Matt Kuchar won a six-hole playoff at the Turning Stone Resort Championship to capture his first title since 2002.
Oct. 5, 2009
By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM Site Producer
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 For final-round highlights from Turning Stone, click here.  |
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The Fall Series brings with it a whole different set of storylines than the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup and we saw that this week in upstate New York, where cold, wet weather eventually gave way to a bunch of players trying to secure their place in the top 125 on the money list.
Or, in the case of Adam Scott, a chance to work on his game in advance of The Presidents Cup, where there will be a lot of eyeballs on his play because of his somewhat controversial selection as a Captain's Pick by Greg Norman.
Yes, Scott went backwards with that even-par 72 on Sunday, but it was preceded by three sub-par rounds -- and the tie for 35th, Scott's best stroke-play finish since he tied for second in Hawaii in January.
Scott made 20 birdies at the Atunyote Course and finished 8 under, which marked just the second tournament since the Sony Open where he had broken par over 72 holes. He also hit 73 percent of his fairways and 69 percent of his greens.
The soft-spoken Scott is well-liked and is sure to be an asset in the team room this week and now it looks like he could be one on the course, too.
As for those hovering around that 125 mark, see Stock Up and Stock Down below. -- Brian Wacker and Helen Ross
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| Stock up |
Harrison Frazar: He came into the week right on the number at 125, but his tie for seventh, highlighted by a pair of 65s in the second and final rounds, all but locks up his TOUR card for next season. Money list: 107 (125 last week) |
Leif Olson: As one of only two players with four rounds in the 60s at Turning Stone, Olson made a huge jump on the money list and can now be known for more than a guy whose ball ricocheted off another ball for a hole-in-one at the RBC Canadian Open. Money list: 148 (214 last week) |
Peter Lonard: The Fall Series is made for guys like Lonard, a solid player who'd fallen on hard times this year. He missed his last four cuts, but made it to the weekend in New York, where he promptly set a course record in the final round with a 63. Money list: 166 (186 last week) |
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| Stock down |
Scott Piercy: One of only two players among the top 20 names on the leaderboard to fail to break 70 in the final round at Turning Stone, Piercy went from a share of the lead to a tie for 12th thanks to a 73. His only saving grace is already being well inside the top 125. Money list: 86 (91 last week) |
Joe Ogilvie: Rounds of 74-71 are not the way to keep your TOUR card for 2010. That's what Ogilvie, 127th in money before the week, shot at Turning Stone, where he missed the cut. His 33 putts in Round 1 certainly didn't help, either. Money list: 131 (127 last week) |
Charley Hoffman: The first five months of the season, Hoffman had seven top-20s. Since May, he's had just one. What's more troubling is that he's a combined 18 over in his last two tournaments (9 over in each) and last week at Turning Stone he took 70 putts in two rounds. Money list: 43 (40 last week) |
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| A Quick 18 |
| Front Nine | Back Nine |
| Matt Kuchar had already all but secured his
card for next season, but Monday's playoff win over Vaughn Taylor locks it up for two years, plus it gets him into a bunch
of big tournaments, including THE PLAYERS, World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational and PGA Championship. | In case you were wondering, Lonard's 63
wasn't even the best round of his career. He shot a 62 when he won the MCI Heritage in 2005. And earlier this year Lonard
shot a 63 in the final round of the AT&T National. |
| Kuchar has been building toward this win -- he had nine top-25s this year and eight last year -- and after a storied amateur career, he may finally be starting to realize at least some of the huge expectations people had for him. | What made Lonard's round more surprising was the fact that he had the flu last week, didn't practice and didn't even leave the house before dragging himself out of bed to Turning Stone. Clearly, he felt better by Sunday. "Maybe I should hit less balls," he joked. |
| Stat of the Week: For a guy who is 6-foot-4, Kuchar hits it about as far as Tom Pernice Jr. Kuchar ranks 138th in driving distance at 282.5 yards, which is a
half-yard farther than the diminutive (and much older) Pernice. That seems odd, even with his swing. | Though a couple of rookies -- most notably Marc Leishman and Webb Simpson -- have played well this season, none of them have won this year. The last time we went an
entire season without a rookie winning was in 1998 when Steve Flesch won Rookie of the Year honors. |
| You have to go back more than 20 years for the last time there was a six-hole playoff on TOUR. The last one before Sunday's/Monday's was at the 1986 Kemper Open, where Greg Norman defeated Larry Mize.
| Speaking of rookies and of Leishman, he has to be a little gassed at this point. After four top-20s, including a tie for second at the BMW Championship, in six vents prior to Turning Stone, he missed the cut with rounds of 75-74. Still, he's all but a lock for Rookie of the Year.
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| The playoff at Turning Stone could have been avoided, of course, had Kuchar either holed his bunker shot on the 72nd hole -- which he almost did -- or not fatted his wedge from 65 yards on the approach shot. That's the pressure of trying to win, though.
| Most players in the Fall Series are playing for position in the top 125 on the money list, but some, like Tim Petrovic, are also keeping an eye on the Kodak Challenge. "I may have to go to Mississippi just to play that par-5," he said. With $1 million at stake a lot of other guys are thinking the same thing. |
| Excellent observation by my Sirius-XM colleague Bob Stevens, who also noticed the peculiar approach Kuchar and Taylor took on the first playoff hole, the par-5 18th. Taylor hit 3-iron off the tee, then a fairway metal to a lay-up distance. Kuchar laid up in a more conventional manner and they both made birdie.
| In the Kodak Challenge, Kevin Streelman's lead is down to a stroke with Jason Gore, Nathan Green and J.J. Henry all nipping at his heels. Brendon de Jonge, Nicholas Thompson, Jason Bohn, Michael Letzig and Tim Herron are another stroke back. Think any of those guys couldn't use the million bucks?
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| Leif Olson almost made it a three-man playoff by knocking his eagle chip off the flagstick at that same hole. Instead, Olson had to settle for third. It wasn't a bad consolation, however, since he moved up more than 60 spots on the money list. | No one wants to play lift, clean and place, but given all the rain that had fallen in upstate New York recently, there wasn't much option. As a result, there were a lot of low scores at Turning Stone, but that beats the alternative. "[Rules official] Slugger White said, we can
leave $6 million here and go home or we can play lift, clean and place," said Davis Love III. |
| Jeev Milkha Singh didn't make the
International Presidents Cup team, nor was he a Captain's Pick, but he sure played like he was still trying to get on the
team. His 64 Sunday at Turning Stone matched his career-best score on TOUR.
| Am I the only one who thought a near 2 p.m.
tee time for the final group on Sunday seemed a tad too late for upstate New York in October? That meant that if the
tournament went to a playoff, which it did, they'd be flirting with a Monday finish, which is what we got. On the flip side,
they wouldn't have gotten six holes in with a slightly earlier start Sunday. |
| Corey Pavin should get a couple of commission checks. Why? He played with Mathias Gronberg, who shot a then
course-record tying 64 in the third round, and a day later with Peter Lonard, who shot a 63 to break said record. |
Keep Kenny Perry in your thoughts this week. His mother passed away last week and he'll be playing The Presidents Cup
with a heavy heart. You won't find a nicer, more honest and straightforward guy on TOUR than Perry and he'll need his
teammates to rally around him this week.
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| The Forward Spin |
The Fall Series takes a break this week for The Presidents Cup, where, at least on paper, the U.S. team seems to have a decided advantage. If there's a they play on grass not on paper fact, though, it's that the top two U.S. players -- Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson -- are under .500 in international team competitions. That's even more stunning given their match-play records as amateurs.
On the International side, top players Geoff Ogilvy and Vijay Singh have struggled lately, but both have been formidable opponents in match-play formats. Ditto Mike Weir and Tim Clark. The real wild cards for the International team, however, will be Captain's Picks Adam Scott and Ryo Ishikawa. Scott's recent struggles have been well-documented, while Ishikawa is playing his first Presidents Cup. |
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