Congratulations to Andrew Landry for achieving his dream of making it to the PGA Tour. Landry officially became a card-carrying member of the most elite fraternity in golf late Sunday afternoon when the Web.com Tour regular season ended in Portland with the PN-G ex No. 21 in earnings.
Under a new format implemented prior to the 2013 season, the top 25 on the Web.com money list graduates to the PGA Tour. Twenty-five more players will move up through the four week Web.com Tour playoffs which begin Sept. 10 in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Landry, though his card is already guaranteed, will take part in the playoffs in hopes of improving his status from No. 21 in the pecking order for getting into PGA tourneys. Playoff money will be added to regular-season winnings to determine the final PGA placement for those in the top 25.
Spots in PGA tournaments are filled first with players who finish in the top 125 in Fed Ex Cup points, then new members round out the field based on their priority number. There will be weeks when there is not room for everyone who has moved up from the Web.com.
That’s why the final priority standing of new players is so important. As of today, Landry is No. 21. But he will move up or down in priority depending on his playoff earnings. Factoring in to that equation will be the other 25 players who earn PGA Tour cards through the playoffs.
Competing for those additional 25 cards are players who ranked 26 through 75 on the Web.com money list, plus those who finished 125 through 200 in Fed Ex cup points on the PGA Tour. Once that top 25 is determined, the PGA Tour priority for next season will be determined from the two groups of new members.
The No. 1 priority goes to the combined regular season plus playoffs money winner. That player also gets an exemption into The Players Championship. No. 2 on the priority list goes to the winner from the other group. From there, it alternates back and forth between the two lists.
Landry, then, has plenty of incentive to play well in the playoffs. He could move all the way up to No. 1 with a hot run, or he could drop as far as No. 49. After a T47 in Portland, Landry’s winnings entering the playoffs are $171,791.95.
Catching the regular season money winner, Patton Kizzire is probably out of the question. Kizzire banked $518,241. The No. 2 man on the money list, Martin Piller, stands at $343,649 while Lamar University ex Dawie van der Walt finished No. 3 at $298,234.57.
West Orange’s Michael Arnaud, meanwhile, will be one of the Cinderella stories of the playoffs. Arnaud, after making the cut on the number in Portland, shot a five-under par 66 in the final round and grabbed the No. 75 and final spot in the playoffs with winnings of $69,302.44.
Arnaud’s story is remarkable on several levels, starting with the fact he didn’t play college golf and had no status on the Web.com Tour at the start of the season. He took advantage of his limited playing opportunties by making 9 of 13 cuts, including two top 10s and 3 top 25s.
At worst, Arnaud has earned full status on the Web.com Tour next year. At best, he could join Landry and Van der Walt on the PGA Tour with a strong playoff performance.
CHIP SHOTS: Chris Stroud’s 2014-15 season ended on a downer Friday when he missed the cut in the opening round of the Fed Ex playoffs. Stroud’s five-over-par 145 marked his fourth consecutive missed cut and the 14th time in 28 starts he did not make it to the weekend. He’ll have six weeks to regroup and retool before the Oct. 15-18 Frys.com kicks off the 2015-16 regular season…PN-G ex Braden Bailey didn’t waste any time announcing his presence to the Baylor golf team. Bailey shot a sizzling, eight-under-par 62 at Ridgewood Country Club in the first round of the Bears fall qualifying.
The 62 was one stroke off the course record. Braden added a 70 in the second round and his 132 is one-shot behind the team’s projected No. 1 player, Andreas Gjesteby. Baylor opens its fall schedule Sept 13-14 in a tournament at the University of Minnesota . . . PN-G junior Karlei Hemler, preparing for he upcoming trip to play in the Champions Tour’s Nature Valley First Tee Open at Pebble Beach, fired her best ever competitive score of 67 to run away with her flight in the Mizuno/USSA Back-to-School 3 tournament in Marksville, La. The 67 followed an opening round of 77 over Tamahka Trails Golf Club . . . Playing in the Thursday Senior Game at Babe Zaharias, Tommy Duhon of Little Cypress shot his best ever score by five shots with a 79. Duhon did it the hard way,
carding a 44 on the front, then firing a 35 on the incoming nine . . . Two players recorded eagles on par 4 holes at Zaharias during the past week. Mike Heimbach of Bridge City holed an 8-iron from 147 yards on the 371-yard, 14th hole for a two. The shot was witnessed by Jon Williams . . . Bob West, playing in the Monday Senior 50 Plus Game at The Babe, sank a 7-iron from 135 yards
for a two on the 18th. Witnesses were Bud Auffurth, Lee Bertrand and Larry
Johnson . . . Competing in a best two ball format, the team of Craig Fontenot, Rick Pritchett, Dale Richey and Roger Baumer finished minus 6 to win the front nine in the Senior 50 plus game. On the back, the team of Benny Sharpe, Tom LeTourneau, Mark Petry and Paul Duplantis won with minus 6 . . . The team of Adam Noel, Pritchett, and Gene Rountree won the front nine in the Super Saturday Game at minus 8. On the back, the foursome of Sharpe, Tom Lawton, Joe Williams and Baumer won with minus 6 . . . The Thursday Senior Game at The Babe, played in a 3 ball format, was swept by the team of West, Carl Certa, Duhon and Ralph Childress. They finished plus 5 on the front and plus 1 on the back. Closest to the pin winners were Duplantis (No. 2), Bill Jones (No. 7), Childress (No. 12) and Duhon (No. 15) . . . The Babe Zaharias DogFight ended in a four-way tie. Finishing with 15 points was the team of Pritchett, Gene Hardy, David Sturgal and Jimmy Thompson, the foursome of Raymond Darbonne, Dillard Darbonne, Brian Guidry and Charlie Huckaby, the team of Jim Jordan, Bryan Grant, Ray Trahan, Duplantis and Harold Wilkinson and the foursome of
Ivory Hatch, Butch Landry, Ed Hetzel and Larry Rogers. Closest to the pin winners were Charles Leard (No. 12), Jim Jordan (No. 15), Mark Petry (No. 12) and Raymond Darbonne (No. 15). Because the front nine greens had been sanded, teams played the back nine twice . . . The YMCA chapter of The First Tee is taking registration for its September/October Golf Clinic Series for Boys 7 to 17. Clinics will be from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays at Babe Zaharias. Contact Jerry Honza at jhonz@pga.com or 409 543-6364 for more information.
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