Nationwide

Tour Championship

The final event of the year and a very important one for this limited field. The prizes on offer are not just monetary, but career-defining. A players jostle for position on the money list, they will determine where they may play next year. The top-15 money winners on the Tour gain entry to the PGA Tour in 2002, while the players who finish 16-55 are exempt for the 2002 season on this Tour. Furthermore, players who finish 16-25 on the final Tour money list earn automatic berths into the finals of the PGA Tour qualifying tournament while 26-55 on the money list are exempt into the second stage of the qualifying tournament. Rest assured, these players will keep trying until the last putt is holed.

The course this week is a new one. The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail has been the home of this event since 1997, but this is the fourth course to be used in that time. The Senator course at The Legends at Capitol Hill was opened in 1999 and boasts an Irish links-style layout with wide, rolling fairways and blind shots aplenty. It seems an unusual choice of venue for such a season-ending event, but more than anything, experience will be of paramount importance in the pressures of this weekend's golf.

With Simon Bold offering six places, I'm tempted back into capping this Tour though it is, in my opinion, the hardest one to cap. Still, this week's selections are John Rollins and Jason Caron. Both played on the PGA Tour last year and that experience of having previously qualified for the main Tour and only spending one year on the lesser Tour will be important. Rollins is actually assured of playing on the main Tour because he currently stands 6th on the money list, but as only the leading money winner has full playing rights next year, there is still important seniority points to be had. He can boast good form with one victory this year and four top-10 finishes in his last six events. The price is a little shorter than I would like, but he has proven to be one of the more consistent performers on this very unpredictable Tour.

The second selection is one who needs to finish 1st or 2nd to secure that important top-15 spot on the money list. It has happened in two of the last four years that the winner of this event needed to do so to secure his Tour card via the top-15 on the money list route, but it is an improvement from his current 33rd spot on the money list to the top-25 that will be his immediate goal. He is selected because of the way in which he has performed in the last few weeks under pressure. He has finished 7th-2nd-5th in the last three weeks and finished strongly in all three events over the weekend. In this form and with no signs of his game wilting under pressure, he looks a decent outsider for this title.

Outright plays:

John Rollins to win 12/1 e.w. @ Simon Bold

Jason Caron to win 25/1 e.w. @ Simon Bold

72-hole plays:

Jonathan Byrd to beat Michael Long -111 @ Simon Bold [3 units]
This is not a good time to be holding onto a top-15 spot on the money list without the knowledge that it is secure. This is evident in Long's game in the past few weeks. He won the Boise Open five weeks ago to put himself in this position, but since then he has finished 21st-mc-62nd-mc and in each of the last three weeks his first round has been his best. Byrd's form has not been great in recent weeks, but his position on the PGA Tour is safe next year - he currently lies 6th on the money list - and this will be a far less stressful week for him

Billy Judah to beat Matt Peterson -111 @ Simon Bold
It is the same situation with Peterson who stands 11th on the money list, but is only $15,000 ahead of 16th place. His last four finishes have been 49th-17th-47th-mc, with the lowest round in three of those weeks being the first round. Judah on the other hand would need to win this event to secure a PGA Tour card or finish in the top-3 to get to the final round of PGA Tour Q-school. With neither realistic, he is assured of the other qualifications and can play with much less stress, which is evident from his finishes in the last month

Jason Caron to beat D.A. Points -111 @ Simon Bold
Siding with an outright selection to beat a player who won the Inland Empire Open last month after achieving a high-finish of 50th in his previous ten events! He has since had another good week - 4th at the Gila River Golf Classic - but his form is not at same level or consistency as that of Caron

Mid-point update:

No cut in this event so the three plays are still alive and two are ahead at the halfway point. Judah leads Peterson by three and Caron leads Points by two, but the top play is losing. Byrd is three shots behind Long. In the outrights, Rollins is 21st, six shots off the lead, while Caron is three shots further back. With scoring very difficult - only one round under par today - these positions can change very easily over the weekend.

Final update: 1-2-0 and +0.78 units

Extremely high scoring in the high winds meant the event became rather a lottery for the matchups, but at least they finished ahead. In the 3-unit play, Byrd beat Long by twelve shots, but the other two lost to opponents shooting over 300 for the four rounds   Judah finished eight shots behind Peterson and Caron finished seven shots behind Points.

Update on outright plays: 0-2 and -2.00 units

Caron finished a lackluster 48th out of 53 starters, while Rollins completed the poor year of outright plays on this Tour when he finished 8th and one shot out of a place finish.