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Thursday, December 2, 2010

Woods searches for first win in 2010 finale

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – The goal for Tiger Woods has always been to be better than he was the year before. Despite losing his marriage and every tournament he played, he still gave himself a passing grade.

“As a golfer, I learned so much more this year than any other year – and as a person, infinitely more,” Woods said Tuesday. “So it’s been a very successful year, even though it was a very painful year, as well.”

That year comes to a close with the Chevron World Challenge, which starts Thursday featuring an 18-man field of players inside the top 50 in the world ranking. Woods has won the last two times he played, although he missed the last two years – in 2008 while recovering from knee surgery, and last year because of the Thanksgiving night accident that led to revelations of his infidelity.

It was a year that Woods described as “harder than anyone could have imagined.”

On Tuesday of tournament week a year ago, the Florida Highway Patrol cited him for reckless driving and fined him $164 for running his SUV over a fire hydrant and into a tree outside his home, while a magazine had a cover story from a cocktail waitress who said she had 300 text messages to prove her 31-month affair with Woods.

His personal life was just starting to unravel.

Woods said he never thought about walking away from golf for the entire year, shooting down speculation in a book that he would enlist in the Navy. Woods said as a kid, he either wanted to be a pro golfer or a Navy SEAL.

“I love playing the game of golf,” Woods said. “It’s fun, it’s certainly challenging, and it’s also something that I know when I do it right, I’m pretty good at it.”

That was not lost on Ian Poulter as he hit balls on the range Tuesday morning and talked about the world ranking, amazed that Woods has lost more ranking points than any player has earned this year.

Poulter recalled a time not long ago when the distance between Woods and whoever was No. 2 in the world was greater than No. 2 and the player ranked 100th or lower.

“It shows how good,” Poulter said, pausing. It sounded as though he was ready to say “how good he was,” but the Englishman caught himself, because he believes Woods will return. “It shows how good he can be when he’s at his best.”

Can he get it back?

“I think it’s in him even more,” Poulter said.

Woods talked about the need to change his personal life and his golf swing, but he never explained until Tuesday why he had to change a swing that had brought him 31 tour victories, including six majors, under Hank Haney.

“As I played throughout the summer, I kept trying to do the things that I was working on with Hank over the years, and it just wasn’t working anymore, and it got to a point where I just couldn’t do it,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to try and play tournament level golf, major championship golf especially, when at the time I was struggling with which way the ball was going to go. That’s not fun.”

Why wasn’t it working?

“For some reason, it just wasn’t,” he said. “And it was time to go a different route.”

Woods is back to work this week, although only he knows to what degree his life is back to normal. He had a board meeting with the Tiger Woods Foundation on Monday night – Woods picked up the tab for dinner – and more meetings as the host of this tournament on Tuesday before a press conference and some work on the practice range.

He no longer is grilled about his personal life, including his divorce in August.

Instead, the focus has shifted back to his golf game, and there hasn’t been much to report on that front. Woods went without a win on the PGA Tour for the first time in his career. He lost his No. 1 ranking for the first time in five years to Lee Westwood of England.

The Chevron World Challenge does not count as official on the PGA Tour, although it does offer world ranking points, and Woods mathematically will have a chance to get back to No. 1 this week with a victory. That seems unlikely given his recent form.

Woods was asked why he hadn’t won this year, whether it was mechanical or mental, long game or short game.

“All of the above,” Woods said. “I think I’ve dealt with a few things off the golf course, and on the golf course I’ve had to make some changes in my game. You combine all that together, it’s very hard to be efficient for 72 straight holes.”

He has shown flashes – 7 under over his last seven holes in a Ryder Cup singles match, 6 under in his last six holes in Australia.

Still, this year goes down as an anomaly with Woods. No majors. No wins. And a career-worst 68th on the money list.

“It’s been difficult, but also it’s been very rewarding at the same time,” Woods said. “It forced me to look deeper into myself and ... how I grew up and how those things didn’t match with the person who I am, and getting back to that, getting back to how my parents raised me. It’s been good. I’m very excited about the future because of that.”

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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Clowney casts shadow of greatness

ROCK HILL -- On any other team - or in any other year - South Pointe defensive end Gerald Dixon would be the star of the show.

In helping the Stallions to the Class AAA state championship game, where they'll face Myrtle Beach on Saturday in Columbia, Dixon has recorded 19.5 sacks. And yet nobody even cares.

Such is life playing with the nation's No. 1 college prospect, fellow defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, whose proverbial shadow is larger than the actual one cast by his NFL-sized frame.

College coaches have flocked to this football powerhouse - the Stallions are seeking their second state title in the program's fifth year of existence - with regularity over the last year, hoping to lure Clowney and his rare size and skill set into their program. But before he joins college royalty, the 6-foot-6, 250-pounder has one more prep game to showcase his talents for the masses.

"He's got 180-pound athlete numbers," South Pointe coach Bobby Carroll said. "He's got a 36-inch vertical jump. He power cleans 335. He's a sub-4.5, electronic-timed 40, and he's extremely flexible. He can bend over backwards and pick up a quarter."

But his best trick is rushing the passer. More often than not, he has to defy the odds to get there. Clowney has 26.5 sacks - along with 155 tackles, 24 tackles for loss, two interceptions and five defensive touchdowns - this season, even though he is regularly double- and triple-teamed. One team even quadruple-teamed him this season, using two wings, a tight end and an offensive tackle to block him.

Even those extreme measures rarely work. Clowney is truly a man among boys.

"Coming into the season my coaches told me I was going to be a leader whether I liked it or not," said Clowney, who is considering USC, Clemson, LSU, Alabama, Ohio State and Florida State. "I just took that and made strides to lead my team to victory every week. I wanted to do as much as I could."

Clowney isn't facing as many triple teams these days. Opponents seem to have figured out that if they do it, Dixon and the other talented Stallions who are left unblocked typically end up making the plays. Dixon, who has a litany of FBS scholarship offers himself, has 132 tackles this season.

Dixon's presence on the opposite side of the line of scrimmage has made it nearly impossible for opposing tailbacks to turn the corner. He and Clowney have forced many teams to try their luck into the heart of South Pointe's defense and that hasn't been effective either.

The Stallions give up an average of just 12 points per game - more than 40 percent of the 168 given up this season came in early tests against Class AAAA, Division II finalist Northwestern and Independence (N.C.) - and have held four of their last five opponents to single digits. Clowney and Dixon have been the catalysts.

"Teams have been running away from him," Dixon said. "So, I've had to make plays. They've tried to challenge me, so I've had to step up. We've both had to step up our games this year."

Clowney has been forced to do it with the intensity of the recruiting limelight shining down directly on him. Rivals, Scout and ESPN all named him the top overall prospect in the Class of 2011, the first Palmetto State player to earn that designation.

With it comes a hoard of media attention and responsibilities. Couple that with the attention he receives from college coaches - 91 of them dropped by South Pointe last May - and it can be a burden. However, Clowney has still produced the expected results, leading the state in sacks and helping the Stallions to another title game appearance.

"He just has a relentless attitude that he's going to be in on the play," Carroll said.

"[Myrtle Beach quarterback Everett] Golson reminds us of Donovan McNabb. He's got great vision down the field and he can scramble. So, we are going to depend on our defensive line. We try to put a lot of pressure on quarterbacks. We've hit some quarterbacks this year and it's rattled them and changed their game. That's what we're going to try and do."

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Tourism picking up, but real estate lags on Strand

Economic recovery is under way along the Grand Strand, but expect tourism to bounce back before real estate does, said Robert Salvino, a research economist at Coastal Carolina University.

"In housing, it will be years before we get to the [pre-recession] level because it was an unprecedented upturn," Salvino said at a university event Tuesday morning. "That recovery will just take some time, but it is there. It's just slowly coming. Tourism, I think, will get back to a normal pace much quicker."

Salvino offered his latest predictions for the regional Waccamaw Council of Governments -- which includes Horry, Georgetown and Williamsburg counties - at the Waccamaw Higher Education Center in Litchfield Beach.

Hotel occupancy is expected to rise 1.7 percent this fall and 0.4 percent this winter, compared with the same seasons last year, Salvino said.Occupancy increased 7.6 percent during the summer. Room rates at hotels rose 1.6 percent during the summer, and will continue to rise through the off-season with a 3.3 percent rise projected for fall and 2.7 percent for winter.

How far the hospitality industry has rebounded depends on how you measure it, Salvino said.

Revenue per hotel room has already returned to pre-crash levels, but tourist spending has been slower to catch up, he said. Retail sales in 2007 were $1.1 million and fell to about $929,000 in 2009 and were up to $972,000 by 2010. At this rate, tourist spending will be 90 percent recovered by summer 2011 and fully recovered by 2012, Salvino said.

In real estate, building permits issued in Horry County have been flat from 2008 to 2010, he said. The number of permits for single-family homes is far from what it was during the boom years earlier this decade, Salvino said. For example, the U.S. Department of Commerce recorded 575 building permits in Horry County in July 2005 but only 90 in July 2010.

Because construction contributed so much to the economic boom, a weak real estate sector will hold the overall economy back from reaching pre-recession peaks, Salvino said.

The real estate market could rebound in 12 to 14 months, provided banks loosen their lending standards and foreclosures go away, but both of those factors are uncertain, said Tom Maeser, a real estate analyst with the Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors, after the event.

Even if the area returns to the number of homes and condos that were being built or sold during the boom, the properties may not fetch pre-recession prices, he said.

Other recovery indicators, such as consumer confidence, have remained flat, Salvino said.

The amount of shipping through the Port of Georgetown also remains down and that's not likely to change unless the port is dredged, he said. Even if the Georgetown steel mill reopens in 2011 as ArcelorMittal representatives say it will, that is unlikely to make a large difference in the amount of goods that go through the port, he said.

Salvino's biggest message was that the economy will remain relatively flat in the near term, said Tim Tilley, president of heating and cooling engineering firm EnviroSep.

Tilley was one of a handful of businessmen in an audience of mostly academics and municipal and county employees. About 30 people attended the event.

The economy needs to diversify beyond tourism and real estate to get beyond the flat projections, Tilley said.

"We need diversification in the area in the form of manufacturing and engineering resources," he said.

Diversification is a slow process and there's no clear route for the region, which is at the whim of entrepreneurs, Salvino said.

The Waccamaw Regional Council of Government's Economic Outlook Board will next meet in February to renew its forecasts.

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School bus driver on trial in fatal crash

Testimony will continue today in the trial of a former Horry County school bus driver charged with a misdemeanor traffic offense in connection with the 2009 death of a Myrtle Beach-area high school student.

Michael Joseph Burns, 78, denied being responsible for the Nov. 2, 2009, vehicle crash that killed 17-year-old Marc Chaplin. The teen's motorcycle and the school bus Burns was driving collided.

"There was a blur in front of me and that's when the accident occurred," Burns said.

He is charged with failure to yield the right-of-way. His trial began Tuesday in front of Magistrate Margie Livingston.

Chaplin was going west on International Drive while Burns was going east. Burns attempted to turn left onto S.C. 31 when the crash occurred. Horry County Assistant Solicitor Paul Taylor on Tuesday told the magistrate court jury of five men and two women that Burns did not have a green turn arrow at the time of the crash and pulled into oncoming traffic.

"He turned when he shouldn't have. He was in a hurry and negligently turned," Taylor said in his opening statements.

"In this case you will see how serious the consequences are if we don't abide by those [traffic] laws."

Chaplin, a senior at the Academy of Arts, Sciences & Technology, died after his 2008 Kawasaki motorcycle and the 2004 school bus collided.

On Feb. 5, troopers with the S.C. Highway Patrol cited Burns with failure to yield the right-of-way after an investigation.

"With the traffic patterns we saw, there was no way Mr. Burns could have had the dedicated green traffic signal," Highway Patrol Cpl. J.R. Shull testified.

"He believed he had the right to make the turn."

Chaplin, whose base school was Myrtle Beach High, was on his way to the academy on International Drive.

Several defense witnesses testified Burns had a green turn arrow and that Chaplin sped up when the traffic light in his lane turned yellow.

"I saw him speed up a lot while I was slowed down. He went into the intersection and hit the front of the bus," said Roy Cohen, a 17-year-old who attended the academy with Chaplin. "I knew he was going to try and beat the light. I knew he was going to hit the bus."

During his testimony, Cohen said Chaplin had a reputation around school as being a "reckless driver" on his motorcycle.

Prosecutors plan to call witnesses to rebut that testimony today, while Burns' attorney, Gene Vaught, said he had witnesses to confirm it.

No students were on the bus at the time of the crash, and Burns was returning to North Myrtle Beach High School after dropping students off at the academy, authorities said.

Alvin Weinerman, who was driving another school bus behind Burns that morning, testified he saw parts of the bus flying in the air after he heard a loud noise.

"Was there a green turn arrow?" Vaught asked Weinerman.

"Yes, there was," Weinerman said.

"Is there any question in your mind about it?" Vaught asked.

"No," Weinerman said.

Burns has driven for the school district for five years and drove for a North Carolina school district for 13 years before that, he testified.

He was found guilty of the same failure to yield charge in December 2007, according to Horry County records, although details on the incident weren't available Tuesday.

If Burns is convicted, points could be assessed against him on his driving record and he could face a fine.

Chaplin's parents, who attended the trial but did not address the court, have sued the school district and state department of education for neglect, according to a lawsuit filed Nov. 2 in Conway.

Rodney and Cathleen Chaplin are seeking $600,000 for actual damages and legal fees in the suit.

The Chaplins seek compensation for the "extreme emotional anguish, lose of care, comfort and companionship" by their son's death. They also seek to recover compensation for doctor fees, hospital bills and funeral expenses.

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Pettersen relishing final chance to win in ’10

ORLANDO, Fla. – Suzann Pettersen wasn’t interested in giving a straight answer to my question: “Are all the second-place finishes really getting to you?”

Cue the one-line deadpans:

“It’s a lot better than third.”

“Take the money and run.”

“I always play to finish second.”

“Second place is the first loser. I can tell you how that feels.”

So, is the humor being used to deflect frustration or is this just her normal witty self? She’s probably just tired of the question.

When Ai Miyazato chipped in on the 18th hole in Thailand to nip Pettersen at the season-opener, one got the impression this could be a huge year for the Norwegian. Turns out it was her first of six runner-up showings in a winless 2010.

“I told her, 'Now you know how Greg Norman felt throughout his career,’ ” said Pettersen’s instructor, David Leadbetter.

Pettersen’s latest disappointment came at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, and she noted how many times the hostess herself had near-misses before breaking through to dominate.

Not surprisingly, Pettersen didn’t take any time off after Guadalajara, barreling through the off-weeks in an effort to end on a high note. She’s out of the Player of the Year race, which now consists of Yani Tseng, Na Yeon Choi, Cristie Kerr and Jiyai Shin. The hip injury that limited Pettersen to 18 events also kept her from being in the race for the Vare Trophy, which recognizes the low scoring average, because she did not meet the minimum number of rounds.

The race she’s still in, however, is a big one: World No. 1. Currently ranked second behind Shin, Pettersen hasn’t spent one week at the top spot. She’ll have to fend off Kerr, Tseng, Choi and Miyazato to have a chance.

Pettersen lives about 10 minutes from Grand Cypress Golf Club, site of this week’s season-ending LPGA Tour Championship, and spends a good deal of time practicing there. She plays most of her golf at nearby Bay Hill and gets lessons from Leadbetter at ChampionsGate, just south of Orlando.

Pettersen believes good ball-strikers will have an advantage this week because players will be hitting into small spots on the greens. A technical player who loves to work the ball, Pettersen can get to pins many players can’t. She and Leadbetter worked on opening up her putting stance before Mexico, and she found immediate results. She feels good and rested headed into her last four rounds of competition.

“I don’t think you have to go drastically low for four days to get it done around here,” she said.

Leadbetter said his student insists she hasn’t played her best golf yet, which sounds right coming from a perfectionist.

“It wouldn’t surprise anyone to see her in the next year or two really dominate,” Leadbetter said. “You sort of expect that from her at any stage.”

Indeed, to look at Pettersen, a specimen of power and technique, it’s easy to imagine her running circles around the likes of Shin and Miyazato. But for Pettersen, it’s as much of a mental battle as anything else. In 2007, she won five times. She has won only once since.

It does feel like Pettersen stands on the brink of something big. Leadbetter relayed the story that Arnold Palmer recently came up to Pettersen at Bay Hill, exclaiming, “I’ve got it!”

Naturally, Palmer didn’t share his secret with Pettersen, but it’s easy to imagine a tinkering Pettersen saying something similar if she’s still swinging a club at Palmer’s age.

“Golfers are nuts,” Leadbetter said with a laugh.

And they abhor second.

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Tiger trying to salvage season at Chevron

Photo by Getty Images

Tiger Woods chats with Hunter Mahan at the Chevron World Challenge.

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – He’d prefer to focus on his final chance to salvage the 2010 year, even if it’s at a silly-season event such as the Chevron World Challenge. The only thing is, inquiring minds want to know if Tiger Woods has formulated his 2011 schedule.

If the answer is yes, he’s not saying. Too many moving parts, it seems.

“There are a lot of things that we’re trying to adapt to, our new living conditions,” Woods said, a reference to the family issues that were central to his entire 2010 year. “That’s most important. We’re trying to figure all that out and then obviously I still want to play golf at a high level and win golf tournaments.”

Has he been approached by PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, perhaps to add some tournaments?

Woods would only say that Finchem has “done that every year,” but there was no elaboration. Even when asked specifically if there was a chance he’d return to the tournament at Riviera – now the Northern Trust Open – for the first time since 2006, he was elusive.

“I don’t know yet,” Woods said.

Though it’s more than seven months since he made his return to the game at the Masters, Woods is still answering questions about the controversy that saw his world come crashing down. But on that front, he’s not as evasive, difficult as it has been.

“Harder than anyone could ever imagine, unless you’ve actually gone through it before yourself,” he said.

While he’s playing host to a select group of 17 other players at year’s end for the 12th time, Woods will be playing for the first time for Chevron officials. They took over sponsorship in 2008, but Woods was out with a knee injury come tournament time. Then last year . . . well, it was more painful than a knee injury, Woods will tell you, but enough of history; now No. 2 in the world, he’s excited to be at Sherwood CC and his final chance to make sure he doesn’t go winless in a season for the first time since turning pro.

Asked to put himself on the golf fan’s couch and suggest what he’d like to see in 2011 as the PGA Tour heads into contract negotiations with the networks, Woods laughed.

“I’d like to see me win more tournaments – as a golf fan, yes,” he said.

That’s right, he’s more than the game’s most celebrated and talked-about player. “I am (also) a viewer,” Woods said.

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Prepping for Q-School: 11 players to watch

Q-School’s make-or-break nature guarantees plenty of intrigue. A single stroke over 108 holes can be the difference between golfing rags and riches. One good week can vault an unknown to the PGA Tour, while former major champions can find themselves without full-time employment.

Q-School is a reality show actually based in real life, not some manufactured existence. This year’s event, which begins Wednesday at Orange County National outside Orlando, should be even more interesting than most editions. Among the entrants are former teen phenom Ty Tryon, two-time heart transplant recipient Erik Compton and Billy Hurley, a former Walker Cup team member who’s restarting his career after serving in the Navy.

These players already have interesting back stories that’ve been told countless times. But many players come to Q-School as relative unknowns, either fresh off the amateur circuit, or after years of toiling away from TV cameras on the mini-tours.

Here are 11 Q-School first-timers to watch this week:

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Joseph Bramlett: Bramlett was the youngest player to qualify for the U.S. Amateur when he made the ’02 event as a 14-year-old. Five years later, he was a second-team All-American as a Stanford freshman, helping the Cardinal to the national title. The remainder of his college career was marred by wrist injuries, but he’s back in form.?

He won the prestigious Northeast Amateur this year, qualified for the U.S. Open, made the Round of 16 at the U.S. Amateur and made the Q-School finals in his first attempt. He’d be the first African-American since Adrian Stills in 1986 to earn a PGA Tour card at Q-School.

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Roberto Castro: Castro, a former Georgia Tech All-American, finished 62nd on the Nationwide Tour money list despite starting the season with no status. He Monday-qualified for the Cox Classic, then tied for 19th to earn a spot in the next week’s Wichita Open, where he finished runner-up. He had six top 25s in 12 Nationwide Tour starts, and finished seventh on the eGolf Professional Tour money list in just eight starts, thanks to a victory and runner-up.

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Dustin Garza: Garza was a first-team All-American at Wichita State this past season after winning seven times. (He claimed 12 titles over his final two seasons.) Despite that success, his pro career didn’t get off to a sterling start –?an 86 in his PGA Tour debut at the Travelers Championship –?but he’s in good shape now. Garza is in the mold of recent Kodak Challenge winner Troy Merritt –?a player who won a ton at a mid-major, then made the Q-School finals in his first attempt.

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Aaron Goldberg: Goldberg will be trying to follow in the footsteps of Graham DeLaet, who used the Canadian Tour as a springboard for Q-School success. DeLaet won the ’09 Canadian Tour Order of Merit, then earned his PGA Tour card at Q-School. (He finished 100th on this season’s PGA Tour money list.)?

Goldberg dominated the Canadian Tour this season. He won three times, and finished outside the top 10 only once in nine starts. He set the tour’s single-season earnings mark, with $156,118, and was the only player to earn six figures this season. Goldberg also Monday-qualified and made the cut at the PGA Tour’s Sony Open.

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Jason Kokrak: Kokrak, the medalist at the 2007 U.S. Amateur, was the leading money winner on the eGolf Professional Tour. The long-hitting Xavier product won twice and had six other top 10s in 11 starts. He also tied for 13th in the Nationwide Tour’s South Georgia Classic.

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Danny Lee: Remember him? Lee was supposed to join Rory, Rickie and Ryo as one of golf’s next big things. He won the 2008 U.S. Amateur, then became the youngest winner in European Tour history (a record since eclipsed by Matteo Manassero) when he claimed last year’s Johnnie Walker Classic as an amateur.?

Lee struggled in Europe this season, earning just 88,257 euros in 22 starts, with just one top 25. He finished 159th in the Race to Dubai, and dropped to 455th in the Official World Golf Ranking. On the plus side, he finished seventh in his last start before Q-School, the Kolon Korea Open in October. It was his first top 10 in more than a year.

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Richard Lee: How’s this for a back story: Lee, who grew up in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, dropped out of high school and moved in with a family friend in The Philippines to focus full-time on his golf career. He eventually returned to the U.S. and enrolled at Bellevue Community College before transferring to Washington, where he was an All-American in both seasons as a Husky. Lee turned pro earlier this year, and advanced out of pre-qualifying and two stages of Q-School to earn his spot at Orange County National. He’s playing for more than himself: Lee’s fan club includes his wife, Christine, and daughter, Israella.

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Ben Martin: Not many players get to participate in three major championships before they even turn pro, but Martin did. You may have seen him if you tuned in to the early coverage of the 2009 U.S. Open. Martin was 2 under par for his first 11 holes at Bethpage Black to take the lead before eventually missing the cut. That didn’t turn out to be the highlight of Martin’s year, though. He was runner-up at the U.S. Amateur later that year. He stayed amateur to play this year’s Masters and U.S. Open, missing the cut in both. He finished ninth at this year’s NCAA Championship. It took Martin, a Clemson product, just two starts to earn his first pro win on the eGolf Professional Tour. He made the Q-School finals in his first attempt.

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Pablo Martin: With all the hoopla about European stars not taking up PGA Tour membership, here’s one European Tour winner willing to go through Q-School’s rigors for a U.S. card. Martin won this season’s Alfred Dunhill Championship and the ’07 Portugal Open as an amateur. Martin was the 2006 Golfweek College Player of the Year while at Oklahoma State, but the Spaniard has spent his entire pro career on the other side of the pond. Martin is coming off a 16th-place finish at the WGC-HSBC Champions. He also made the cut at this year’s U.S. Open.

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Michael Thompson: Thompson was one of the country’s top amateurs when he turned pro in 2008: He was runner-up at the ’07 U.S. Am, first alternate for that year’s Walker Cup team, then low amateur at the ’08 U.S. Open (T-29). Thompson struggled shortly after turning pro in ’08, after an agent advised him to change his swing to hit the ball higher.?

Thompson returned to his old swing late last year and found success. He won the money list on both the 2009-10 Hooters Tour Winter Series and ’10 Hooters Tour, and was this year’s Hooters Tour player of the year.

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Dan Woltman: Woltman was one of the top amateurs in the U.S. in 2009, winning the Northeast Amateur and making the quarterfinals at the Western Amateur and the Round of 16 at the U.S. Amateur, but was a controversial omission from that year’s Walker Cup team. He spent this past season on the eGolf Professional Tour, finishing 29th on the money list.

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