Tweeners: PGA & Web.com Players

Do you think the PGA Tour, Inc. should have some sort of combined money or point list given the number of players who make starts on both the PGA Tour and Web.com Tours?

Consider: Player PGA Starts Cuts Made Top 10s Ave Score $ Web Starts Cuts Made Ave Score $ Total $

Chesson Hadley 6 4 0 71.16 $ 82,208 13 8 70.34 $ 218,450 $ 300,658

Ted Potter Jr 2 1 0 70.70 $ 31,284 14 10 69.96 $ 197,957 $ 229,241

Austin Cook 1 0 0 73.54 $ - 16 11 70.11 $ 170,031 $ 170,031

Beau Hossler 8 4 0 71.46 $ 77,028 6 6 68.00 $ 149,312 $ 226,340

Jason Gore 5 1 0 71.64 $ 133,125 12 8 70.51 $ 122,464 $ 255,589

Nicholas Thompson 2 0 0 73.87 $ - 15 10 71.28 $ 94,461 $ 94,461

Rafael Campos 4 3 2 70.29 $ 333,979 9 7 69.33 $ 85,920 $ 419,899

Who has had the best year so far? All should make the Web.com Tour finals, but, at this point, only Hadley, Potter and possibly Cook have locked up PGA Tour cards for next season (with Hossler and Gore also inside the current Top 25). Meanwhile, Campos, the guy with the most money won and fewest missed cuts is in the worst position to get his tour card.

I think to some extent this is what they tried to get with the web tour finals series but I agree with you and a seperate membership category could give him birth imo .if nothing else they could guarantee he gets 4 PGA starts or soemthing off that nature to the player who makes the most money between both tours

Coming off an injury Campos started the season on the PGA Latin-American tour. Got an exemption into the Puerto Rico Open which led to a few top 10s on the PGA. Didn't start playing the web tour until midseason which makes it difficult to finish in the top 25 at that point unless you win a tournament or rack up a few top 2 finishes(like Hossler has done). He's a talented golfer but might have to get his card thru the web.com playoffs at this point. Worst case scenario he will have web tour status for the entire season next year as he's a lock to finish at minimum in the top 75 on the money list. Some of these guys like Hadley play enough web events to secure their card for the next season and then can sprinkle in a few PGA events at that point.

Currently the web.com finals are the only catch all for the guys who finish 126-200 on the PGA fedex points or 26-75 on the web.com money list. Also this year the PGA only uses FedEx points to determine standings while the web tour uses money so it makes it a little difficult to combine finishes from both tours.

Coming off an injury Campos started the season on the PGA Latin-American tour. Got an exemption into the Puerto Rico Open which led to a few top 10s on the PGA. Didn't start playing the web tour until midseason which makes it difficult to finish in the top 25 at that point unless you win a tournament or rack up a few top 2 finishes(like Hossler has done). He's a talented golfer but might have to get his card thru the web.com playoffs at this point. Worst case scenario he will have web tour status for the entire season next year as he's a lock to finish at minimum in the top 75 on the money list. Some of these guys like Hadley play enough web events to secure their card for the next season and then can sprinkle in a few PGA events at that point.

 

Currently the web.com finals are the only catch all for the guys who finish 126-200 on the PGA fedex points or 26-75 on the web.com money list. Also this year the PGA only uses FedEx points to determine standings while the web tour uses money so it makes it a little difficult to combine finishes from both tours.

Yes, most of what you say is correct. IMO, it wouldn't be that hard to have a combined list if they wanted to do it. i.e. Web.com $ + 10-20% of PGA Tour $ is one example, but there are lots of scenarios that would work.If you want to use Fed Ex Cup points, it could be FEC points + 1 point for each $1,000 Web.com $ (or something that makes sense).

As you note, Campos's first 4 starts this season were on the PGA Tour, where he did quite well. Then, after his first missed cut on the PGA Tour, it was over to the Web.com (probably because he couldn't get another sponsors exemption on the PGA Tour, but could on the Web.com). After T3 his first Web.com event (followed by 4 more top 25s which get you into the next Web.com event), he had some status on that tour and continued to play there. I think he is a lock to qualify two ways for the Web.com finals- the equivalent of top 200 on PGA Tour (in only 4 events) and Top 75 on Web.com.

This is what i think is illogical-

A guy who plays every Web.com event and finishes 25th regular season and then bombs out missing all the cuts at the Web.com Tour finals gets a PGA card, while a guy who finishes 26th on Web.com regular season (in limited starts), 151st on PGA Tour(in limited starts) AND 26th at Web.com tour finals (among players who were not reg season Top 25) only gets Web.com status for the following season.

The above scenario makes some players decide to turn down potential PGA Tour starts (until they have locked their Web.com top 25 position as mentioned with Haddley) or miss a Web.com opportunity and get no status benefit out of a top 25 PGA Tour finish (only top 10 gets you into the next event).

The Web.com Finals format, certainly benefits those who are playing well during that stretch and does give a clean slate to those that were able to qualify via a limited number of events (i.e. recent top Ams who got into the Top 75 or Top 200 in a handful of events), but it does force some interesting scheduling choices for those that have had some success on both tours.

To me it doesn't make sense. They chose to play up on the PGA Tour. Almost all those starts are because they are conditional PGA Tour members, Monday qualified, or sponsors exemption. They know how the money list works and there have been plenty who chose to play the Web in order to make sure they had the best chances at earning their card. It's not illogical and they go in with it all on the table.

One of my students had/has the same predicament in Europe. He has bad European Tour status and full status on the Challenge Tour and has spent the year 50/50 on both. When he plays on the European Tour he knows the risk and it's choice which tour he plays on. He doesn't think it's illogical or unfair. If you play well enough you get your card. Period. If you didn't get the outcome you wanted you didn't play well enough or made poor scheduling choices.

Jason Gore is the ultimate 4A player. Has anybody been up and down as many times as him?

Yup it does go both ways , I think it would be nice for the tour however to say top earner from both catergories combined gets starts through the Hawaii or so , if they don't already get their card through web finals . A nice bonus to playing both tours the best . That way if they don't play into the reshuffle afterwards they have the whole web season ahead off them that they can focus on , especially with the early season web tour schedule that goes deep into PGA LA territory