Angela Park Takes Third

A pretty good week for qualifiers!

On the women's side, we had the first two qualifiers to break into the top 10, at the Fields Open. Angela Park came in 3rd, and Aram Cho came in 10th. Meaghan Francella also finished in the top 20, in 14th place. After two tournaments, we are now showing the players in the top 90.

With most of the big stars playing in the WGC Match Play event, there were lots of slots and opportunities in the new PGA event in Mexico. And they took advantage of it! Ryan Armour led the way in 4th place, with Boo Weekley in 6th, Cameron Beckman in 7th, Steve Marino in 8th, and Gavin Coles and Brendon DeJonge in 9th - and that was just the top 10! An additional 5 players were in the top 20. In addition, several players made their first cuts of the season. However, with big bucks being served up in the other tournament, it was hard for qualifiers in the middle of the pack to keep pace.

LPGA Gets Into Action

After watching the men play for six weeks, the LPGA season finally got underway. Overall, the qualifiers did OK - all 20 played, and 13 of the 20 made the cut in the tournament. None did really well - three (In-Kyung Kim, Katherine Hull, and Paige MacKenzie) came in tied for 17th. MacKenzie was one of the first round leaders, with a 67, but fell off in later rounds.

On the men's side, qualifiers did a little better. Jeff Quinney continued his hot streak with a tie for 9th, while Anthony Kim had his best tournament also finished in a tie for 9th. Cliff Kresge was the only other top 20 finisher, coming in 18th place.

Quinney has also become the first qualifier this year to likely guarantee his card for next year. His earnings of $941,300 would have given him 96th place in last year's rankings.

I decided to stop tracking the PGA's new "Fedex Cup Points". It was hard to keep these straight from the earnings, and for the most part, there wasn't much difference in ranking between those two measures. This might change as the season progresses, particularly after some majors, but for now it doesn't seem so hot. As far as I know, earnings still are what qualifier a player for the next season.

Mallinger Breaks Through

The AT&T Pebble Beach tournament finished last weekend, with Q-School graduate John Mallinger finishing 3rd; the best tournament this year by any Q-School rep. Matt Kuchar finished 6th, Ryan Armour 9th, and Craig Kanada 20th to finish out top qualifier records for the week. Mallinger and Armour both jumped into the top 125; Mallinger jumping into 23rd place in overall earnings.

Overall, the week was good for Q-School graduates, who managed to keep 14 players in the top 125 - no change from last week. Nationwide graduates saw a few members drop off. Some of the top Nationwide grads skipped the tournament, and several Q-School graduates made their first cuts of the season.

This coming week will see the LPGA (finally) starting their season, with the SBS Open in Hawaii.

Another Good Week for Jeff Quinney

For the third week in a row, rookie Jeff Quinney challenged for a PGA Tour win, but once again fell back in the final round. This week, at the FBR Open, he held on to take 3rd place, his best finish of the year. Otherwise, it was a pretty tough week for qualifiers, with Robert Garrigus's 11th place and Cliff Kresge's 20th place the only other decent showings.

Nationwide qualifiers continued to show their dominance over Q-School qualifiers. Despite having only half as many members (21 vs. 40), there are 16 Nationwide qualifiers in the top 125, compared to only 14 Q-School. And the latter include players at precarious positions: 115, 120, 121, 124, and 125. In fact, there are more Q-School qualifiers who have yet to make a cut (15) than in the top 125 (14). Could be a long season...