Two more Australians head for USPGA Tour cards for 2004
IN: News | Nationwide | Wichita Open (2003) | Final Round | by Bruce Young | 25 Aug 2003
Mark Hensby's second place finish in this week's Wichita Open on the Nationwide Tour, has all but ensured a return for him to the USPGA Tour in 2004. After finishing second on the (then) 2000 Buy.Com Tour money list, Hensby gained his card for 2001 USPGA Tour, only to lose it at year's end when finishing in 186th place that season.
Last year he threatened to regain that card, eventually finishing 33rd when he needed to be inside the top fifteen, but very much still in with a chance until the last event, the Tour Championship. His good finish today however has moved him from 20th to 12th and with the top twenty now qualifying for the USPGA Tour next season, he looks in good shape for progression.
Hensby was born in Melbourne but raised in Tamworth, before heading to the US where he now lives in Phoenix.
If he is able to continue his good form, he will join fellow Australian Andre Stolz who also recorded a good finish at the Wichita Open, finishing in equal 10th. Stolz is assured of a card as his earnings for the season are already well past the fifteenth place earner last year and with the number of players earning cards for the main tour having been extended to twenty this year, then he is on his way. Stolz is already looking at houses in Florida for next season, although his key requirement now is not so much securing his card for 2004, but to ensure that he gains as high a ranking as possible in order that he will get plenty of early season starts. He is currently ninth on the money list.
New Zealander Michael Long on the other hand is struggling having now missed three of his last four cuts and slipping from inside the top ten three months ago to his current nineteenth place. He will need to turn things around if he is to return to the PGA Tour from where he came after a disappointing first season there in 2002.
The two Nationwide Tour winners in this part of the world earlier this year, Joe Ogilvie (Jacobs Creek Classic) and Ryan Palmer (Clearwater Classic) are currently in first and fifth place respectively on the money list and are assured of 2004 USPGA Tour cards. For Ogilvie it will be a return to the PGA Tour, while for Palmer, he will join the tour for the first time in 2004.
