54-hole co-leader Bryce Molder rips his tee shot on the long par-3 15th hole, where he made his 4th birdie in a row at the TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas. Rick Adams photos
Nationwide Co-Leaders Have Different Goals for Week
Winning, Yes, But Bettencourt Has His Card, and Molder Wants One
Matt Bettencourt blistered the dry, fast fairways of the TPC at Craig Ranch course with an 8-under 63 Saturday, then watched Bryce Molder birdie the 18th from a bunker to tie the lead at 15-under-par entering the final round of Nationwide Tour Championship.
Peter Tomasulo, Kyle Reifers and second-round leader Darron Stiles are at 12-under.
After Sunday's wrap-up, the 25 leading money winners will be awarded PGA Tour cards for the 2009 season.
Bettencourt is 12th on the money list and is assured a trip to the PGA Tour next year. If he wins the season money title, the pole position carries with it a full exemption along with a spot in The Players Championship.
Molder is 32nd in money and in need a strong finish if he is to return to the PGA Tour. He birdied two par 5s on the front nine, then reeled off four birdies in a row shortly after getting a good luck kiss from his wife, Kelley, on the 12th hole. A top 3 finish should be sufficient to get Molder into "The 25."
A Nationwide event is a great place to introduce young fans to future stars. The crowds are generally light, and it's easier to get a good position to see the action or get an autograph. Rick Adams photos
Nationwide Setting is Pure Texas
TPC Craig Ranch Hosts Million-Dollar Finale
The Nationwide Tour Championship has come to the Lone Star State, and the setting is pure Texas. From the horses and longhorn cattle grazing next to the practice area to the 'Time Square' new-urbanism retail-office-condo development to the plots reserved for million-dollar houses alongside a few of the fairways, the TPC at Craig Ranch is as ambitious to move to the next level as the 59 golfers pursuing a coveted card to the PGA Tour.
Developer David Craig's theme is "Live The Dream," and no group better epitomizes the dream of fortune and fame than the matrix of rising young stars, journeyman, and what-might-have-beens who have enjoyed better times.
Contrast Colt Knost and Bob May. Knost was the top amateur in the world a year ago, having won both the USGA Amateur and Publinx events. He passed on an invitation to The Masters in order to turn professional, then disappointed by failing to secure his PGA Tour card at the final round of qualifying school. A temporary speed bump to the future - the 23-year-old Knost has won twice this year on the Nationwide Tour, is certain of gaining his card to the 'Big Show' for the 2009 season, and has a good shot at winning this week (currently 3rd at the midway point).
The 40-year-old May is unlikely to get back to the PGA Tour, needing to climb over 15 players to reach the top 25 echelon who are awarded cards. May has struggled with his game for several years due to a lingering back injury. The many young fans strolling the Craig Ranch layout won't remember but their fathers and grandfathers might recall that May nearly won a Major - pushing Tiger Woods to extra holes in the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla (site of this year's Ryder Cup). In the final 54 holes, May posted 20 birdies against two bogeys, only to fall one short to the magical Woods.
No shot intimidated Seve. (Peter Deighan print at choose-art.com)
Beyond Sadness
Seve Ballesteros was 7 when his brother made a cut-down club for him, but he wasn't allowed on the course where his uncle, Manuel Sota, was the professional.
That was perhaps the best thing that happened to Ballesteros for his development as a golfer. He wandered over to the beach by Santander Bay and learned to hit a dizzying variety of shots with his cut-down club. He would become to golf what Ornette Coleman was to jazz, a master of improvisation. No shot intimidated him. He was often wild off the tee, but he relished the challenges his wayward drives presented. Ballesteros took on any shot.
"I have always sympathized with those people who face illnesses," Ballesteros said in a statement from the hospital where he is fighting a brain tumor. "Therefore, I want to remind them that with bravery, faith, serenity, confidence and a lot of mental strength, we have to face any situation, no matter how difficult it is."
Kenny Perry's philanthropy has helped 26 Simpson County kids attend college.
Investment in Kenny Just Keeps Growing
Ronnie Ferguson, who owned an area dry cleaning and laundry business, was a leader at the same Franklin, Kentucky, Church of Christ where Kenny Perry and his wife, Sandy, were (and remain) faithful members. He'd told Perry years before to let him know if he ever needed financial help.
"Ever" happened in the summer of '86.
Perry was an accomplished junior golfer growing up in Franklin and Paducah. He played collegiately at Western Kentucky from 1979-82 and in all four years earned a varsity letter. But it was the numbers that weren't adding up in his nascent pro career. By 1986, a couple of unsuccessful attempts at the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament and a few fruitless years of slugging it out on the mini tours had exhausted most of his sponsorship dollars and nearly all of his hopes of one day making it big.
"I was riding west on Park Lane between Greenville Avenue and Central Expressway, approaching the light at Bed Bath & Beyond—when a pickup truck knocked me into the Beyond section."
David Feherty Got Hit by a Truck and Lived to Tell About It
"Having kicked all my bad habits for the better part of two years, I finally thought I was addicted to something that wasn’t going to kill me. The irony flashed through my head milliseconds after the corner of the trailer made contact with the middle of my saddle and then my lower back. I remember thinking, Oh, crap, I hope it’s not a beer truck. My head snapped back and I began to fly, like a silhouette of E.T. across the moon. All that was missing was the basket on the handlebars. I had everything else, down to the glowing red light, of which I had two—one on the back of my helmet and the other, a dazzling Planet Bike flasher, clipped to the back of my jersey. I am, if nothing else, safety conscious on a bicycle. The only person who could hit me would have to have a grievance against Christmas trees or, as it turned out in this case, a pressing need to get to a red light. He just had to get to the red light before I did.
"With three broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a separated shoulder, a crushed left elbow, and several other gashes and bruises, I lie on the grass writhing silently like a goldfish on the carpet. I cough, spraying scarlet across the powerful beam of my front light, and I feel a piece of bone in my mouth. That’s not chicken, I think. That’s ribs. Unable to speak or take a breath, I am losing consciousness when a pair of hands comes from behind me, cool on the back of my sweating neck. One of them cradles my head, while the other picks my crushed left arm out of the road and holds it against the wreckage of my chest."
The most picturesque hole at the CGIM Ireland course in Montreal - the par 3 12th - also features the only water hazard.
Bring Your Dune Buggy
CGIM Ireland links course in Montreal
By Fred Agnew, Senior Editor
MONTREAL - I haven’t been to Ireland (yet), but my impression of what Irish golf courses might be like – based on the Ireland course at Club de Golf de Isle Montreal, which promises “you will find yourself in Ireland without even having to hop on a plane” – is that you’d better hit your tee ball straight. Otherwise, you may spend the day searching for stray shots up and down and over the seemingly endless dunes covered with long, matted fescue.
The Ireland layout is indeed an unexpected oasis in the city, a mere wedge shot from busy Route 138 on the first couple of holes but with a relatively isolated feel as you move further into the course. Virtually every hole is bordered by the steep dunes.
A golf correspondent remembers Ballesteros hitting one shot so far right during the '93 European Masters that he was 3 feet away from a wall with a swimming pool on the other side. The situation looked hopeless until Seve saw enough of a gap in the trees that he hit pitching wedge to the fringe, then chipped in for birdie.
Byron Nelson Passes $100 Million Mark for Charity
The Salesmanship Club of Dallas and PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem announced that the EDS Byron Nelson Championship has exceeded the $100 million mark in money raised for charity since 1968. This is not only the largest amount raised from an ongoing event in Dallas, but is also by far the largest amount raised by a single tournament in the history of the PGA Tour.
Royal County Down has been ranked as high as No. 3 in the world … (Tourism Ireland photo)
Northern Ireland: A Priceless Trip
By Art Stricklin
A golf trip with my longest running and favorite golf partner … my dad.
A journey to what once was one of the most dangerous and foreboding of places … Northern Ireland.
Golf near the top of the world.
To steal the tag line from a certain credit card company … priceless.
That was the set up for a recent trip to Northern Ireland with my father, a fellow sports writer, who got me interested in this business and in this game.
Just us. In a small Irish rental car on smaller roads in uncertain weather conditions playing some of the best and once the most hidden golf courses in the world.
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