Content Preview: rss
gholder 3 hours ago
Eight Canadians will be in the field when the final stage of PGA Tour fall qualifying begins at West Palm Beach, Florida, on Dec. 2. By the time it's all over, six days later, they'll all have spots of one kind or another on either the PGA Tour or its affiliated Nationwide Tour in 2010. The priority, of course, as it is for all of the more than 150 players in action at the Bear Lakes club, will be trying to finish in a tie for 25th or better, thus earning the right to join Mike Weir of Bright's Grove, Ont., and Stephen Ames of Calgary on the PGA Tour next season. Chris Baryla of Vernon, B.C., already had a PGA Tour spot clinched thanks to his 19th-place finish on the Nationwide money list this past season, but he's still listed on the list of competitors for the third and final stage of fall qualifying, meaning he's likely in search of a better position on the rankings that determine entry into each tournament. Also exempt to the final stage was Calgary's Dustin Risdon, thanks ...
gholder 5 days ago
A win is a win, no matter when it happens. Given that, Stephen Ames was asked, wasn't there some part of him that wanted to play again following his fourth career PGA Tour victory in the Children's Miracle Network Classic, the last tournament of the 2009 season, in Orlando on Sunday? "Yes and no," the 45-year-old tour pro from Calgary said Tuesday during a teleconference. "I'm looking forward to the break and to getting ready for next year." Next year will start earlier than previously expected for Ames, at least in a golf sense, since the Orlando victory qualified him for the winners-only SBS Championship, the tee-off event for the 2010 schedule, at the Kapalua Resort in Hawaii on Jan. 7-10. The first full-field event, the Sony Open, will take place in Honolulu a week later, and Ames now plans to enter that tournament, too. It won't be exactly what he and his family had expected when they planned their annual holiday-season trip to Hawaii, but at least ...
gholder 7 days ago
Imagine making $445,720 in a single year and thinking it was, more or less, a failure. If you can, then you're probably a lot like Glen Day. Day, who turns 44 today, made that much in PGA Tour action in 2009, but it was only good enough to place 151st on the season money list. That left the winner of the 1999 MCI Classic outside both the top 125, which would have been worth a full PGA Tour card in 2010, and the 126-150 slots that result in the conditional or part-time status that gets those players into a restricted number of events. Day finished about $8,500 behind 150th-place Ryan Palmer, which meant that the second-round 76 he shot in the season-ending Children's Miracle Network Classic in Orlando was likely the difference for Day. Similarly, failing to make the weekend in the season finale at Disney was what kept Robert Garrigus (127th at $657,204) and former world No. 1 David Duval (130th at $623,824) from retaining full cards. The only two players to move into the ...
gholder 11 days ago
Brad Fritsch of Manotick has been assigned to a club in Kingwood, Texas, for the second round of PGA Tour fall qualifying on Nov. 18-21. Fritsch, a three-year veteran of the U.S.-based Nationwide Tour, advanced through the first stage of qualifying at a club not far from his current home base in North Carolina. The exact number of players who will advance from the second-stage event at The Deerwood Club to the third and final stage of qualifying, set for Dec. 2-7 at North Palm Beach, Florida, is yet to be determined, but last year's total was 21. Also in the field at the Texas qualifier, one of second at the second stage, are fellow Canadians David Hearn, J.C. Deacon and Ben Ferguson. Fritsch's North Carolina buddy, David Mathis, is also listed there, but he's currently in Orlando for the Children's Miracle Network Classic, this week's final stop on the 2009 PGA Tour schedule. Mathis is 160th on the PGA Tour money list, so he needs a good week in Florida if he's to jump ...
gholder 13 days ago
The Crown has withdrawn charges against another 11 officers and directors of ClubLink Corp. in connection with a car crash that killed three Toronto-area men and injured another individual in July 2008. Last Thursday at a court hearing in Bracebridge, Ont., the Crown prosecutor said the liquor-related charges were withdrawn because there was "no reasonable prospect of conviction." The 11 men had been part of an initial group of 16 charged with various 34 Liquor Licence Act offences following the crash that killed Tyler Mulcahy, 20, Cory Mintz, 20, and Kourosh Totonchian, 19. Those three and one individual who survived the crash had spent an afternoon drinking at the ClubLink-owned Lake Joseph Golf Club, before their car left the road and crashed into the Joseph River. Two other men had charges against them withdrawn in January because they had left ClubLInk before the accident occurred. Those still facing charges include Lake Joseph Golf Club staff members Walter ...
