As both the PGA Tour and Nationwide Tour wind down their respective seasons in the next few weeks, many players find themselves fighting for position on the money list. As this will determine their playing status, and which Tour they’ll actually be playing on. It’s tough to gain ground in these closing few tournaments unless you have a couple of top 10′s, as the fields are crowded with many players on the lower side of the money list.
New England has a few natives on each Tour who find themselves on the bubble which will determine their status for next year.
James Driscoll – Brookline, MA
James hasn’t had the best of seasons in 2010 on the PGA Tour, but still had a few good showings that display what his game is capable of. His best was a T9 at the Valero Texas Open. He currently sits at 155th on the PGA with $460,707. He’ll need to do something special in order to keep his full time exemption for next year. But also, which may be more realistic, and equally important, is get in to the top 150. The players not in the top 125 on the money list, but between 126-150 will have “conditional status” on the PGA Tour next season. This is huge, as it also allows them to skip over 2nd stage of Q-school and go right to the finals to fight for a the top 25 and full exemption. James has been up and down between the PGA and Nationwide over the past handful of years, and I hope he can have a couple good finishes which will get him at least in to the top 150.
Justin Peters – Pembroke, MA
Justin is in his rookie season on the Nationwide Tour and all things considered is having a very successful rookie campaign. He currently sits 82nd on the money list with $69,731 and has made 14 cuts out of 18 events played. Knowing Justin a little bit and the struggles he’s had to get to this point, I know he’s excited with the success he’s seen so far and ready to build on it. The top 60 on the Nationwide money list get in to the Tour Championship, and are also full exempt members for next season. Players ranked 61-100 get conditional status and also get to skip over stage 1 of Q-school. More than likely, unless Justin can post a top 5 or so this week, he’ll be shut out of the Tour Championship and will be looking at conditional status for next year, and back to Q-school stage 2. But that’s ok, Justin came in to the season with only conditional status and certainly made the most of it.
Rob Oppenheim – Salem, MA
Rob is currently ranked 59th on the Nationwide Money list with $108,315. Talk about being on the bubble! Currently though, he looks strong to at least hold that position, if not improve upon it, as he’s tied for 5th place heading in to the weekend at this week’s tournament in Jacksonville. Who knows, if he has a special week at the Tour Championship, he may just be able to secure one of those coveted 25 PGA Tour cards.
Jeff Palopoli is a frequent contributor to MyNEGM.com and also writes on his blog at www.goodwalkgolf.com
About Jeff Palopoli
Web marketer, father, husband, and golf blogger continually searching for the golf game I used to have.
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