The Rise Guys Pick Their Horses

We asked Whitey Gleason, Jeff MacMurray and Mark Lowe aka

'The Phantom' from the Rise Guys Show, weekday mornings from 5 to 9 on Sports 1140, KHTK to pick a PGA pro and follow him throughout the 2009 season.

They answered. #3

Sutherland Stays Steady But Looks To Break Through

By Whitey Gleason

With Top 20 finishes at the Transitions Championship in late March and the Shell Houston Open in early April, Kevin Sutherland appeared to be setting himself up for big spring things.  He's had to settle, though, for steady but unspectacular efforts in the two biggest tournaments of the tour season, and was still looking for a breakout tournament with the U.S. Open approaching.   

At the Masters, Sutherland made the cut by a single stroke, stumbled a bit through the middle rounds, and then steadied himself with a final round 72 that left him tied for 46th.  He warmed up for the Players Championship by finishing 47th at Quail Hollow, and got off to a terrific start the next week at Sawgrass before a rough final round put a damper on what was nearly his best weekend of 2009.

Kevin opened with a 73, and then fired a 67 on Friday to put himself in position to make some noise and be a player at the Players.  He sat tied for 11th after a promising Saturday round of 72, but then had to settle for a final round 75 that left him tied for 32nd.  Not bad, but a far cry from the strong finish of 2008 that had put him in Fed Ex Cup contention in the season's final weeks.

As reliable as the most trusted old club in your bag, Kevin Sutherland had made 11 cuts in his first 12 starts of the '09 season.  He sat 82nd on the money list, 61st in the Official World Golf Rankings, and 63rd in Fed Ex Cup points.   Meanwhile, another player out of Sacramento, Scott McCarron, shot a final round 67 to finish tied for 17th at the Valero Texas Open in mid-May.

NICE GUYS FINISH 19TH

By Jeff McMurray

We likely won't see Mr. Woods on the PGA Tour again until Jack's tournament, The Memorial, the 1st week of June.  It's just as well, he has a swing to fix and it's not like he needs the money.  While we're on the subject, I was thinking…it takes a special kind of motivation to come out and grind on every shot when you can make a nice living by any standard finishing 15th every week on the Tour.

I've been tracking John Rollins this year.  John is a journeyman pro from Virginia, and I was fortunate enough to play in the Houston Open Pro-Am with him in 2000, his rookie year on the PGA Tour.  John currently holds down 19th place on both the money list and the Fed Ex points list as of this writing.  What is 19th place money?  How about a little over $1.4 Million!  For a little over 4 months work…and no wins.  Like I said, you can make a fantastic living playing golf and never hoisting a trophy. 

What does your wife say when you grab your sticks and head out the door?  “Have a nice time playing golf! Oh…and try and finish in the top 10?” 

The golden ticket on the PGA Tour is a finish among the top 125 money earners. In 2008 that number was a shade over $852,000 so Rollins looks like a lock to keep his card for 2010.    So there you go, a million four in the bank, your job for next year assured…where is the motivation?  John Rollins turns 34 the Thursday after the US Open wraps up in Bethpage.  Why not go out & get yourself an early birthday present?  1st Place is a little over $1.3 million…but 2nd place isn't too shabby either.  Just ask Rocco.

So Far, So Good

By Mark Lowe aka “The Phantom”

If he took a moment to look back on the first part of his 2009 PGA Tour season Mark Wilson would probably sum it all up like this: “So far, so good”. He has accumulated an impressive money total ($992,292), notched a nice place on the money list ranking (35th), and, most important of all, bagged a tournament title (Mayakoba Golf Classic). On a more global scale Mark has ascended to the # 100 spot in the World Golf Rankings.

So what does the future hold? How will he follow up on this career start for the now two- time Tour winner? Well, that win at Mayokoba was great but it's his play of late that has to have Mark excited about the remainder of the season. A week after his win, Mark had an understandable letdown at the Players Championship, but since then he's been on a bit of a roll. Beginning with the prestigious Transitions Championship, Mark has made five of his last six cuts, with a final round 64 at the Valero Texas Open. His performance during that stretch has helped him achieve his second top-15 finish. His eleventh place finish in Texas was not that far from a top five, as a second round quadruple bogey was all that stood behind him and a possible return to the winner's circle. That tournament was also the site of the most unlikely stat of Mark's season to date: A whopping 305 yard drive off the tee, almost twenty five yards above his season's average.