month in Atlanta.
Thanks to his first tour win in the Barracuda Championship earlier this
month in Reno, and a tie for ninth in the PGA Championship, Stroud has
created two golden opportunites for himself.
The more immediate is the pot of gold available in the playoffs. Down the
line is the two-year PGA Tour exemption for winning that gets the former PNG and Lamar star into basically everything but the Masters and World Golf championship events for the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
Should Stroud get hot again in the playoffs, he can make a ridiculous
amount of money in the next month. The FedEx Cup treasure chest is a staggering $67 million, with $32 million of that in prize money and $35 million more to be dispensed as bonuses based on a players’ Fed Ex points position at the end.
The golfer who wins the playoffs, for instance, collects a $10 million
bonus, plus whatever he banks during the four tournaments. Placing second is worth a $3 million bonus, with the payoffs going all the way down to $32,000 for everybody who finished between 125 and 150 in points during the season.
Stroud, if he wound up in his current position of 71, would cash a $95,000
bonus check. Making an upward move would significantly increase that payout.
Should he play well enough to get into the top 30 after the first three
events, a veritable bonanza would await.
The playoffs start Thursday in New York with the top 125 in points on hand. In week two in Boston, the field is trimmed to the top 100.
Following a week off, the playoffs move to Chicago, with the competitors cut to the top 70. A week later the top 30 tee it up for the really big bucks in Atlanta.
Stroud’s rewards won’t be limited to what he earns in the playoffs. After
seeing some of his endorsement money trimmed last year when he lost full-time status on tour, he’ll be getting new deals from those whose equipment he plays.
He said he expects to stick with everybody whose stuff he used this
year.
“I’m a pretty loyal guy,” he said. “I’m not looking to make changes. The
only thing I don’t like to get locked into is the putter.”
That figures to mean extra bucks from TaylorMade (M2 driver, 3 wood),
Callaway (XR 5 wood), Adams (23 degree hybrid), Cleveland (irons, wedges) and Srixon (Z-star ball, golf bag).
The golf bag, by the way, will also have a logo promoting “Crane Safety.”
That’s for his partnership in a safety equipment business with Astros owner Jim Crane. Stroud will reportedly have 13 percent of the business, with Crane holding 51 percent.
Landry, meanwhile, is preparing for his most important tournament as a
pro. That would be the Web.com Tour’s regular-season-ending WinCo
Foods Championship in Portland. It carries huge significance to the former PNG and Arkansas star because he is in position to wrap up No. 1 on the money list.
Though Landry has long since been guaranteed a return to the PGA Tour,
being No. 1 carries major perks. It not only gets him a spot in next May’s
lucrative Players Championship, it also makes him immune to the periodic reshuffles of players moving up from the Web.com Tour.
Players move up and down the priority list for PGA tournaments, based on their status after reshuffles. Not having to worry about that would make Landry’s second shot at the PGA Tour much easier.
Andrew’s grasp on the money lead, however, is tenuous. With $286,582 in official earnings, there are roughly 18 players who could pass him if they won this week and he didn’t make the cut. Assuming he makes the cut but doesn’t finish in the top 10, there a half dozen players who could overtake him by finishing in the top 3.
In Landry’s last five tournaments, he has finished T10, T2, T21, missed the cut and finished T23 last week in Knoxville, Tenn. His earnings the past three weeks, though, have been only $11,400, due to how steeply Web.com payoffs drop outside a top 5.
Landry’s money lead over No. 2 Steven Jaegar is less than $8,000. Talor
Gooch is within $15,000, Kyle Thompson is $20,000 back and Chesson Hadley is $22,000 off his pace.
Regardless of how things play out in Portland, Landry’s season won’t end
this week. He will have a chance to add to his bottom line, and enhance his PGA Tour position, in the four-week Web.com playoffs that start next week in Columbus, Ohio.
CHIP SHOTS
The team of Benny Sharpe, Tony Trevino, Dillard Darbonne and Bill Jones blew away the competition in the Senior 50 Plus two-ball game at Babe Zaharias. They won the front in minus 5 and the back with minus 3.
In the Super Saturday Senior two-ball, minus-2 won the front for
the team of Price Youngs, Ed Holley, Don MacNeil and Robert Lynch. The
foursome of Craig Fontenot, Tom LeTourneau, Charles Leard and Ronnie Hicks took the back in minus-4 …
The Friday Senior two-ball saw the team of Rick Pritchett, Bim Morrow, Harry Green and Pete Reobroi win the front with minus 3. On the back, the team of Bob West, MacNeil, Larry Foster and Roger Baumer won with minus-5.
Format for the Thursday Seniors was 2 man teams playing nine holes of best ball and nine holes of scramble. In First Flight, the team of West-Larry Reece won with a 66, which was three shots clear of Larry Thompson-Ronnie Lasalle.
A 68 won Second Flight for the team of Cap Hollier-Harry Green. They edged Harrell Guidry-E.T. Robicheaux and Gary Fontenot-Bill Jones by two strokes. James Trahan-Sid Ducote won Third Flight with a 71.
Closest to the pin winners were Bobby Wactor (No. 2), West (No. 7), Robicheaux (No. 12) and Lasalle (No. 15) ..
The Wednesday Zaharias DogFight finished in a tie at 15 points between the team of Holley, Raymond Darbonne, James Trahan and Ducote and the foursome of Hollier, Gary Hanan, Gene Hardy and Tommy Duhon.
Closest to the pin winners were Hollier (No. 2), Morrow (No. 7), Gary
Whitfill (No. 12) and Lasalle (No. 14).
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Golf news should be emailed to rdwest@usa.net.