Filed under: PGA
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Once more with feeling.Forty-four weeks and 47 tournaments since the year's first competitive shot was hit the first week of January in Hawaii, the PGA Tour season is heading to the finish line.
Although golf has a tendency to just keep on playing, this week's Children's Miracle Network Classic at Walt Disney World Resort officially closes out the season.
That means the storyline of the week is the last-minute scramble to secure/save/salvage playing privileges for 2011.
The top 125 on the final money list earn full exempt status. Anyone in the top 150 manages partial status. The rest are cast off to the minor leagues or even worse -- writing letters to tournament officials asking for sponsor exemptions.
So, while the field has drawn a respectable list of recognizable names like Vijay Singh, Rickie Fowler, Jeff Overton and Davis Love III, much of the focus goes to "bubble boys'' playing for job security.
Veteran Joe Durant stands at 120 on the money list with $777,425. Nine spots down at 130, and four short of the magic cut line, is Michael Connell. About $100,000 separates the two. A top-10 finish this week would pay more than that amount.
Or consider the plight of Briny Baird (pictured). He's 126 on the money list, $13,001 behind 125 Troy Matteson.
"I'm approaching it like a 3-foot putt," Baird said of his situation. "There are only two things that can happen -- either it goes in or it misses. Either I play well enough to keep my card or I don't, and then I have to go to Q-school in two weeks. Those are the only two options, so it's not like I'm dreading this week."
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It's one of pro golf's most appealing characteristics. Competitors must earn the right to keep playing.
"If you want to be one of the top players in golf, you have to perform," Baird said. "That's the beauty of the game. There are no five-year, guaranteed contracts in golf. You can't sign a big deal and then just take it easy for a while."
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Source: http://golf.fanhouse.com/2010/11/09/notebook-crunch-time-for-bubble-boys/
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