News and notes from PGA TOUR officials for the PGA, Champions and Nationwide tours.
PGA TOUR:
You might want to keep on eye on Fred Couples this week at the Memorial Tournament presented by Morgan Stanley. In his last 10 starts in the event, Couples has six Top-10 finishes, including a victory and two seconds. In his last 12 rounds at Muirfield Village, Couples has broken par 11 times.
Phil Mickelsons shot on 18 last week is the one everyone will remember, but the fact that he was 9 for 9 in Sand Saves might actually be the reason he won last weeks Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.
One more on Mickelson: If he finishes first or solo second this week at the Memorial, he will move into first place in the FedExCup standings. Hes currently 2,399 points behind Tiger Woods.
Theres a strong field assembled this week at the Memorial with seven of the Top-10 players in the current FedExCup standings on board.
Since THE PLAYERS began in 1974, 29 countries have been represented in the field.
Hes been fighting back problems for the last few seasons, but Ben Crane looks like he might be regaining his top form. In his last two starts, Crane has finished T6-5 for his first back-to-back Top-10 efforts since late in the 2005 season. Hes currently 37th in the FedExCup standings.
Who 3-putts the least on TOUR? Craig Kanada has only 3-putted three times this season (468 total holes). That works out to 0.64% of the time.
There are a lot of reasons for the success Tiger Woods has enjoyed, but heres a pretty significant one’he leads the TOUR in Scrambling, getting up and down 74.03% of the time. The TOUR average, by the way, is 57.34%.
CHAMPIONS TOUR:
You cant have a much closer race than the one in the Charles Schwab Cup competition. Bernhard Langer leads Jay Haas by a single point, 1413-1412.
More on Langer-Haas: Last week, Haas was the winner with Langer second. Langer leads the Tour in Scoring Average at 69.74 while Haas is second at 69.79. Haas, however, leads the All-Around category with Langer in second. Finally, Langer leads the money list with Haas right behind him.
Joey Sindelar, a rookie on the Champions Tour, had his best finish to date when he T3 last week at the Senior PGA Championship. Hes 31st on the money list after only six starts with $258,251.
Ronnie Black, a two-time winner on the PGA TOUR, will make his Champions Tour debut this week at the Principal Charity Classic in Des Moines, IA.
NATIONWIDE TOUR:
The winner of this weeks Bank of America Open will have a huge leg up on finishing among The 25 and gaining his PGA TOUR card for 2009. All six previous winners of this event have gone on to graduate to the TOUR that year.
Ricky Barnes has three Top-10 finishes in a row to his credit, including a T7 last week. Never before in his career has he had as many as two in a row.
Jeff Brehauts T2 last week at the Melwood Prince Georges County Open was his best finish on either the Nationwide Tour or PGA TOUR since he lost in a playoff at the 1997 Preferred Health Systems Wichita Open. He played in 287 events (60 Nationwide Tour-227 PGA TOUR) events over that span.
Prior to the South Georgia Classic back in early May, David Mathis was in 58th place on the money list. Since then, however, hes finished T6-1-T2 and now leads the money list with $223,679.
Related Links:
Full Coverage - The Memorial Tournament
Full Coverage - Principal Charity Classic
Full Coverage - Bank of America Open
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