It is often said that the best measure of a tournament is to look at its list of winners. If that’s the case, then the Wells Fargo Championship (at Quail Hollow) is very much one of the PGA TOUR’s marquee “regular” events.  Take a look at the last 6 winners:

• 2010 - Rory McIlroy
• 2009 - Sean O’Hair
• 2008 - Anthony Kim
• 2007 - Tiger Woods
• 2006 - Jim Furyk
• 2005 - Vijay Singh

Last year we ranked this event as the 14th most prestigious event on the TOUR for 2010, which is pretty high praise after you factor in the Majors, THE PLAYERS, the WGC’s and the Playoff events.

An excellent course, great fields and a great list of champions definitely puts The Wells Fargo Championship right up there with the Memorial and the Arnold Palmer Invitational as the class of the PGA TOUR’s “regular” stops.

Rumored to be in trouble for the better part of the last year, Island Green CC is officially closing for business.

Island Green was built in 2001, the first course built in the city limits since John F. Byrne in 1966.

It is rumored that the course was sold to Teva Pharmaceuticals USA to build a new distribution facility but that has yet to be confirmed.

In 2010 Island Green was ranked as the #17 course in the PhillyGolfGuide.com Top 20 Public Course Rankings and held the top spot in Philadelphia County.

The Golf Shop will remain open until March 10th for those who have gift certificates.

The 2010 PGA TOUR race won’t be decided until this year’s TOUR Championship, as there is currently no clear cut favorite.

It’s a rare year on TOUR for the fact that no one has won more than twice and there are a couple of one-win players who currently warrant strong POY consideration.  The other unusual circumstance for 2010 is that there was only one major winner this year who is a full-time PGA TOUR member (Phil Mickelson).

Let’s take a look at the potential candidates heading into the TOUR Championship.  We believe the following eight players have the best chance of capturing the POY and that each would win the title with a victory at the TOUR Championship:

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Three U.S. Ryder Cup hopefuls may have had their chances for a captain’s pick dashed on Saturday by missing the cut at The Deutsche Bank Championship, the second FedEx Cup playoff event on the PGA TOUR.

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I love the FedEx Cup playoffs. 

Is it perfect?  No. 

Is it a true playoff?  No. 

Is the winner considered the champion of the sport for the year?  No.

But those things don’t matter.  If you’re one of the people that rip the FedEx Cup Playoffs for one of those reasons, then you have completely missed the point. 

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A few weeks ago we ranked the four 59’s in the history of the PGA TOUR from most to least impressive.  We didn’t think we would have to do it again so soon, but here we are trying to see where Stuart Appleby’s final round 59 on Sunday at the Greenbrier Classic fits amongst the other great rounds.

First, lets look at the really big argument as to why Stuart’s 59 should be near the top of the list: it happened right in the thick of the final round.  Appleby was fighting for a tournament win, which has to hold a lot of water.  He needed every single stroke down the stretch and he knew it.  And this wasn’t an early tee time, pressure-free final round. He was Playing just a couple of holes ahead of the final pairing and Appleby knew he needed to go birdie-birdie-birdie to shoot 59 and have a chance to win the event.  And he did it.

Now to the list of reasons why this wasn’t the best 59 of all-time.  Unfortunately for Stuart, there’s a few of them.  First, everyone went low.  A 60, 61, 62 and ten 63’s were shot during the week.  There was a “59” watch in nearly every round.  Scoring was so low that James Nitties shot a 63 in round 2 and still missed the cut.  The next lowest score during the final round was a 63 and two 64’s. 

Second, the course was playing soft and quite short by today’s PGA TOUR standards.  Eight of the par-4’s played at 412 yards or less, which means, including the two par 5’s, the modern TOUR-Pro likely had a wedge approach or less on at least 10 of the 18 holes.  Add in The Greenbrier’s 2,500 foot elevation and you have a course that was playing very short and very easy for the world’s best golfers.

The other big strike against calling Appleby’s 59 the best ever is that it occurred on a Par 70 course.  Believe it or not, his was the first 59 shot on a par-70 course, so he was “only” 11-under par compared to Geiberger, Duval, and Beck who were 13-under and Goydos who was 12-under.

With all that in mind, it was a close call but we place Appleby’s 59 just a shade behind Chip Beck’s but comfortably ahead of Paul Goydos.  Beck had a larger margin over the next best round of the day (6 strokes to 4) and was 13-under par compared to Appleby’s 11-under.  We just couldn’t quite convince ourselves that Appleby deserved to be higher than Beck, although we wouldn’t argue much if someone says he should be.

Here is our updated list ranking the PGA TOUR’s 59’s:

1. Al Geiberger
2. David Duval
3. Chip Beck
4. Stuart Appleby
5. Paul Goydos

Heading into the British Open there are currently 21 players under the age of 50 who have won exactly one major.  We attempt to rank them here:

1. Jim Furyk
2. Graeme McDowell
3. Geoff Ogilvy
4. YE Yang
5. Lucas Glover
6. Stewart Cink
7. Zach Johnson
8. Mike Weir
9. Davis Love III
10. Justin Leonard
11. David Toms
12. Ben Curtis
13. David Duval
14. Trevor Immelman
15. Steve Elkington
16. Shaun Micheel
17. Paul Lawrie
18. Rich Beem
19. Todd Hamilton
20. Mark Brooks
21. Michael Campbell

In recognition of Paul Goydos’ fantastic round of 59 yesterday we decided to rank the four 59’s in PGA TOUR history from best to worst.

1. Al Geiberger, 1977 Memphis Classic, second round.  Not only was Geiberger the first to shoot golf’s magical number but he also did it on the toughest course in the toughest conditions.  Mr. 59’s tremendous round came on a 102 degree day in high humidity.  The next best round of the day was a 65 by Ray Floyd and a just a couple of 67’s after that.  Geiberger was 13-under par that day (making 11 birdies and 1 eagle) at the par 72 Colonial Country Club in Memphis.  The course played tough enough that week that Geiberger failed to break 70 in his three other rounds (72-70-72) and still won by three strokes.

2. David Duval, 1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, fifth and final round.  Duval is the only player who has a case against Geiberger to call his the greatest 59 of all-time, mainly because he did his in the final round.  He made eagle on the par 5 18th hole to win the tournament by a stroke and shoot 59.  Talk about double pressure. The arguments against Duval’s round, and why we put him just a shade behind Geiberger, is that the course was playing much easier for Duval.  The next best round of the day was a 64, ironically posted by Paul Goydos, and after that there were a large number of 66’s.  The next factor that most people overlook is the par 72 Palmer Course at PGA West featured five par-5’s, all of which were very reachable.  The course measured only 6,950 yards - very short by modern PGA standards, especially for a par 72.

3. Chip Beck, 1991 Las Vegas Invitational (Pro-Am), third round (of 5).  The big dropoff occurs here in the third spot where Chip Beck put up a 59 in round 2 at the par 72 Sunrise Golf Club in Vegas.  While Beck did best a group of three for the next lowest score of the day by 6 strokes, almost half of the field was in the mid to high 60’s that day.  The course was less than a year old, had virtually no trees and the rough was almost non-existent to help speed the play of the amateurs in the field.  To further illustrate how easy the conditions were, the course yielded a pair of 61’s, a 62 and a 63 that week.  Beck finished third in the tournament.

4. Paul Goydos, 2010 John Deere Classic, first round.  Goydos had a good argument to find himself in the third spot on this list after his Thursday morning 59, but a lot of the shine of his accomplishment quickly wore off when Steve Stricker nearly matched him in the afternoon with a 60.  There were also four 64’s on the day and a handful of 65’s.  The other arguments against Goydos?  His 59 was “only” 12-under par at the Par 71 TPC Deere Run course where as all previous 59’s came on par 72 tracks.  Strike 2 against Paul is the extreme soft conditions thanks to several days of heavy ran in the Illinois area, and strike 3 is the TOUR was using lift, clean and place through the fairway, allowing the field to get their hands on the golf ball whenever they found the wet and generous fairways, which was most of the time.  Certainly whenever anyone shoots 59 at a PGA TOUR event it is a phenomenal feat and regardless of the conditions Goydos’ round deserves recognition as one of the great rounds of all-time.

What if you could play any course on the PGA TOUR’s 2010 Schedule? Which ten would you want to play? Our list would look something like this:

1. Augusta National GC
2. Pebble Beach Golf Links
3. St. Andrews Links
4. Muirfield Village GC
5. Riviera Country Club
6. Quail Hollow Club
7. Whistling Straits
8. TPC at Sawgrass
9. Aronimink GC
10. TPC Boston

What is your Top 10?

There are 46 events on the 2010 PGA TOUR schedule, so why not rank them from best to worst?  We’ve broken them into seven tiers to help the process and we’ve factored in the host course, field strength, history and general public awareness for an event to determine the year’s best.  For example, people at work may ask if you saw the great finish at The Open over the weekend but they probably won’t ask if you watched the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

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