Highs and lows at Nationwide Tour Championship
BY Bruce Young | Nationwide Tour | 2007 Nationwide Tour Championship | Round Four | 05 Nov 2007
The high drama that is Tour Championship week on the Nationwide Tour and as is always the case there were winners and losers, not only in the event itself but in the race for PGA Tour honours.
For the record, Welshman Richard Johnson, won the title and confirmed his position atop the 2007 Nationwide Tour money list but he had the luxury of playing the tournament safe in the knowledge that, whatever he did, he was heading for the big-time next season. He took full advantage of that situation and won by one over Michael Letzig with a further shot back to Scotland’s Martin Laird and Tom Scherrer.
Letzig and Tom Scherrer had been on the outside looking in prior to this week’s event and the sizeable prizemoney from today’s efforts moved them inside the all important top 25, who will graduate to the PGA Tour. For Skip Kendall and Australian David McKenzie however, they went the other way.
McKenzie, at number 23 at the start of the week, needed to finish inside the top 20 to have any chance but despite a solid final round the 40-year-old agonisingly missed his chance to return to the PGA Tour. Not that all is lost however as McKenzie will advance to the Final Stage of Tour School to see if he can regain the status he had on the PGA Tour in 2006. Kendall slipped from 22nd to 26th.
Scott Gardiner made a huge move over the weekend but after the dust had settled, the Gold Coast based, New South Welshman was just two shots shy of making it inside the top 25. Gardiner’s round of 63 on Saturday was followed by a round of 66 today and he finished fifth in the event but fell just short.
There is a suggestion that Gardiner may not necessarily attend Tour School which, if turns out to be correct, will be a travesty as he has shown that he is on the verge of making it to the next level, even if it has to be via Tour School.
Three Australians – Nick Flanagan, Jason Day and Matthew Jones – will therefore graduate from the class of 2007. All will be the subject of much discussion as to their likely success at the higher level.
