PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent
Posted on 08/15/2007 10:38:23 AM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi
August, and everything after.
That's the title of a musical work from the Counting Crows, but it's also a worthy theme for this crucial upcoming stretch of the PGA TOUR season, the first of the new era and the FedExCup playoffs.
This week's Wyndham Championship at Forest Oak Country Club in Greensboro, N.C., merges the old and the new into one big event that signals both the end of the regular season and the beginning of the playoffs. While $5 million gets the attention of everyone, FedExCup points are the true focus.
At the close of play Sunday at Forest Oaks, the top 144 players in the points standings on the PGA TOUR advance to the Barclays Championship, the first of four playoff events. The rest of the TOUR membership can keep their games honed on the Nationwide Tour, or take off a few weeks and gear up for the PGA TOUR Fall Series that commences Sept. 20 with the $6 million Turning Stone Resort Championship.
Though players are no doubt feeling mentally as well as physically tired, the field this week is solid, headlined by defending champion Davis Love III and two-time winner and '05 champion K.J. Choi, who is the top player on the FedExCup points in action. The talented Korean is fifth in FedExCup points. Still, he can move even higher to better his seeding; he'll have a good chance since he has finished in the top 7 four of the last five years.
Besides Choi, a dozen other men who made the cut at the PGA Championship are teeing it up in Greensboro, and several others who played two rounds at steamy Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., also are on board to try and improve in the all-important standings.
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That group includes John Rollins, who was hot earlier in the season. He had no plans to go to Greensboro, but changed his mind. Brandt Snedeker is another who expressly added the Wyndham Championship to try and move even higher. Former PGA champion Bob Tway is another late addition to the field.
Four years ago,the venue for the PGA TOUR's third oldest tournament underwent a significant renovation at the hands of Love. Forest Oaks, which has hosted the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro since 1977, is an appropriate test for the last regular season event. Measuring 7,333 yards, par-72, the tree-lined layout requires an all-around game of precision to prevail -- plus a hot putter. Only three times has Forest Oak yielded a winning score lower than 270.
Worth knowing:
The last eight winners at Greensboro have held or shared the 54-hole lead, the longest such streak on the PGA TOUR. Last year, Davis Love III shared the third-round lead with Chris Couch before winning his second title in Greensboro. In all, 33 men since 1950 have won at Greensboro after owning at least a share of the 54-hole lead.
Davis Love is the next in line to break the curse of Sam Snead, the eight-time winner of the event. Snead is the only man who successfully defended his title in Greensboro -- and did it twice. Love, incidentally, until last year's win, hadn't made the cut at Forest Oaks since he redesigned the course for the '03 edition.
Love is one of four men who holds a share of the course record, 62. Two others join Love in the field this week: Charles Warren and Jeff Maggert.
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Joe Durant came up big at the PGA under some trying circumstances. Ranked 132nd in FedExCup points, the reigning Disney Golf Classic champion made the cut at Southern Hills despite cracking his Cleveland driver during his Tuesday practice round. He gutted out a tie for 18th at the PGA with a replacement, and now heads to Greensboro, where he was sixth a year ago, looking to improve further in hopes of getting to at least the BMW Championship in the third week of the playoffs -- where he won his first TOUR title in 1998.
After finishing 32nd at the PGA, John Daly heads to the Scandinavian Masters and he doesn't plan to return to the PGA TOUR until the Turning Stone Resort Championship, where he has a sponsor's exemption. He said he hopes to play all seven events in the Fall Series.
Henrik Stenson, who won the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, is changing his home base from Dubai in the Middle East to Lake Nona in the middle of Florida. Stenson still plans to play on both the PGA TOUR and the European Tour in 2008, but said he is looking forward to traveling out of Orlando. He added that his '07 season won't necessarily end with the FedExCup playoffs. He must add a TOUR event to play in his 15 minimum -- providing he doesn't advance to the TOUR Championship.
Shigeki Maruyama, who won at Forest Oaks in 2003 and was runner-up in '05, needs a good finish to move into the top 144 and the FedExCup playoffs. Still battling some shoulder problems, Maruyama said if he fails to advance to the Barclays Championship, he will return to Japan for the rest of the year.
A couple of notable veterans are making their first starts on the PGA TOUR this week: Trevor Dodds, who won the Wyndham Championship in 1998, and Bill Glasson, a seven-time TOUR winner. Both have been playing the Nationwide Tour all season.
TOUR Insider's power ranking for the Wyndham Championship: 1. K.J. Choi, 2. Steve Flesch, 3. Joe Durant, 4. John Senden, 5. Davis Love.
I spent two miserable days on that gif. It is one that I can truly say turned out perfect.
I was making it for you, while you were doing other things.
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