February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By John Manley
Paul McGinley and Christy O’Connor Jr. have a ways to go before regaining the form that enabled them to become regular contenders on their respective tours in 1999. McGinley teed it up in the Greg Norman Holden International at The Lake course in Sydney, Australia. After middling opening rounds of 71 and 74, he surged up the leader board with a third-round 67. A run at the title was probably too much to hope for, but a top 10 finish was a definite possibility. Then, McGinley went out and shot 74 to drop back down the list. He finished tied for 29th place at six-under-par 286. Lucas Parsons fired the winning number, a 19-under 273.
Senior PGA Tour
O’Connor can expect to find the going on the Senior PGA Tour a trifle more difficult this year, with the arrival of "rookies" Tom Kite and Tom Watson.
It was another wunderkind from 1999, however, who ran the table in the Royal Caribbean Classic at the Crandon Park Golf Club in Key Biscayne, Fla. Bruce Fleisher won the tournament, which featured a Modified Stableford scoring system. Fleisher finished at plus 30, two ahead of Vicente Fernandez. O’Connor checked in with two others at 22nd place. His three rounds saw him score plus-1, plus-6, and plus-6. He earned $12,136.
PGA Tour
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Keith Nolan failed to make the cut at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in California. Nolan’s rounds of 77, 76 and 70 left him seven strokes off the 216 needed for the privilege of playing the final round and earning runner-up honors to Tiger Woods.
Teardrop Tour
Richard Coughlan spent 1999 as a man without a tour. After a promising 1998 on the PGA Tour, he was denied playing privileges in ’99, having missed provisional status by one spot, and getting bounced in the second stage of
Q-School. He tried the Asian Tour, but gave up on that as he found the acclimatization process difficult. The former Clemson All-America from Birr, Co. Offaly, is now based in Troy, N.Y., and will try to work his way back to the PGA Tour via the Teardrop Tour. Two efforts so far in 2000 showed evidence of rust.
Coughlan was tied for 10th place after the second round of the 54-hole Mt. Dora Classic at the Country Club of Mt. Dora in Florida, thanks to rounds of 69 and 68. A final round 75, however, pushed him back to a 33rd place tie at 212, 11 strokes behind Michael Capone’s winning 201. He earned $715.
The following week found the circuit in Apopka, Fla., at the Errol Estates Country Club for the Errol Estates Classic. Coughlan’s opening round 68 earned him sole possession of second place, one shot off the leader. Then he stumbled to a second round 74, followed by a closing 72 to earn a 27th-place tie at 214. Rob Bradley was low man at 203. Coughlan earned $962.50.
Vodacom Tour
James Loughnane and Paddy Gribben both went the distance in the Stenham Swazi Open, played over the Wild Coast Golf Course in Wild Coast Sun, South Africa. Neither man figured in the winning equation, though. Loughnane finished tied with five others for 44th place at seven-over-par 287 (72-75-70-70). Gribben was a shot behind at 288 (70-75-72-71), good for a slice of 50th position.