Top 30 – In Numbers

The top 30 golfers on tour this year have fit right into the mold of previous findings and research. Greens in Regulation continues to be the leading factor in earnings.

The Numbers GameSo my picks were a bit off last week. Choi withdrew and well, I won’t go into the rest. It was a great week of golf though, with a couple of big moves made by Chad Campbell and Tim Herron. At least I was right about the number of players that would drop out. Two guys, Ogilvy and Maruyama, were the unfortunate ones.

Now that we have the top 30 I wanted to look a little further into who these players are. Earlier this year I went into great detail about Greens in Regulation (GIR), Putting Average (PA), and other statistics. I wanted to see where the top players stood in each and if the same trends we found earlier still held up. Let’s have a look…

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Mizuno Classic Preview

Annika Sorenstam defends her trophy once again at the Mizuno Classic. Although the competition is stiff, American viewers will once again be left out in the cold.

LPGA logoAnother week of golf in Asia, this week in Japan, and relatively little news coverage. Again the LPGA has scarce knowledge on their website about which golfers are playing in the final field and who will be competing against the multi-talented Annika Sorenstam.

Most of the golfers who played last week at the CJ Nine Bridges Classic will fly here to Japan but this story should certainly focus a bit on the number-one golfer in the world because she just might win this tournament a record fifth time!

A fifth consecutive victory for Sorenstam would set a record not only on the LPGA tour but on the PGA tour as well! Tiger Woods and Walter Hagen are among the few who can lay claim to such an extraordinary defense. It would be nice to see a woman take top honors as well.

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Live Blogging Tim Finchem’s Speech

We’re live blogging Tim Finchem’s speech on the changes coming to the PGA Tour season in 2007.

PGA TourPGA Tour.com is carrying a RealAudio stream of Tim Finchem’s announcement (see previous coverage here), so we’re going to do something a little different: live blog it.

10:05 – Someone can’t figure out how to use the microphone, as it’s on. We are treated to interesting talk about how we’re going to leave the A/C off until Tim is done with his talk.

10:08 – Casually late, Tim eases into his speech.

10:10 – Tim says “we’re not gonna talk about the details of our schedule today.” Someone in the back groans.

10:15 – Tim, despite saying we’re not going to talk about it, talks about it. Details include:

  • “If you consider that we don’t have a strong finish like in other sports, or a playoff system, we wanted to create one.”
  • “And you want to create a dramatic finish with a year-long points competition.”
  • “… on better courses and with better fields…”
  • “… and a real season…”
  • “January-through-September, based on points structure to be determined.”
  • “FedEx will be the sponsor of the ‘FedEx Cup’.”

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Tour Championship Preview

The top-30 golfers on the PGA Tour money list head to East Lake Golf Club this week.

tour_championship_logo.gifThe field for the Tour Championship is small, but the prize money is awesome. The best players on the PGA Tour battle it out all year to make it into the top-30 on the money list, and the Tour Championship is their reward for doing so. The field this week will be playing for an overall purse of $6 million, with a little over a million going to the winner. The golf courses selected for this event are always respectable, and this week is no different. East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, GA has become the permanent home for the Tour Championship.

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2005 Year in Review

The year 2005 has had its fair share of ups, downs, and everything in between.

Thrash TalkWith the Tour Championship on the horizon this week, the 2005 PGA Tour season is quickly coming to an end. The top golfers on tour will do all kinds of different things in preparation for next season. Some will play in charity events, skins games, etc. Others will simply use their free time to work on their golf games and spend much-needed time with family.

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Volume Thirty-Three

Anyone want their linky-poo’s for this week?

Hittin' the LinksI packed my clubs up this past week and have been getting ready to retire for the season. A couple things I like to do is give them one last cleaning, new grips and unload any equipment that has treated me bad that year. I also come up with a few things to work on over the winter (i.e., fitness or mental). This year, I want to improve my posture over the ball and my core strength. Does anyone else have off-season goals?

Leave them in the comments. It’s links time.

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A New Leader For The PGA of America

The PGA of America named a new CEO last week. Look for Joe Sterenka to continue moving the Association in a positive direction for golfers in the U.S.

Bag DropThis week we’ll take a little Bag Drop field trip. Instead of talking about the equipment, we’ll look at the equipment business. Specifically, let’s take a look at the change in the leadership of the PGA of America.

Point of clarification: we’re talking about the PGA of America, not the PGA Tour. There’s a lot of confusion about the fact that these are two separate entities. The PGA was founded in 1916 as an association of the country’s club professionals – the pros who work at golf courses teaching lessons and managing the facilities. At the time, this designation also covered golfers who played for a living on what would become the PGA Tour. The Tour was run by the PGA of America until the late 1960s, when star players like Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus – and IMG – decided they didn’t want to share the spotlight and the cash with the lowly club pros anymore, and they acrimoniously split. Thus, the PGA Tour was born.

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Lee Triumphant at CJ Nine Bridges

First-time winner Jee Young Lee claims a wire-to-wire victory at the CJ Nine Bridges Classic. Annika Sorenstam and Paula Creamer were no real threat.

Jee Young LeeThe crowd at the CJ Nine Bridges Classic went wild as the fourth straight Korean to win this event kissed the trophy. Jee Young Lee, a member of the Korean LPGA, is only nineteen and now claims exempt status on the LPGA tour.

Although she finished 1-over par for the day, it was enough to hold off her nearest competitors, Mi Hyun Kim and Carin Koch, by three strokes to win in her hometown. Lee was one of only seven golfers to complete the tournament under par with a 5-under par.

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Mickelson Opts Out of Tour Championship

Phil Mickelson chooses to stay home for next week’s Tour Championship.

Phil Mickelson at the Bellsouth ClassicPhil Mickelson decided on Friday not to play in the Tour Championship. The Tour Championship will be held next week at the East Lake Golf Course in Atlanta, GA. Entry to the tournament is reserved to only the top 30 on the PGA Tour money list.

His decision comes just one week before PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem’s announcement to shorten the PGA Tour schedule. Mickelson and Tiger Woods have long been in favor of a shorter Tour schedule.

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