Posted by Jason Sobel
With apologies to fans of the Weekly 18 (uh, you are out there, right?), I had a little time off this weekend and didn't get a chance to write the regular Sunday night column. So, not to deprive you of your weekly fix of notes and analysis, here are 18 tidbits from this past week:
1. Good for Troy Matteson. Just a few weeks ago, he was on the outside looking in when it came to retaining his PGA Tour card. In his first 27 starts of the season, he owned exactly zero top-10 finishes. Then a T-8 at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic and a T-6 in Greensboro elevated him to 143rd on the money list. With the win in Las Vegas, he's now 71st and has nothing to worry about for a while.
2. Let's show a little emotion, Troy! You just earned $720,000, a trip to Kapalua and full PGA Tour status for the next two years! And yet, upon two-putting for par to clinch the victory on the final green, you simply tip your cap to the gallery and barely flash a smile? Looked like you just claimed fourth-place in the weekly pro-am, not your first career victory.
3. It's tough to separate contenders from pretenders among PGA Tour champions these days. While many lesser-name players have claimed trophies during the season's dog days, I find myself asking, "Is this guy the next Geoff Ogilvy or Andre Stolz?" My gut feeling: Matteson, D.J. Trahan and Eric Axley are the real deal, but we may not hear much from Will MacKenzie in coming years.
4. I can usually lounge at the Kapalua pool each January and recognize every player without so much as tilting my head from the sun, but it's going to be a bit tougher in a few months. I'll admit it: If I'm going to point out guys like MacKenzie, Axley and even Matteson, I might have to carry a media guide with me at all times.
5. Nationwide Tour money leaders Johnson Wagner, Craig Bowden and Jeff Quinney have to be licking their chops right now. Each of last year's top trio on the minor league circuit -- Matteson, Jason Gore and Chris Couch -- already has a PGA Tour victory under his belt. The debate continues as to whether the Nationwide Tour is as good, top to bottom, as the European Tour, but there's no denying it teaches players how to win at a high level.
6. OK, I'll just say it now: Wagner, who owns two Nationwide wins and leads the money list this season, will win a PGA Tour event next year. Remember: You read it here first.
7. Daniel Chopra is very, very close to winning a PGA Tour event. He's coming off a T-2 at the Frys.com Open and finished T-21 and T-10 at Disney and Tampa, respectively, last year. Don't be surprised if he wins either of the next two events.
8. Seriously, the phrase is "Drive for show, putt for dough," right? So, it's interesting to note that Chopra leads the PGA Tour in putting average, but is still working on earning more of the green stuff. In fact, eight of the tour's top 10 putters this season (including the man who tied Chopra for second place this past week, Ben Crane) don't have victories; the only ones who do are Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk.
9. Meanwhile, three of the tour's top 10 in driving distance (J.B. Holmes, Brett Wetterich and Tiger Woods) have victories, with the latter having more than his fair share.
10. One statistic that always means something is the PGA Tour's All-Around category, which ranks players based on all major statistics. Not surprisingly, Tiger leads this one. He's followed by a slightly eclectic group of Robert Allenby, Adam Scott, Steve Stricker, Vijay Singh and Wetterich. It's interesting that Allenby, in particular, hasn't made more of a push to win this season. Coming off winning the Aussie Triple Crown, he's made the cut in 19 of 20 events, but has no finish of better than fourth place.
11. The All-Around is also a good place to find sleepers for coming seasons; it's one reason I was touting Ogilvy long before he became a top player. So which young player jumps out from this year's list? Well, you'd have to look at the highest-ranked player without a career victory, Charley Hoffman. Coming off a T-5 at the Frys.com Open, Hoffman hits the ball a long way (ninth in driving distance) and rolls the rock (23rd in putting average), so it may only be a matter of time before he finds the winner's circle, too. Even better for the Tour: With his long blonde hair and California surfer persona, "Goldilocks" is a marketer's dream come true.
11. Leading the annual list of "Players You Might Be Surprised to See in the Tour Championship Right Now" are Brett Quigley, Wetterich, Dean Wilson, Tom Pernice Jr. and J.J. Henry, who are each inside the top 30 on the money list. Of those five, only Quigley and Pernice are without victories this season.
12. Congratulations, Brian Bateman. You're this week's Bubble Boy. At 125th on the money list, Bateman leads No. 126 (John Cook) by $648.
13. Hate to say this, but if Lorena Ochoa had a swimsuit calendar, she'd be the most recognizable female athlete on the planet. Ochoa may be more substance than style -- a trait that makes her far less popular than, say, Natalie Gulbis -- but she's on a mighty roll right now, punctuated by a come-from-behind triumph over Annika Sorenstam on Sunday at the Samsung World Championship. It was her fifth victory this season and should all but lock up the Player of the Year award that annually goes to Annika.
14. In a recent edition of Alternate Shot on this very Web site, Bob Harig and Ron Sirak debated whether Ochoa (or another player) would pass Sorenstam in the Women's World Rankings by this time next year. Gotta say I agree with Bob, as it looks like Ochoa, 24, is set to carry Annika's torch as the next dominant LPGA player.
15. The Michelle Wie train keeps chugging along, but it's losing steam at an alarming rate. The newly turned 17-year-old finished 17th in the field of 20, placing 21 strokes behind Ochoa. It appears she may be regressing on the course, but perhaps all Wie needs is a little R&R to clear her mind. She's played in an awful lot of tournaments this year for a high school kid. Let's see how she does after taking a few months to get her game back in order.
16. It doesn't rain every Sunday on the Champions Tour; it just seems like it. For the second straight week, an event was called short due to inclement weather as Jay Haas was awarded the Administaff Small Business Classic victory. It's becoming apparent Mother Nature feels as strongly as Greg Norman when it comes to the senior circuit.
17. With Arnold Palmer officially retiring from competitive golf Friday, it's tough to get a grip on how much the story means. Unlike other sports, where an active player is celebrated upon his retirement, Arnie really hasn't been "active" for quite some time. He last won a Champions event in 1988 and hasn't played a double-digit tournament schedule since 2000. Yes, we'll all miss him, but it was such a gradual decline that we'll hardly notice he's gone.
18. Quote of the week: "I spoke to my daughter yesterday and she told me to please lose today so I could come home. I said, 'Amy, give me one more day and then Mom is coming.'" -- Diane Lang, who won this week's U.S. Senior Women's Amateur.
