Hensby "gazumped" in Texas
BY Bruce Young | Nationwide Tour | 2002 Permian Basin Open | Wrap | 26 Aug 2002
On a weekend where Australian golfers world wide were performing all sorts of heroic deeds, another Australian, Mark Hensby, had one produced against him.
Hensby and 28 year old Buy.Com Tour rookie, Tag Ridings from Oaklahoma, were tied at the end of seventy two holes and so returned to the eighteenth. Both players drove it in the middle of the fairway and Hensby played first leaving himself fifteen feet from the hole and in good shape to record hs third win on the Buy.Com Tour.
Ridings had other ideas and proceeded to hole his second shot from a similiar distance (125 yards) to Hensby and so it was over almost before it had started. It was a little different to Hensby’s last playoff experience where he went seven extra holes before beating South African Manny Zerman in the 2000 Carolina Classic.
Still for Hensby it opens up an opportunity to return to the USPGA Tour next season. In that stellar season of 2000 Hensby had finished second on the Buy.Com money list thus gaining entry to the USPGA Tour in 2001. At season’s end last year he was 186th on the money list, was not able to regain his card at the tour school and so it was back to the secondary tour.
His season thus far in 2002 has been highlighted by a sixth place at the season opening Jacobs Creek Classic but over the last month, with the exception of a top ten at the Omaha Classic, he has missed six of his last seven cuts. This second place of Hensby will move him to around 30th on the money list and leave him with a chance of graduation to the USPGA Tour next season if he is able to finish the year off well in the remaining events.
Ridings had not fared a lot better than Hensby leading into this week, missing eight of his seventeen cuts with a fifth place in Knoxville the highlight. This win and the accompanying $US76,500 will move him to the edge of the top fifteen and perhaps a sniff of the USPGA Tour in 2003.
