A baker’s dozen of Australians will be looking to emulate the success of Cameron Percy at one of the Web.com Tour’s longest running tournaments, the Price Cutter Charity tournament, this week.
A baker’s dozen of Australians will be looking to emulate the success of Cameron Percy at one of the Web.com Tour’s longest running tournaments, the Price Cutter Charity tournament, this week.
Percy posted a one shot victory at the
event last year, the win spring boarding him to a 2015 PGA TOUR card as he
became just the second Australian to claim the title.
The Price Cutter is one of just four
tournaments to be part of the secondary Tour since its inception in 1990 and is
considered one of the most prestigious titles on the circuit.
Percy’s 2014 win was just the second by an
Australian, Anthony Painter the first to achieve the feat in 1997.
Traditionally, the Highlands Springs
Country Club in Missouri hasn’t been kind to Australians with top-10’s
seemingly hard to come by over the years for the Down Under brigade.
Of those teeing up this week James Nitties’
T10 finish in 2012 is the best result but there is no shortage of incentives
for those in the field.
Rod Pampling, Oliver Goss, Mathew Goggin,
Steve Allan, Brett Drewitt, Nick Flanagan, Rhein Gibson, Ash Hall, Bronson
La’Cassie, Alistair Presnell, Aron Price and Adam Crawford will join Nitties in
Missouri while Bryden Macpherson is on the alternates list.
Pampling, all but assured of a 2016 PGA
TOUR card courtesy of his money list position, can improve his ranking for next
year with a good performance while both Mathew Goggin and Rhein Gibson are on
the bubble of automatic promotion.
Gibson is 29th on the money list
and Goggin 30th with the top-25 to earn status on the main tour when
the season ends in three weeks’ time.
Those between 26 and 75 on the money list,
which presently includes Steve Allan (32) and Oliver Goss (64), still have a
chance to gain status next year via the four tournament qualifying series which
has replaced Q-School.
Those between 76 and 100 on the standings,
which includes Bronson La’Cassie (83), Brett Drewitt (91), Aron Price (96) and
James Nitties (99) keep their Web.com cards for 2016 while those outside 100
have to return to Q-School.
That number includes Ash Hall (104), Adam
Crawford (120), Alistair Presnell (123), Bryden Macpherson (127) and Nick
Flanagan (159).
Hall, who has struggled most of the year,
comes into the week off a brilliant final round 63 last week, the 8-under total
including a final nine holes of 6-under 30 and no doubt a big boost to the
confidence this week.
Adam Crawford has also found the going
tough in 2015 but, like Hall, showed some promising signs last week which will
be crucial for his confidence as the year winds down.