Tiger Woods. Phil Mickelson. Rory McIlroy. These names may ring a familiar bell with golf fanatics and casual watchers of the professional game of golf, but turn to the Web.com Tour and you’ll see the journeymen of golf, the blistered nomads who have but one goal: to play on the PGA Tournament with full status.
This weekend, the Ohio State Scarlet Course hosted the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, the third of four season-ending playoffs for the Web.com Tour. Non-PGA players compete with PGA Tour players for one of 50 full-exemption statuses for the 2013-2014 season.
While players on the PGA Tour are playing for a chance at $10 million this coming weekend, the Web.com usuals are fighting for an opportunity to play alongside the greats.
Take Scott Parel. Since his debut in 1998, the Web.com Tour has cycled through three different names.
Entering this weekend, he was placed outside the top-100 players, but he was projected to be within the top-20 players at the end of a solid third round. After the final round, he wound up nearly where he started.
“From one day to the next, you don’t know,” Parel said. “That’s the nature of this game. Every day, you feel like you’re so close to having a good day and then you end up not having a good [day]. It keeps you humble.”
Or take Chris DiMarco, a former top-ten golfer in the world and a three-time runner-up in major championships, having lost twice to Tiger Woods, at the Masters and the British Open, respectively.
He has partial exemption on the PGA Tour because of his undoubtable success, but is trying to obtain the treasured full-time exemption. He sounded exhausted after his third round play, bewildered by the youth that have taken over a game he used to dominate.
“I’m here to play golf; a lot of these kids are just starting their careers and I feel like, 18 years in, I’m just here to play golf and see what happens and see what I can do,” Dimarco said. “(I’m) waiting another four-and-a-half years and I can get on the Champions Tour. I’ve done a lot out here, and if it happens, it happens – I’m certainly not going to put extra pressure on myself.”
And Alex Cejka, who once entered the final round of the Players Championship with a five-shot lead over six players, including Tiger Woods. He would go on to finish in a tie for ninth.
He played by himself on Saturday afternoon, begging the last player in the field to make the cut. Accompanying him were a standard bearer and a scorer, as well as marshals on their respective holes. The gallery (only volunteers) was there involuntary. Besides a chip-in for birdie on the 16th hole, his round failed to show any signs of a pulse, posting an average two-over-par 73.
“I’ve been on the Tour for 20 years and it’s a good job, and like every job, you’ve got your positive and negatives,” Cejka said. “The older you get, the more aches you have, the more injuries you have compared to these younger guys. I’m hanging in there and I still like to play. We’ll just see how long I can keep it up.”
ch115710@ohiou.edu
