Kyle Stanley and Sam Saunders will both be fully exempt on the PGA Tour this year. Sam finished 4th last week in Indiana, so he was already through and sat out this week.
Kyle has really been playing well and was in the final group today, but stumbled on the last 4 holes. He caught a really bad break on #18. He hit a perfect drive, but was on bad downhill slope from 243 trying to hit a 5 wood draw, over a large pond, around a tree and make eagle. The ball hit the top of the rock wall and bounced 40 yards backwards into the water. He came from 2 shots back to take the lead for awhile.
He finished in 7th and is 8th in The Web.com Finals Standings and Saunders is 9th. They're already both mathematically locked into the Top 25, which receives their Tour Cards (Fully Exempt) for next year. Kyle has 4 Top 25's in his last 6 PGA Tour events and finished 16th last week, so he's been playing very well for a while now.
Some of you may know I speak to Kyle from time to time on social media, he's happily engaged and getting his confidence back on the course. He dropped his swing coach Mike Taylor and made some swing changes by himself, to get his swing a bit flatter and not shut at the top. The last few months he's really reaping the benefits. It's more of a one plane swing now.
Similar changes to the one Rickie Fowler made, although Kyle's swing path needed much less work than Rickie's. He used to miss with some blocks/hooks, but can easily work the ball either way now. He hit a beautiful fade with his driver on 18 today, when most of the field hit 3 wood because they couldn't work a fade into the fairway.
He led the field this week in GIR. His putting was really bad for about 18 months, but it's much improved since he changed to the claw grip and worked on the mental aspect of putting. He went from almost dead last on tour and almost last within 5 feet, to better than the Tour average. If he keeps improving his putting he'll win again very soon. He was a good putter in the past, so I'm sure he can be a good one again. His ball striking stats are insane. He only got to play in 8 Tour events this calendar year and had 3 Top 25's, while making 7 of 8 cuts.
I'm really proud of Kyle for fighting his way back, he didn't have his Tour card this year and only had a handful of events to finish below 200 in the FedEx Cup and qualify for the Web.com Finals, he finished 181st in only 8 events. That's impressive. His looper is Dustin Johnson's former caddie, so he's got someone with good experience on the bag. Dustin hired his brother for God knows what reason LOL? Two low level IQ guys working together doesn't help and I think that was quite evident at Chambers Bay.
Our board resident Lucas Glover had a very nice 68 today and Jonathan Byrd is within the Top 25 too. Hopefullly we'll have all of The Big Four with full exemptions next year! I'm working in San Jose now, so I'd love to see all our guys in the Fry's Open in Napa a few weeks from now.
Here's the link. Go Tigers!
http://www.pgatour.com/webcom/stats/stat.02678.html
Kyle has really been playing well and was in the final group today, but stumbled on the last 4 holes. He caught a really bad break on #18. He hit a perfect drive, but was on bad downhill slope from 243 trying to hit a 5 wood draw, over a large pond, around a tree and make eagle. The ball hit the top of the rock wall and bounced 40 yards backwards into the water. He came from 2 shots back to take the lead for awhile.
He finished in 7th and is 8th in The Web.com Finals Standings and Saunders is 9th. They're already both mathematically locked into the Top 25, which receives their Tour Cards (Fully Exempt) for next year. Kyle has 4 Top 25's in his last 6 PGA Tour events and finished 16th last week, so he's been playing very well for a while now.
Some of you may know I speak to Kyle from time to time on social media, he's happily engaged and getting his confidence back on the course. He dropped his swing coach Mike Taylor and made some swing changes by himself, to get his swing a bit flatter and not shut at the top. The last few months he's really reaping the benefits. It's more of a one plane swing now.
Similar changes to the one Rickie Fowler made, although Kyle's swing path needed much less work than Rickie's. He used to miss with some blocks/hooks, but can easily work the ball either way now. He hit a beautiful fade with his driver on 18 today, when most of the field hit 3 wood because they couldn't work a fade into the fairway.
He led the field this week in GIR. His putting was really bad for about 18 months, but it's much improved since he changed to the claw grip and worked on the mental aspect of putting. He went from almost dead last on tour and almost last within 5 feet, to better than the Tour average. If he keeps improving his putting he'll win again very soon. He was a good putter in the past, so I'm sure he can be a good one again. His ball striking stats are insane. He only got to play in 8 Tour events this calendar year and had 3 Top 25's, while making 7 of 8 cuts.
I'm really proud of Kyle for fighting his way back, he didn't have his Tour card this year and only had a handful of events to finish below 200 in the FedEx Cup and qualify for the Web.com Finals, he finished 181st in only 8 events. That's impressive. His looper is Dustin Johnson's former caddie, so he's got someone with good experience on the bag. Dustin hired his brother for God knows what reason LOL? Two low level IQ guys working together doesn't help and I think that was quite evident at Chambers Bay.
Our board resident Lucas Glover had a very nice 68 today and Jonathan Byrd is within the Top 25 too. Hopefullly we'll have all of The Big Four with full exemptions next year! I'm working in San Jose now, so I'd love to see all our guys in the Fry's Open in Napa a few weeks from now.
Here's the link. Go Tigers!
http://www.pgatour.com/webcom/stats/stat.02678.html
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