Four New Zealand golfers are well placed, approaching the midway point of the season, to retain their cards on the US PGA Tour in 2002.
Frank Nobilo, Phil Tataurangi, Grant Waite and Craig Perks need to finish in the top 125 on the money list to guarantee themselves full playing privileges
for next year.
The causes of Nobilo and Tataurangi were enhanced yesterday when they finished in a tie for 17th place at the Kemper Open in Potomac, Maryland.
For Tataurangi in particular, the top-20 placing was a significant boost. It lifted his income from just two PGA Tour starts to $US117,600 ($281,205). In his other start, he finished 12th equal in the Greater Greensboro Classic.
Now 145th on the money list, he has plenty of time to improve further because he is guaranteed another 15 Tour starts after being granted a non-exempt medical extension by the PGA following a neck injury which wrecked his season in 2000.
Waite is the best-performed New Zealander, despite his missing the cut in the Kemper Open. Thirteen starts have netted him $US382,282 and 65th place on the money list.
Nobilo is 76th, with earnings of $US323,056 from 13 events, and Perks, who has taken three weeks off to freshen up after a slump, is 102nd after pocketing $US246,198 from 12 starts.
Nobilo and Perks had to endure the peculiar pressures of fighting their way through the qualifying school last year to stay on Tour.
Perks has made just two cuts in 12 tournaments, and the vast bulk of his earnings has come courtesy of a second-equal placing in the Honda Classic in March.
The Tour money list is led, inevitably, by world No 1 Tiger Woods, who has banked $US3,497,857 from just nine starts.
- NZPA
