Preview & outright plays:
The final event of the year and a very important one for this limited field. The prizes on offer are not just monetary, but career-defining. A players jostle for position on the money list, they will determine where they may play next year. The top-15 money winners on the Tour gain entry to the PGA Tour in 2002, while the players who finish 16-55 are exempt for the 2002 season on this Tour. Furthermore, players who finish 16-25 on the final Tour money list earn automatic berths into the finals of the PGA Tour qualifying tournament while 26-55 on the money list are exempt into the second stage of the qualifying tournament. Rest assured, these players will keep trying until the last putt is holed.
The course this week is a new one. The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail has been the home of this event since 1997, but this is the fourth course to be used in that time. The Senator course at The Legends at Capitol Hill was opened in 1999 and boasts an Irish links-style layout with wide, rolling fairways and blind shots aplenty. It seems an unusual choice of venue for such a season-ending event, but more than anything, experience will be of paramount importance in the pressures of this weekend's golf.
With Simon Bold offering six places, I'm tempted back into capping this Tour though it is, in my opinion, the hardest one to cap. Still, this week's selections are John Rollins and Jason Caron. Both played on the PGA Tour last year and that experience of having previously qualified for the main Tour and only spending one year on the lesser Tour will be important. Rollins is actually assured of playing on the main Tour because he currently stands 6th on the money list, but as only the leading money winner has full playing rights next year, there is still important seniority points to be had. He can boast good form with one victory this year and four top-10 finishes in his last six events. The price is a little shorter than I would like, but he has proven to be one of the more consistent performers on this very unpredictable Tour.
The second selection is one who needs to finish 1st or 2nd to secure that important top-15 spot on the money list. It has happened in two of the last four years that the winner of this event needed to do so to secure his Tour card via the top-15 on the money list route, but it is an improvement from his current 33rd spot on the money list to the top-25 that will be his immediate goal. He is selected because of the way in which he has performed in the last few weeks under pressure. He has finished 7th-2nd-5th in the last three weeks and finished strongly in all three events over the weekend. In this form and with no signs of his game wilting under pressure, he looks a decent outsider for this title.
Outright plays:
John Rollins to win 12/1 e.w. @
Simon Bold
Jason Caron to win 25/1 e.w. @
Simon Bold