Interestingly enough, finishing in the top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings (which is pretty much a lock at this point), the “standard” way to keep a Tour card, is actually a step behind the life exemption, 19 vs. 18. So unless he can get everything to go right just once, we could be seeing his name in that slot for a while, possibly for the remainder of his career.
On a related note, how’s Davis Love III doing? I read an article about what a huge deal it was to finally get his 20th win and life status. I thought he’d be long gone by now, yet here he still is, having just played the Valspar Championship (and missing the cut).
Huh? Vijay won Majors in 1998, 2000, and 2004. He was T2 in the Open in 2003 and T3 in the US Open in 1999.
He won his first PGA event in 1993 and his last in 2008. Not to mention the Asian Tour where he started and the Euro Tour where he played and won extensively.
He did have a huge year in 2004, but that was close to the end of his winning run. Most of his wins came before that. He did win 34 times on the PGA Tour.
I’ve been eagerly awaiting Rory regaining his form. My enjoyment of golf is highest when there are several top players. With the rise of the likes of Spieth/Thomas, it is tempting to wonder whether the likes of McIlroy/DJ are “over the hill”! :smack:
Retaining Lifetime Membership does has a performance requirement in order to keep using it.
Davis Love III is playing under lifetime membership and his scoring average has to be within three shots of the average score of the tournaments he plays. If the average score is 72.0 and he averages 76.0 then he loses his lifetime membership privileges. Basically it is a preventative measure to keep players from abusing this privilege.
Jerry Barber won the PGA Championship back in 1961. That win gave him lifetime membership on tour. When he couldn’t get starts on the Senior Tour, he started to play events on the PGATour when he was in his 70’s and could not break 80. He was basically taking a spot from a more competitive player. The Players Advisory Committee made a performance requirement for all players who since earn lifetime membership, which includes Woods, Mickelson, Singh, Love.
Dustin Johnson (17 wins) is probably the next player to get to 20 wins as Ernie Els (19) and Jim Furyk (17) winning days appear to be over.
and incidentally, The Masters now has their very own Youtube channel and now in that library are the actual CBS broadcasts for the last 50 years. You can now see iconic Masters in their final round entirety like Roberto DiVicenzo signing an incorrect scorecard in 1968 to miss out on a 18 hole playoff with Bob Goalby. Or Nicklaus’s charges in 1975 and 1986. Tiger’s boat-race of the 1997 Masters, and Phil’s ankle-high jump when he won in 2004.
Oh, I have to go back and watch 1975! “Bear tracks on the green.” One of the best lines ever.
Also, it will be fun to see where they USED to put Sunday pins; some of them are quite different by my memory from current Sunday positions (16, for example, where Nicklaus makes that putt…).
OMG, never knew this! On the final day in 1975, Palmer is about two holes head of Nicklaus. On 12, playing at even par for the tournament, he nearly holes his tee shot; hits the flag stick and lands about two inches left of the cup and long; then draws back to the front fringe. Amazing. Gonna LOVE watching this!
68 yr old Tom Watson won the Par 3 Contest earlier today. 78 yr old Jack Nicklaus finished 4thrd. 82 yr old Gary Players played well too (10th). Sure it is a hit and giggle for most of the players, but it is remarkable that three of the geritol gang played so well.
Nicklaus’ 15 yr old grandson took a swing on the 9th tee and made a hole in one.
I hope the main course is as good as the appetizer!
Many of the best players seem to be in good form. Dustin, Justin (x2), Jordan, Phil, and even Tiger. Lets hope it is an exciting week and some good weather.
Has it really been ten years since the 2008 US Open, the best golf tournament I’ve ever watched? We had a rule at my work about no streaming media, which many of us happily ignored during that playoff, the office busybody got told to mind her own business when she tried to rat people out for watching the live coverage online.
Main news I’ve seen is how much water they are pouring on it. A fine line between devilishly tough and unplayable!
Meanwhile, my sentimental fave - DJ - wins last week, just to force this idiot to get his hopes up.
What the hell - I’ll take him as my early pick. Anyone else want to play? Who’s gonna win?
(I used to play a game with a golf enthused co-worker. Before each major, we’d pick our top 5, and then award points in reverse order if they were in the top 5 at the end of each day, doubling the points each round. I.e 5 pts if one of your picks leads after round 1, 10 pts after rd 2, etc. Too late to do this tourney, but maybe I’ll toss it out there for the 3-4 of us who post in golf threads to play along?)
The other news I saw was Tiger minimizing his commute by staying on his $20 million yacht with 6000 sq ft of living space. Just a :smack: to realize that someone’s SMALLER boat is roughly 3-4x as big as my freaking HOUSE! :eek:
Haven’t looked it up, and imagine winner is just about always in the red, but n most years, if you shoot even par, you are in the thick of it and have a shot on Sun.
